The industry leaders have called for change in the role of CFOs in the current context, especially on the current regulatory environment. They also said the CFOs roles are not recognised and praised.
In his Chief Guest Address at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII's) Tamil Nadu Finance Conclave at Chennai today T T Srinivasaraghavan, managing director, Sundaram Finance Ltd said that every day some new regulations are coming and all of them lands on the CFOs head.
On a lighter note, he said CFOs are largely under paid, while their work load has been increasing.
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"We did not let CFOs to do their jobs, as they were busy doing works on compliance," said Srinivasaraghavan, who was responding a question on why CFOs should not held responsible for eroding shareholders value.
He added, regulations are enough to make CFOs nuts and the real question emerged is whether they should be responsible for regulation.
While calling for a change in the structure of the finance which should be rethought towards manned and skilled, he also said CFO community is not getting recognised and praised.
B Santhanam, chairman- CII's Southern Region and President-flat glass, South Asia, Egypt & Managing Director Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd echoed the view adding that in the last 14-15 years role of a CFO has changed and life of CFOs has been complicated.
Narayana Sethuramon, chairman, CII Tamil Nadu and Managing Director & CEO of W S Industries said that financial professionals have now become custodian of risk and business and expectations from them have also changed. "They are now one of the CEOs and plays a key role in risk management, profitability and sustainability. Everywhere finance heads are playing a role now".
The manufacturing sector, which was shying away to adopt the changing scenario of having a professional CFO and understanding the role of them is now changing. "We have recruited a CEO from the service sector deliberately to bring the service sector expertise," said Sethuramon.