The CFO Rising conference yesterday morning was right up my alley with sessions on Creating Alignment in the C-Suite, A New Dynamic in the Boardroom, and … particularly … Finance Skills for a New Decade. My next few blog posts will talk about what I heard, but I’ll start with some interesting stats that opened the morning.
The CFOs in attendance were polled around critical issues they are facing, and here are some of the results …
–89% felt the worst was over but do not anticipate a turn around anytime soon
–Only 4% felt growth was likely to happen in the next several months
–70% were concerned and VERY concerned (35%) around the cost effectiveness of proposed government regulations
–When asked about the proposed health care legislation, 69% were very concerned about the tax impacts and 62% were very concerned about the quality of care
Conversely, the attendees felt there was some good that came out of the economic downturn … it has forced finance to go back to basics.
–32% said they now had a core business focus
–25% were focused on increasing productivity
–3 out of 4 indicated they would be preserving cash as a hedge against economic uncertainty
–77% indicated their focus would be on organic growth … which means …
–Only 10% indicated M&A was a core business focus