CFOs set record straight

The event was themed "The Future CFO – The complete finance professional" and organised by ACCA.  The conference featured a line-up of senior industry experts such as Le Dang Doanh, once of the Central Institute for Economic Management, Hugh James McIntosh, TNK Vietnam country president and Pepsi Vietnam CFO Rizwan Qamar.

The summit was organised in the context that CFOs abandoned their comfort zones and deal with complex challenges. The finance function used to be charged only with accounting, measuring the company's performance and delivering reports to senior management and shareholders. But, today CFOs are now leading businesses from the front.

In this summit, ACCA presents a survey of more than 500 chief financial officers for ACCA’s report "The complete finance professional 2013: Why breadth and depth of finance matter in today’s finance function" identified the key financial areas that CFOs said they need in the finance function. 

Apart from the need for accounting professionals to behave and act ethically and professionally, financial management and financial analysis were seen as particularly high-impact areas, followed closely by governance risk and control, strategic management accounting and corporate reporting. Internal audit, tax advice and planning were also widely considered to have considerable impacts.

Stephen Heathcote, executive director of markets for ACCA, said: “The event was a great opportunity for ACCA’s guests to understand the challenges and opportunities the accountancy profession faces now and in the future. Our Complete Finance Professional campaign shows that CFOs want their finance staff to have a broad range of skills and expertise throughout the finance value chain.

“This need is supported by ACCA’s annual survey of employers we conducted last year, which showed that nearly 90 per cent of employers said the ACCA Qualification was relevant to all employment sectors, this confirms our belief that ACCA offers a relevant qualification that meets the needs of business, individuals and employers to ensure that we develop the complete finance professional capable of achieving strategic roles in business.”

In tune with this zeitgeist, the high-level and highly informative summit featured expert insights and compelling case studies on various current issues affecting CFOs as they go through this transformational age.