DAY ONE: MONDAY 13 OCTOBER

Wrap up

Michael BlytheChief Economist and Managing Director of Economics, Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Economic insight: Risks and issues in the year ahead

1. Australia needs to find new sources of income and jobs.

2. Chinese growth sourced tipped to grow by 7.4% in 2014.

3. More jobs in construction that have been lost in mining.

4. China's middle class boom will help Australia.

5. A modest righting cycle for early 2015 in interest rates.

Key points:

Paul Broderick PSM Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner, State Revenue Victoria

Change – it’s really not that hard!

1.Make the case for change, ensure your people understand the ‘Why’?

2. Don’t make too many changes at once.

3. The change must be supported by leaders.

4. Communication is not engagement, you need to involve people in the change and bring them along with you.

5. Culture is critical to success, your people need to have trust and believe in the organisation.

6. Unleash the power of the informal leaders, identify the people who can influence change in your organisation.

7. Speak to the individual and treat people with respect and dignity.

Key points:

Tom McLeodManaging Consultant, McLeod Governance

Preventing corruption – lessons from the past 200 years

1.Truth is the first casualty of corruption.

2. Every corruption investigation can not divorce itself from politics. 

3. External vigilance is the only answer to corruption. There is no end point.

4. Corruption happens when people aren't held accountable. Start the conversation early.

5. If you don't want people to be corrupt, talk to them about the impact it will have on their families. 

Key points:

Paul Looker CPA Group Risk and Assurance Manager, SEEK

Risk management in a complex commercial environment

1. Change is constant and getting faster.

2. The pace of ‘big data’, technology, use of social media and social consciousness won’t scale back - so get on board!

3. Don’t talk to people about what might go wrong, introduce risk management by asking “what must go RIGHT?”

4. As finance professionals, we have many tools and techniques at our disposal to manage risk.

5. We need to embrace new technologies but work equally as hard on soft skills such as interpersonal engagement, being aware of cultural issues, and so on.

Key points:

Lynette NixonDirector, Deals Innovation, PwC

Practical guide to implementing an innovation program

1. Change can be defined by the acronym ‘VUCA’:  Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity.

2. How businesses adapt to the world changing will determine their failure or success.

3. We talk about people being our biggest asset but don't use them to their full potential.

4. Four steps to innovation using design thinking: Discovery. Synthesis. Ideation and Prototyping. Implementation.

5. Innovation is an outcome of great choices in an organisation.

Key points:

Nikole GylesDirector - Technical Projects and Board Activities, Australian Accounting Standards Board

An accounting standard setting update: Forthcoming standards and major projects

The Australian Accounting Standards Board is working on several projects, including: 

1.Leases

2. Revenue from contracts with customers

3. Financial Instruments

4. Income from transactions of NFP entities

5. Service performance reporting

6. Service concession arrangements

7. Addressing complexity in Financial reporting

Key points:

The Australian Accounting Standards Board is working on several projects, including: 

1.Leases.

2. Revenue from contracts with customers.

3. Financial Instruments.

4. Income from transactions of NFP entities.

5. Service performance reporting.

6. Service concession arrangements.

7. Addressing complexity in financial reporting.

Gael McLennan CPA Financial Planning and Analysis Lead, Microsoft Australia

Managing the shift to business partnering

1. New business intelligence strategy: ‘Core finance’ means discipline at the core and flexibility at the edge of the organisation.

2. Success requires focus on three areas: Integrated user interface. Reliable information architecture. Powerful IT infrastructure.

3. You need to have the resources available to reach your goals.

4. Your people are the most important part of the puzzle when it comes to succeeding.

5. Your organisation must continuously evolve with the changing environment and business needs.

Key points:

Andrew Wilson CPA Chief Financial Officer, Retail Zoo

Cash flow forecasting for effective decision making

1. Daily cash flow reporting is essential, there are good cash flow forecasting and recording tools available but human and manual input is also important 2. Build a cash flow psyche in the Finance team, have clearly defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and regular meetings where you encourage the team to challenge, ask and discuss.  Visibility of your cash flow without looking at your bank account and  a no surprises culture, when it comes to reporting is essential. 3. Understand cash protection and identify any vulnerabilities. Work with your team to identify systems for fraud detection and prevention. 4. Engage the broader business and be transparent with decision makers. Get buy in on your cash policies and ensure internal controls are set. Have remuneration benefits tied to cash settlements not accounting policies. 5. Good cash flow management gives you a competitive advantage and helps you to prosper in downtimes. Don’t become a case study of poor cash flow management.

Key points:

Christine Nixon APM Deputy Chancellor, Monash University Chair, Monash College Pty Ltd and Chair, Good Shepherd Micro Finance

Leadership in focus

“If you’re a good leader and a good manager, you’ve got to be focused on developing and encouraging people”

- To lead people you need to let them know you believe they’re capable of success.

- Leaders are not born, they are made and developed through experience. All of us can become leaders.

- You have to have resilience — sometimes you will be knocked over and you need to pick yourself up.

- Bad systems can stop good people from succeeding.

- Leadership is not about wealth, power or rank. It’s about doing what is right.

- Leaders never have the right to believe they’re better than others. 

The changing face of the public sector CFO: From provider to strategist

Speakers: Shaun Condron FCPA, Chief Finance Officer, Department of Justice; Taryn Rulton, Chief Financial Officer, Ambulance Victoria; Dennis Bastas, Assistant Director - Financial Operations, Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure

1. Assess the effectiveness of the CFO

2. Transform from the top; support the re-engineering of business process through demonstrated acceptance of change.

3. Adopt a client or citizen perspective when designing services to foster greater collaborations across agencies. 

Key points:

Danny Davis Principal Innovation Consultant, Vandis Advisory

Innovation aware governance and the director’s role in innovation

Key points:

1. The complexity and velocity of change in companies' competitive environments are accelerating dramatically.

2. The most advanced organisations are looking at striking a consistent rate of innovation performance.

3. Today, 75-80% of companies' true risk profile and value potential lies below the surface and cannot be captured by traditional financial analysis. 

Sally Underwood General Manager, Finance Shared Services, Telstra

Finance shared services – an exercise in resilience

1. Change takes time. You need energy to sustain a long term change

2. Building Shares Services isn't always about cost cutting but business needs.

3. Shared services does not mean outsourcing

4. Shared services is about moving focus from value preservation to value creation.

5. Challenges to transformation: culture + capability + complexity

Key points:

Richard Jamieson Acting General Manager - Superannuation, Marketing and Direct, BT Financial Group

Humanity in big business – adopting a values based leadership approach

Key points:

1. High turn over decreases retention of knowledge for an organisation so it’s important to keep staff happy so they want to stay.

2. You have to ‘care’ for your staff. Caring for others is when helping someone does not provide you with personal benefit.

3. If a staff member is really unhappy in an organisation they have four options: - Flight: Leave the organisation. - Passive objector: Unhappy but put up with it because they’re unwilling to object.- Passionate objector: Object in a noisy way, but not willing to quit or impact change.- Passionate agent of change: Can’t control culture but can influence it.

Key points:

Tim Orton Managing Director, NOUS Group

Tackling the big challenges facing the public sector

Key points:

1.The public sector is facing a range of international, national, economic and social challenges.

2. The public service needs to be more focused on what it can deliver.

3. The public sector needs to collaborate with NGOs and businesses.

4. Technology is a huge opportunity for the public sector but it needs more investment. 

4. Government needs to think more long term rather than having a short term vision.

Chris SkeltonPartner, BDO

How to get the most out of your auditor

Key points:

1. Insist on getting the audit plan early so the risks of material misstatement can be confirmed with the committee or board.

2. Get an understanding of what the auditor is likely to test and prepare the documents.

3. Use the audit as a mutual learning experience.

4. Have more meaningful communication and seek communication outside of the audit periods.

John Chandler Chief Executive Officer, Toyota Finance Australia

What the CEO wants from the CFO and finance team

Key points:

1. The finance department has to be fully engaged with the company, rather than working separately.

2. It's not always about continuous improvement, but taking a leap.

3. Most of the answers to the problems are already in team, we just need to ask.

4. CEOs and CFOs who fail to grow trust within their teams, will ultimately fail in today's aggressive business environment.

5. Every member of the team is connected to the customer and there are tangible outcomes.

Key points:

Murray Altham Creator, Peak Performance Bubble

Discover the best of yourself: Choose excellent health

Key points:1.Picture yourself in 10 years’ time. What kind of shape do you want to be in? What kind of life do you want to be living? Plan to make this happen. Its only 120 months away.

2. We spend more time in front of a screen than we do sleeping. Sitting is the new smoking. Every hour of TV from age 25 = 20 mins off your life expectancy.

3. If food can go bad it is not good for you. If food can go bad, it is generally good for you. Stick as close to nature as you can when choosing foods.

4. What to do now: Make a  plan for your health. Plan meals and snacks. Have a movement & strength strategy. Read or listen about health every day. Look after number one.

5. Some good habits to make: Have a glass of water in the morning. Pack healthy snacks for work. Before turning on the TV, take a 20 minute walk.

Dr Andreas Weigend Former Chief Scientist, Amazon and Founder, Social Data Lab (USA)

Big data for big decisions

Key points:

1. Every decision you make leaves data.

2. The value of data equals the impact of decisions.

3. What matters is not counting the data but what you do with the data.

4. Start with a question not with the data.

5. In 2000, the market was conversation. In 2014, conversations are the market.

Stay tuned for the Day Two Wrap Up

tomorrow at cpaaustralia.com.au