Insights

A strong finance function can drive innovation and proactively influence real-time strategic decision making, while its commercial insight helps broaden interactive stakeholder engagement and communication.

Startups tend to be comprised of young, dynamic people who are passionate about their work and emotionally invested in the company’s success. However, as the business grows more complex and market conditions change, startups sometimes struggle to implement proper processes. It is here that many fledgling companies begin to go off-course. Failure to organise the business correctly and make necessary adjustments can lead to slowdowns in workflow, stalling the organisation just when it is most in need of momentum. Lapses in regulatory compliance are another common side effect of inexperience, resulting in fines and loss of investor confidence. Having passionate workers is excellent, but startups must also implement clear strategies and efficient processes in order to ensure both regulatory compliance and long-term success.

For many manufacturers, cash flow is the limiting factor that determines how many new business opportunities they are able to pursue, and how ambitious their strategy can be as they plan for the future. The demands of Industry 4.0 require data-driven management both inside and outside the factory, requiring continuous capital investment to keep pace with a fast-moving business environment. Pricing pressures add to the challenge, reducing margins even as customer demands increase ever more quickly. Even the most forward-thinking manufacturers will have trouble staying ahead of the curve if they cannot access enough internal cash flow to keep the wheels of innovation turning.

Global business is facing a wave of disruptive influences that look set to spark the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We explore how the way professionals work is evolving, the leadership skills that will be needed within the dynamic mid-market to thrive, and how organisations can stay competitive in the war for talent and customers in 2030.

Across all industries, effective management of the entire end-to-end value chain can drive significant improvements both in terms of cash flow as well as profits. For retailers, however, the optimal strategy can be even more tightly focused, as cash and profits go hand in hand. The faster stock can be turned, the more profit and cash can be generated. Even so, the aim should not just be about turning stock quickly, but rather about turning the right stock quickly – and knowing how to align the speed of your supply chain to ever changing customer demands.

Keeping pace with a fast-moving economy means continually re-investing profits to fund future growth. Although many companies struggle to access the liquidity needed to enable timely investment, a proactive approach to working capital management can free up significant untapped cash within any business, providing a platform for longer term, sustainable growth.

Effective cash management is a critical success factor for any business. To fund growth, invest in new infrastructure or mitigate short term downturns, having strong visibility and control of day-to-day cash is a must.

Wave after wave of new business technology has been hyped as revolutionary, leaving organisations with the options either to invest in strategic transformation and disruptive technologies or to dismiss it all as mere noise and carry on with traditional methods of business administration.

Optimising working capital requirements is key to assessing the efficiency of profits, and something CFOs are expected to manage at all times. Do you know how well working capital is managed in your business and where improvements could be made?

The global demand for Robotic Process Automation is rapidly increasing as businesses seek to harness enterprise technology to streamline processes and increase productivity.

A thought leadership, article and research from our experts to help empower your business strategy.

Many organisations have placed tremendous efforts in implementing a new ERP system or improving their current system. They correctly believed that the ERP system would bring lots of advantages to their organisation, such as process efficiency improvements, benefits of a single database, and data analytics capabilities for corporate strategy.

Blockchain is set to play a crucial role in the digitisation of taxation by providing the ‘wiring’ needed for real-time recordkeeping, verification and information exchange. Automatically fulfilled blockchain-enabled ‘smart contracts’ also offer faster and more efficient ways to evaluate and settle tax liabilities.

Automating and optimising your supply chain can help save money and facilitate growth. So could it work for your business?

To abolish modern slavery businesses need to find their voice, go beyond compliance and collaborate more.