A WEIGHTY BURDEN

摘要

The demand for information from internal and external stakeholders has become an excessive burden for many companies. That was the consensus at a recent breakfast roundtable event on the role of the CFO in implementing corporate strategy, facilitated by Steve Melcher. The Chatham House discussion marked the launch of the ICAEW Blue Chip Finance Leaders Programme, in association with IBM, and saw finance directors and CFOs from major FTSE and private companies, and not-for-profit organisations gather to discuss the challenges facing the finance function in implementing strategy in the current business climate. Much of the discussion revolved around the volume of data that the markets demand and the amount produced internally. It was alleged that the information requirement has now grown so much that some companies have deliberately reduced or even eliminated quarterly reporting, particularly audited quarterly results. The response from the analyst community has been relief at the removal of the need for constant updating of models and forecasts.