Posts Tagged ‘CFO IBM’
Friday, April 15th, 2011
I prefer to be driven in Bangalore. Not because I don’t drive, but it’s much easier on my nerves, when I am not behind the wheel. The jostling for space by man and machine is unique here and I often wonder, if I would have been able to reach point A from point B within a limited span of time. I owe a lot to Raju who is an expert in dodging the Bangalore traffic, not mentioning the innumerable cows and occasional elephants, like an expert skier in a coniferous forest.
62% of New Delhi said that traffic woes have negatively affected work or school performance, compared to a global view of 29%. 96% of New Delhi said that traffic has affected their health compared to a global average opinion of 57%. (Ref: IBM Global Commuter Pai survey 2010. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32017.wss)
The top ten issues pointed out by global motorists are 1) commuting time, 2) time stuck in traffic, 3) price of gas is already too high, 4) traffic has gotten worse, 5) start-stop traffic is a problem, 6) driving causes stress, 7) driving causes anger, 8 ) traffic affects work, 9) traffic so bad driving stopped, and 10) decided not to make trip due to traffic.
In New Delhi 40% respondents have said that they will work more as an option compared to a global average of 16%.
So, if I sum up the key issues, they are:
- Decrease of road to traffic ratios – which can be due to explosion of number of vehicles in India and squatting and illegal encroachment on road sides or construction related bottlenecks that hold up traffic.
- Poorly managed traffic – standard norms like faster vehicles on the right lane and slower ones on the left are rarely seen or implemented. Also India is a unique country where about 17 different types of vehicles ply the roads.
- Overloaded vehicles – leading to creation of bottlenecks.
- Insufficient public transport systems.
- Insufficient training for traffic management personnel.
- Poorly maintained traffic management systems like signals.
- Poorly trained drivers.
- Non existence of technology.
There is no quick fix solution here – but a wider acceptance and implementation of technology can mitigate the immense challenges.
- Implementing a real time centralized traffic monitoring system will allow traffic monitoring personnel to have a fair idea of the bottlenecks and take appropriate actions. Nowadays RFID tagging of vehicles is a very low cost solution
- Implementing real-time traffic prediction systems via advanced analytics systems can help traffic monitoring team to take appropriate actions before advent of the issues.
- Congestion charging is another way to ensure that private vehicles have limited entry is high congestion zones.
- Investing in a good network of public transport system, which is efficient and economical.
I am quite excited that the Bangalore Metro rail is coming up and promises to be a great experience for commuters. New Delhi has already shown the way how a huge amount of carbon emission has been prevented.
Ref: IBM Global Commuter Pain Survey 2010
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32017.wss
Tags: CFO, CFO IBM, CFO India, cfospeak, IBM, IBM India, Robert Parker, Smarter Traffic
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Monday, April 11th, 2011
After watching ten advertisements of toothpastes and an equal number of ads on life insurance, the mind gets numb and confused on what aspect of teeth to protect and whether the life insurer really wants me to stay alive – everyone promises an excellent afterlife!
Jokes apart, it is a fact that 75% of people don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. Consumers demand relevant and authentic content, specific to their needs, delivered over the channel of their choice.
Do we really need to advertise in xyz media? Where do these billions of dollars of advertisement and marketing money go? Who benefits ultimately from the advertisements, and if yes, how much and how soon? These questions become shrill especially when sales are suboptimal. If I stand on a conventional CFO’s pedestal and have a look at these issues, I may not be able to fathom the black hole that swallows the marketing dollars.
And this is where I think, a CFO can take lead to partner effectively with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) not only to review the effective utilization, but also help the CMO take better decision with respect to Return on Investments.
88% of CEOs say that getting closer to the customer is a top priority and yet only 6% of marketers rate their online and digital marketing capabilities as excellent. All of which means that, getting to know customers better, require adding a lot of science to the art of marketing. By science, I mean bringing in measuring factors that will account for effective utilization and monitoring on an ongoing basis for each dollar spent.
So let me ask a few questions:
1. How do we build marketing insights?
2. What level of analytics are needed to build effective marketing insights?
3. How do we segment markets based on insights?
4. How do we position product mix for the markets?
5. How do we keep in touch with clients in an ongoing basis?
6. How do we excel in marketing execution and ensure a good return on investments?
Many organizations feel comfortable by saying that they have an effective CRM (Customer Relationship Management) which “takes care” of customers. And this is where, I think lies the danger of getting into a comfort zone or trying to defend investing hard earned dollars into a “CRM”.
Customers are changing, their buying behaviour is changing and during downturns we saw entire business models changing. Being in touch with clients in effective ways is a top organization priority and hence working in a “departmental” mindset is perhaps not the best approach. My ways of looking at it are:
1. Invest in relationships – there is no substitute to a good relationship
2. Evolve effective nurturing strategies to deepen relationship
3. Develop agile systems to support investment in relationships
4. Good content that is thoughtful, relevant and useful is more important for striking the right chord with customers
5. Developing campaign mindset is more important than tactical initiatives
6. Invest in effective systems to measure and report
I would be keen to seek your views and comments.
Data reference: IBM white paper – Bringing science to the art of marketing
Tags: CFO, CFO IBM, CFO India, cfospeak, IBM, IBM India, Robert Parker
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Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
Howzzat?? and up goes the Umpire’s index finger. Have we ever wondered what team effort goes behind that successful appeal?
Best of the bowlers sweating it out against Sachin Tendulkar and he ensures that all the best efforts of the bowlers have the same fate – over the boundary line. Have we ever wondered what makes him a cricketing genius ?
The answers are the same – developing deep insights through research and analytics. While I am not competent to present holistic view of what makes Sachin a cricketing genius, about his techniques, attitudes – but I am sure, he plays with deep insights. He exploits the weaknesses of every bowler, fielder and opponents to attain his objectives. And he has mastered that better than any other cricket player on the field.
Similarly bowlers will keep on exploiting the weaknesses of the batsmen to get their wicket. Every team comes in to play with a defined strategy based on the strengths and weaknesses of each of their opponent.
Contemporary cricket is has become very competitive. If you consider individual players - they are almost all of very high standards. So what differentiates teams ? It is the ability to read opponents better and adopt a strategy that is best suited for a win.
And I am a great fan of Australia here! I have heard that they do a meticulous study of each opponent and identify their strengths and weaknesses. While on the field they are very focused to exploit each and every weakness of the opponents. No wonder, they have won the world cup the most number of times till date.
In the corporate world too it is the analytics and insights that differentiate the great potential from the winner. How best do we know our own organization ? How best do we know about competitors? How best do we know about markets and business opportunities?
I have learnt three things from the cricket world cups:
- Insights differentiate a winner from competition
- Good insights are generated from right data and the right ways to process the data
- Experience and Insight is not always linear. While experience is definitely a big contributor for insights - there are other ways to gain insights too!
I would look forward to your comments.
Tags: Analytics, bowlers and batsmen, CFO IBM, Contemporary Cricket, cricket world cup, insights, Robert Parker, sachin tendulkar
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Sunday, September 26th, 2010
CFO, once considered as an executive with proficiency in figures, is no longer confined to the game of numbers. Having undergone through changes over the period of time, they now play a major role in driving the business for their organization.
I am sure we all would agree with the fact that the role of a CFO is no longer the same, first the transition happened post liberalization and then the recent tragic financial turmoil changed it further, bringing the CFO on to the business intelligence desk.
“Don’t get boxed in. A mix of finance- and operational-related roles makes a better finance chief,” says IBM finance head, Mark Loughridge.
An article published in Financial Times, titled Number cruncher to co-pilot featured Mark Loughridge, CFO, IBM, as a part of a new breed of CFO. The article mentions various jobs that Mark had taken before taking the finance seat and how the diverse past experience helped him in his current role of CFO.
Starting his career as a development engineer and then becoming a strategic planner, Mark feels that having a dual set of opportunities is not only good for the corporation, but it provides a much richer career path for the finance population as well,”
The IBM global CFO study launched few months back also highlights the nature of change in roles and responsibilities of a CFO. It was during this period, CFO’s were asked to take up the charge and support their organization sail through the gloomy period. The sudden exposure to such a critical and complex business environment transformed the whole outlook of a CFO and today at C suite level, CFOs are considered imperative as they help their CEOs is making financially viable business decisions.
In favour of the CFO study findings, I believe in today’s dynamic business environment that is full of complexities, CFO’s with their analytical skills, business intelligence and business insight can support the business development process in their organization.
I strongly believe that this transformation of CFOs from being the Score-keepers of their organisation to Corporate Co-pilot will further strengthen the relationship between them and their CEO’s.
However, I am sure that apart from helping the board in making business decisions, there is lot more to a CFOs Job and it would be really great to read your opinions and views on this topic.
Data Source/References/Quotes:
Financial Times
IBM.com- IBM CFO Study 2010
Disclaimer
The views and opinions mentioned in this blog are strictly my own and in no way reflect those of IBM or any other corporation or individual in any manner
Tags: CFO, CFO IBM, CFO India, CFO Study, cfospeak, IBM CFO, IBM India
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Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Before I even start, I would like to take a moment to appreciate the creativity of the person who coined the term, “Cloud Computing”. I can’t be sure about the person who came up with it, since there is still a debate on it, but to my knowledge it is Eric Schmidt of Google. So kudos to you Mr. Schmidt for giving the world a term that is so empowering. However, the big discussion is – Is cloud useful ?
In the recent past it seemed that the most tragic shadow: security concern would obliterate the acceptance of Cloud Computing but with technology constantly reaching new heights, it seems security would be no fuss in the near future and companies would step forward to benefit from the quintessential features of Cloud Computing. The best being the ability to cut IT spend, which today is one of the most essential requirement for growth. In fact during the IBM Impact 2010, conference held in Mumbai, Craig Hayman, GM AIM brand, IBM in his key note speech also said, “In today’s environment it’s all about working smart and the first step towards working smart is to reduce the total spend on IT”.
Midst all discussion regarding risk factor related with Cloud, I came across this interesting article published in cfo.com, titled Certainties: Death, Taxes, and the Cloud. In the write-up Michael Hugos, a former chief information officer and a principal of the Centre for Systems Innovation asserts that cloud can decrease key risks. Giving an example, he said “for a company developing a new product with an uncertain long-term market, renting the associated computing capacity is far less risky than expanding the company’s data centre. The cloud provides a lot of flexibility to probe into new markets, ride them as far as they go, and exit without a bunch of sunk cost,” and I completely agree with his statement.
So it’s quite clear that risk is not the concern factor, so then what’s it? On this, I assume most of the IT evangelist would have the same thought as I do, that is “vendor lock-in”. The vision of being fully reliable on a single service supplier is objectionable to companies that depend heavily on IT service. Red Hat CEO James Whitehurst was recently quoted in the computer world, saying that Cloud is the mother of all Lock-ins.
I would like to know what the Indian CFO community thinks about the plethora of discussion which Cloud initiates almost every day. Is it worth it, or the traditional way of maintaining private data centre is better? Does it make sense to maintain a huge data centre when it can be outsourced? Your suggestions are of ultimate importance and will enable us, the community to have a better approach. I look forward to hear from you.
Data Source/References/Quotes
CFO.com – Certainties: Death, Taxes, and the Cloud
Disclaimer
The views and opinions mentioned in this blog are strictly my own and in no way reflect those of IBM or any other corporation or individual in any manner
Tags: CFO IBM, cloud, cloud computing, Craig Hayman, Eric Schmidt, IBM, IBM CFO, IBM Impact 2010, IBM India, indian cfo, new technology, websphere
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
As I wrote in my last blog, this update is to share my experiences at The CFO roundtable hosted by CII at Pune, 3rd Feb 2010. It was one of the best collective dialogue that I had with CFOs of the most esteemed companies.
Right at the very outset I must congratulate CII for conducting a really well hosted event.The topics of discussion bore a futuristic element to them with strong underlying pragmatic tones and I for one enjoyed the session immensely. This is a great way to remain connected. These forums offer a wonderful opportunity to discuss serious business in a very informal setting. We should have many more of such forums to meet and discuss common issues.
I jotted down a few underlying thoughts that emerged in the discussion – which I am sharing with you. What strikes me is that as the economy is slowly bouncing back and while there is general optimism that business will improve and that there is good opportunity in the marketplace, the shape of the recovery and its sustainability is still not clear, and we are still grappling with the right approach of tackling the recovery process.
As financial leaders, we need to be able to deal with the uncertainties, whether it be in an up-cycle or downcycle. The key focus is on how we adapt and manage the change. From the discussions it emerged that belts have been tightened and it was clear that even in upswing some of the cost actions will not be reversed. The focus will be on spending that will improve market positioning and deliver growth. Balance points have been lowered and the ability to remain agile given the uncertainty is paramount. Figuring through more flexible cost structures, sharing risk, understanding core competence and value drivers are important parts of a transformation in uncertain times.
One more key factor that evolved from the discussions was our ability to leverage the data that is available and provide insight to our Management teams and Boards, will become a key differentiator. The wait and see approach is over and we need to move foward sure footedly based on sound business insight and analytics.
I look forward to your views and please feel free to put in your comments.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions mentioned in this blog are strictly my own and in no way reflect those of IBM or any other corporation or individual in any manner
Tags: CFO, CFO IBM, CFO India, CFO roundtable, cfospeak, CII, CII Pune, IBM, India, Robert Parker
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My name's Robert Parker, and I have been working with IBM India from April 2008 as a Vice President, Finance and Operations IBM India/South Asia. In my 23 years of career with IBM I had a wide range of financial positions within Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
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