Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) has organised its annual CFO conference here at local hotel on Thursday. The conference titled ‘from conformance to leadership-evolving role of CFOs’ was attended by more than 600 professionals from the fraternity of finance and business.
In contemporary business environment, the role of the chief financial officer (CFO) has advanced from the traditional role of providing financial insights and analysis to a stellar role of supporting and shaping strategies and guiding key business initiatives as a financial leader.
ICAP President Naeem Akhtar Sheikh in his introductory remarks stated that ICAP’s professionals constitute vital part of the industry and it was incumbent for the institute to cater to their needs and expectations. The CFO conference over the years has emerged as a resilient platform where professionals in business and industry meet to explore, confront and thrash out solutions to meet the challenges and issues of modern business era.
He also discussed the emerging role of CFO as value integrators at large, expanding their influence beyond financial decisions to broader strategic choices about their business, citing the challenge to balance and achieve excellence in all the roles.
He strongly supported the significance of governance in the system and training finance teams with modern technology. Further, he pointed out few qualities that CFO must possess traits like patience, flexible, strategic-oriented and independent in thoughts.
Kamran Y Mirza, EO Pakistan Business Council, emphasised the role of CFOs as a strategic partner to the CEOs. He said that transformational leadership would result in creating synergy and building strong teams. Further, he said the CFOs needed to apply vision, determination and above all a steady and methodological pace to reap the benefits across the organisation. To be effective, continuous education is a must.
M Abdul Aleem, Secretary General (OICCI), highlighted how to create an enabling environment for growth in the Pakistani economy. Our resilient economy has absorbed multi-dimensional shocks over the years. He said the government had to have a national economic agenda to steer the country out of the crisis, for which a robust political will and commitment was needed.
Panel discussion before the lunch was conducted by Susana Chiu, MH, FCPA Immediate past president, Hong Kong Institute of CPAs. The group discussed, “the role and expectations of a CFO – preparing accountants for finance leadership”. She spoke about the continuously evolving role of CFO’s in reshaping the finance functions and promoting business innovation within an organisation to streamline operations, altering dynamics of the business. The panelists included Syed Manzar Hasan, CFO, PEL Group, Roshan Mehri, CEO family office, House of Habib, Muhammad Nayyar Aqib, CFO, PARCO Pearl Gas , Khalid Hashmi – CFO, Company secretary, synethic products enterprises, Shahid Kazi – President IFI Consultants.
Adnan Afaq – CEO and MD (PACRA), highlighted on the role of credit rating agencies and CFOs Isfandyar Shaheen – Principal. Co-head growth equity, Cyan capital, highlighted the role of CFO in creating value through capital restructuring in the country. He further discussed the cost of financial distress and successfully leveraging capital market to raise funds.
Panel discussion after lunch was conducted by Khalid Rehman, Secretary/COO, ICAP. Group of this panel discussed appropriate audit fee. This group focused on different sets of expectations between the industry and auditors aimed at indulging in a debate to arrive at consensus leading towards better audit in keeping with industry expectations and better compliance with auditing, accounting standard and laws. The panelists included Imran Afzal – Partner, Anjum Asim Shahid Rahman, Kamran Azim, COO, Kashf Foundation, Syed Muhammad Mansoor Ali Zaidi, CFO, Jotun, Zamanat Abbas – Director & CFO, Descon Engineering and Farrukh Rehman from A F Ferguson & co. Both panel discussions were followed by question and answer session.
After the panel discussion Zeeshan Afzal, Group Head, strategic investments, Arif Habib Corporation limited, spoke on ROI-value vs profit. He focused on several core concerns like Is ROI always the best tool to gauge performance.
Another prized speech was delivered by Naveed Abdul Hameed, Advisory Specialist, A F Ferguson & Co. He stated that business needed to look beyond the current reporting and to give all stakeholders clear, concise and holistic information of complete value creation.
For Professional Excellence Awards, Pioneer Cement Limited was declared as the first Award Winner for the “CREI (Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement)”. The K Electric Limited was declared as the second award winner on “Segregated Load Shed Plan”. The National Clearing Company was declared as the third award winner on “Revamping of the Capital Gain Tax Regime”. Special Recognition was grabbed by Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design on “Implementation of ERP”. The winners of this year’s awards were selected by an independent three-member Jury comprising of Zafar Iqbal Sobani, Feroze J Cawasji and Ayaz Ahmed.