Chennai: Finance and People Leaders Scour for Opportunities in the Emerging World

As the world of business takes a new shape, in the uncertainty of new realities, leaders talk of new skills that individuals and enterprises will have to nurture. Long-term direction could be difficult to identify and follow. Companies will need to be more agile than ever before while lean organisations can swoop on opportunities.

Technology and Data Levers That Can Supercharge the CFO

Finance professionals can sail through the uncertain business environment if the data for their enterprise helps them deep insights

TE@timesofindia.com

Uncertainty!

If there is one word that defines the current times the finance leader, it could well be that. These are times when events, beyond everyone’s control, are impacting the world economy. Ultimately, the impact of global events have been hitting home with unwanted consistency – war, economic blockade, disruption is supply-chain, rising prices of energy and more. The impact of all this cannot be put together in an excel sheet until the battles end.

The uncertainty brings unimaged risks to the bottom line of companies. Finance leaders have the unenviable task of identifying possible solutions and incorporating the emerging risks in the business operations for the company. That is easier said that done in the dynamic business environment.

Disruption to business by a variety of factors – regulation, policy, markets besides turn of events – is the new norm that the finance leader must handle while cleaving through the opportunities that exist in the market. With technology helping create the opportunities across industry sectors, it is critical for the CFO to understand the business, and hence the revenues, which could accrue from such changes.

CHALLENGES MAY EXTEND

The challenges being thrown up for the business environment is expected to stay. If anything, the intensity of the uncertainty could be multiplied making it a more challenging environment for the finance professionals. It raises the wider question of how deep the finance professional can go to understand an issue deeply so that its impact can be clearly explained in numbers. Ultimately, anything that impacts the profitability of the company is the responsibility of the CFO.

Take the example of the semiconductor industry, a sector which India is giving a strong policy push. Manufacturing semiconductors within the shores of India has become a priority for the government as supply chain challenges for semiconductors becomes an issue across borders. For the CFO, understanding the diplomatic issues, translating it into the impact on business and trying to put that in numbers becomes critical to explain to the stakeholders. The role of the finance leader in enabling the business to grow is helped by the sharp understanding of the business environment.

Another challenge that the finance leader may have to grapple with is the hype cycle that emerging technologies go through. Sifting through and understand the impact of the new technology could make, and the profitability that its deployment could ensure, could be a big challenge in understanding. The risk mitigation practices within the company must constantly be updated so that the most unwanted of systems can be embedded in the evaluating the impact. Asking the right questions, easier said than done, could help wriggle out of tricky situations.

DATA: the ULTIMATE TRUTH

For the finance professional, access to data could be the first concrete step in ensuring that risk mitigation steps can be planned. The generation of the data can be industry agnostic and smart analytics around the data can help identify the root cause and, accordingly, take steps. Monitoring and evaluating the data can be the vital difference in finding out the solution.

An example of the automobile industry could buttress the point. How can the details of warranty claims from customers be the input for an automobile manufacturer to design better products and understand the risks? To offset the cost on the balance sheet, the company can make an annual provision. The nature of the warranty claim, region of the country from where it is coming or the season or day of the week when it is coming from could give fresh input. The database and the analytics behind that could help in estimating the size of the warranty claim.

For the enterprise to get the true picture of its business, the quality of the data is critical. The input needed to understand the data around the business operations need to be in place so that the finance team can get the true picture. How can the professionals learn from the data and how can the teams improve upon it.

In the AI-driven world, if data is the new oil, the pipes need to be clean – and data sanctity needs to be always maintained. It is the biggest tool that the finance professional can rely upon.

Speed & Scale Could Drive the Future of Enterprise Growth

The right skills for people, willing to adapt and learn quickly, could be the differentiator between the winning enterprises of tomorrow

TE@timesofindia.com

India’s industry has been keeping one eye on the globe. As one of the fastest growing economies gathers steam, going global is being seen as a big opportunity. With the clarion call for Viksit Bharat by 2047, industry needs to gear up with people capabilities to propel the economy so that the target can be achieved.

The landscape for business has been changing rapidly, with speed being of essence over perfection in the manufacture or design of products. The financial services opportunity has been expanding at a scorching pace while technology sector continues its march ahead. These and other sectors are creating the room for HR professionals who can help shape the march ahead for the industry.

Reimagining business leadership and the issues around building people skills could drive the future growth of industries. CHROs across manufacturing, financial services, technology and education sectors offered their ideas on how India’s workforce could expand opportunities reskilling and relearning. That was the broad flavour of the conversation as people leaders gathered at the CXO Leadership Forum in Chennai, organised by The Economic Times in partnership with AU Small Finance Bank and Visa.

Tamil Nadu could well show the way to India in this endeavour. It is also home to a third of India’s automobile sector manufacturing, one of the key states driving renewable energy generation and an emerging hub for global capability centres (GCC). Industries across technology, electronics, education, manufacturing, datacentres, IT services, and logistics, contribute significantly to the state’s position as India’s second-largest economy.

SPEED & SCALE OF CHANGE

The pace of change for industries has been gathering steam. Take the example of the automobile sector. Typically, an automobile would take about years to design and build, and the industry had accepted that as the norm. Chinese companies have rewritten the rules of the industry. If recent trends are an indication, Chinese companies can turn around a new car model in nearly a year, much like the launch of a new model of a smartphone.

Companies may have to drive growth at a scale not imagined in one geography for products and services. Take the example mutual funds, with over Rs. 80 lakh crores of assets under management and industry aiming for the AUM target Rs. 100 lakh crores. Work process for the industry are being re-engineered, digital technologies are driving the growth while just a fraction of the population has been covered. Opportunities driven by digital-led technologies will make sure the pace of acquisition of news investors is multiplied.

Claims settlements for insurance companies could be completed in 24 hours, turning into a delight for the consumer. There could be more too – consumers will be able to see and understand the eligibility for their claims, allowing them to choose the services accordingly. The impending change could take two or three years to reach the consumers. Thanks to the availability of more information at each step, and a variety of AI tools at the backend, there could be more transparency in the system for, say, healthcare insurance.

LEADERSHIP FOR TOMORROW

Driving the speed and scale for companies make leadership of companies critical for success. Technology can be of help for leaders in enhancing their skills. But the leader need the vision along with decision making, people skills and thinking that can be adaptive. While speed could drive in the near-term, survival in the long term could be the difference between the winners.

For the leaders who will manage people and enterprises, it is important for the business schools and universities to help upgrade their skills. The teachers in the universities need to change their mindset with a focus on the future and on what students need to know when they pass out. Industries are always on the lookout for individuals with critical thinking skills. For the generation of leaders today, trained to drive predictability and certainty, building trust for the wider enterprise and its ecosystem could be a gamechanger. The people leaders in the state would do well to keep an eye on the emerging global opportunity.

To scale the industrial powerhouse, people leaders who can drive the workforce will earn the certainty of growth for tomorrow. Tamil Nadu registered over 10 percent growth during 2024-25 and is the state with the second largest economy. With its diverse sectors and working professionals driving economic growth, a wide base of industrial activity could be the prime markets for people leaders to grow. The state also has the largest industrial workforce – 15.24 percent of all industrial workers in the country as of August 2025.

Disclaimer – Content Produced by ET Grey Cell

(Catch all the Technology News News, and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

...more