8/9/2019 IBM CFO Transcript 2010 Global CFO Study

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IBM CFO introduces the 2010 Global CFO Study

Mark: Hello. This is Mark Loughridge, Chief Financial Officer for IBM. I think

you would agree that the past year and a half has been a difficult period

for business, but it has also been an interesting one. For many, this tough

economic environment coupled with disruptive new technologies and

increasing globalization are converging to change the business landscape

and the global playing field. In the business community, weve had to

negotiate some unique challenges and many of us have watched our

industries evolve very rapidly. This has highlighted the importance of the

CFOs role and of the finance organization which now must manage

through cost challenges and enable new growth opportunities at the same

time. To shed some light on this and show how financial leaders are rising

to the occasion, IBM conducted a survey, the largest of its kind, looking at

the evolution of the corporate finance organization. The IBM 2010 Global

CFO Study reflects the insights of more than 1900 CFOs and senior

finance professionals from 81 countries and 32 industries around the

world. These findings will interest any business leader looking for

perspective and insights in this highly dynamic climate. The top financeorganizations in our study delivered solid results in 2009 driving

productivity, but also enabling powerful new insight into their businesses.

They leveraged their enterprise data and uncovered new opportunities for

value creation. On the other hand, firms that hunkered down performed

worse, ceded ground to competition, and for some, survival is now a real

issue. While IBM is again a leader in our industry, such challenges are

familiar territory to us. Indeed, the early 1990s was a wrenching time for

IBM, a time when we fought for our own survival. That experience

changed the way we think about our business and set us on the path to

ongoing transformation. We decided to exit commoditizing businesses,

change our business mix to better margin, faster growing sectors likesoftware, and move from being simply international to becoming a

globally integrated enterprise while we continued to invest aggressively

for growth. We now see continuous transformation as an opportunity in

these disruptive cycles, a time to drive ongoing innovation in the industry.

Virtually every industry has to deal with these challenges posed by this

dynamic environment as they become more digitized, globalized, and

interconnected. We believe the best way to deal with the challenge is to

get ahead of the transformation curve, transform rather than be

transformed by forces beyond your control. Finance organizations are now

playing a central role by driving common global processes, standard

metrics, and clear accountability. They were also pushing for greaterlevels of information integration across the enterprise, effectively

instrumenting the business for deeper insight with predictive analytics.

These capabilities will define the leaders of the future. To this end, I

would like to invite you to receive a detailed briefing on the IBM CFO

Study. I am confident that the insights offered by the more than 1900

finance leaders around the world will be helpful as you build your plan for

the future.