| Half-Day Pre-Conference Workshop: Using Lean Planning to Improve Responsiveness and Eliminate Waste |
Kick off the conference with this exciting, information-packed session from one of our liveliest and most popular speakers.
While the economy is slowing, the pace of change is greatly accelerating. In today’s world, a major investment bank can be sold over a weekend. Supply chains can be easily disrupted by both political and economic events. The prices of basic commodities continue to rise while manufacturers face continual pressure to reduce costs. Can we overcome these very worrisome concerns?
Yes we can. But doing so will require more effective approaches than the broken tools finance has historically used. This workshop addresses the heart of the management process — the way organizations plan and control operations. It will show you both why you should replace your traditional budgeting process with a lean planning approach, and also how to do it.
The session will utilize a combination of Beyond Budgeting principles, case studies, and interactive exercises. Pay close attention — you may never have to do a budget again! There is no extra charge for attending this workshop, but pre-registration is required. |
Speaker:
Steve Player, North American Program Director, Beyond Budgeting Round Table
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| 101 Undertaking a Sustainable Cost Reduction Initiative |
Hosted By:
PricewaterhouseCoopers
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Speaker:
Michael Giguere, Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Mark Poulson, Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Michael Anderson, Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers
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Focus:
Today companies must rethink the way they reduce costs. Profit margins are small and getting smaller. CFOs must step up and take a look at new ideas in cost reduction that stick. Instead of reducing costs by slashing budgets, or developing a blue-sky vision, sustainable cost reduction can only be achieved with the combination of immediate cost reduction, improvements to cost management and control processes, and performance measurement and management to drive continuous improvement. Participants in this session will understand the opportunities and benefits associated with taking a longer term view of cost reduction and the many elements across the enterprise to reach the real goal of a "sustainable" cost reduction.
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Take Away:
After attending this session, delegates may expect to better understand the elements needed to sustain a cost reduction program and view cost reduction as more than just cutting costs.
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| 102 Doing Business in Tough Times |
Hosted By:
REL
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Speaker:
Mark Tennant, President Americas, REL Consultancy
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Focus:
This session will present the highlights of recent research: the REL/CFO 2008 “Cash Flow” Recession Survival Guide Analysis. What does “Doing business in tough times” mean? Case studies will illustrate three primary types of risk:
• Dealing with Customer Risk — Case Study Review on the Customer to Cash (C2C) Process
• Dealing with Inventory Risk — Case Study Review on the Forecast to Fulfill (F2F) Process
• Dealing with Supplier Risk — Case Study Review on the Source to Settle (S2S) Process
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Take Away:
By attending this session, you can expect to become better aware of potential pitfalls when in a “Downturn Economy” and how you can avoid them. You will also hear enlightening real-life case studies of companies similar to your own, going through similar issues, and how they were able to overcome problems within the C2C, F2F, and S2S process areas.
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| 103 Moving Up the Levels of Financial Knowledge |
Hosted By:
River Logic
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Speaker:
Dr. George E. Manners, Jr., Professor of Accounting and Management, Kennesaw State University
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Focus:
This session is designed to help you understand the Six Levels of Financial Knowledge; a framework to assess your company’s standing. You’ll learn why historical financial practices won’t survive in a futuristic economy. Dr. Manners covers the sophistication of financial understanding and its impact to every stakeholder including what technology accelerators can be used. Finally, he’ll demonstrate how a leadership role in ‘collective mastery’ propels your career path by instilling support and confidence that leads to superior financial outcomes with Integrated Business Planning (IBP).
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Take Away:
After attending this session, you'll have a clear understanding of where your company stands and needs to go to gain competitive advantage. You'll also learn what you need to do when you get back to the office to move up your own company’s financial knowledge to the next level(s).
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| 104 Driving Your Transformation Initiatives Towards Maximum Benefits and KPI Realization |
Hosted By:
Tata Consultancy Services
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Speaker:
Carlos L. Chu, Practice Lead, Finance & Performance Management, Tata Consultancy Services
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Focus:
This session will show you how to take a portfolio approach to managing your Transformation Initiatives. A Program Management Office (PMO) is only one necessary component to keep your business improvements projects on track. Consider a Transformation Management Office (TMO) to thematically integrate your business improvement initiatives to maximize benefits realization.
An initial step is to identify a Finance Organization specific view of the Enterprise’s Business Transformation Program. The Finance Organization must play a leadership role in the integration of all transformation projects in order to facilitate the alignment of the enterprise’s performance metrics in order to maximize KPI realization.
The session will also cover how business value realization can be impeded by poor alignment and integration of business objectives with its underlying process delivery model. The speaker will review a case study to demonstrate the challenge of operationalizing strategic objectives as it is pushed down from the strategic to the tactical and operational levels of an organization.
Improper configuration of your transactional platform will impede business intelligence analytics. Learn how to ensure that you are collecting the correct data elements from your information systems to ensure that your organization is tracking the correct information in managing towards your performance objectives.
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Take Away:
By attending this session, delegates can expect to develop an appreciation for why greater involvement is needed from the Finance Organization beyond the requirements definition stage of a business transformation program. Delegates will also be able to understand the role of the Finance Organization in driving business transformation to ensure KPI and benefits realization.
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