Finance function in global business scenario

Finance is the lifeblood and nerve center of a business, just as circulation of blood is essential in the human body for maintaining life; finance is a very essential to smooth running of the business. It has been rightly termed as universal lubricant that keeps the enterprise dynamic. No business, whether big, medium or small can be started without an adequate amount of finance. Right from the very beginning, i.e. conceiving an idea to business, finance is needed to promote or establish the business, acquire fixed assets, make investigations such as market surveys, etc., develop product, keep men and machine at work, encourages management to make progress and create values. Even an existing concern may require further finance for making improvement or expanding the business. Thus the importance of finance cannot be over-emphasized and the subject of business finance has become utmost important both to the academicians and practicing managers.

Finance functions: The functions of finance that includes tax, treasury, risk management which will contribute to the achievement of the strategic objectives and goals of the company.
Importance of finance functions:

The importance of finance has arisen because of the fact that present day business activities are predominantly carried on company or corporate form of organization. The advent of corporate enterprises resulted into: The increase in size and influence of the business enterprises Wide distribution of corporate ownership and Separation of ownership and management. The above factors have further increased the importance of corporate finance. As the owners in a corporate enterprise are widely scattered and the management is separated from the ownership, the management has to ensure the maximization of owners economic welfare. The success and growth of a firm only by maximization of principles and procedures as lay down by corporation finance. The knowledge of the discipline of corporation finance is important not only to the practicing managers, but also to others who deal with a corporate enterprise, such as investors, lenders, bankers, creditors, etc., as there is always a scope for the management to manipulate and window dress the financial statements. In the present day capitalistic regime, the size of the business enterprises is increasing resulting into corporate empires empowered with a lot of social and political influence. This makes corporate finance all the more important. Further, if we refer to corporate finance as the financial management practices by business firms, the importance of financial management can well be described as the importance of corporate finance.

Role of finance:

The role of finance has been emerging from a conventional viewpoint to an innovation viewpoint in current competitive business world. Conventional view It is operational and risk focused. Reactive Efficient Number crunching quantitative Risk averse Innovation view It is lateral and forward thinking skills Vision oriented Opportunity and growth focus Intuitive Risk-taker
Impact of finance function:

In ever changing competitive business environment, its vital to re-examine the role of finance function due to the following change drivers: Gaining importance of finance in strategic role Higher volatility Financial evaluation of Mergers & Acquisitions Information economy Mitigation of evolving business risks New organizational hierarchy roles and requirements

Issues Finance role:

In todays competitive world, the roles and responsibilities of finance and accounting functions are facing key knowledge and skills related issues such as: Lack of consistency in the current process which in turn will impact the transparency of financial reporting abilities Ever growing demand for knowledge workers in finance and accounting field in the market place Lack of focus on internal compliances and control issues like Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II law framework Focus on aligning the finance and accounting role as a strategic advisors and also business partners in order to understand clearly operational realities to identify future growth and opportunity in the business.
Modern finance function :

There are 4 key roles in any organization in present day scenario: Steward Has control over assets of the organization with meeting all compliance standards to mitigate business risks involved in the process Operator Create a strategic framework to monitor the efficiency of finance process which in turn will drive cost effectiveness factor across the organization Strategist Acting as a strategic advisor to align the organizational goals in tandem with achieving the operational realities by means of measuring and analyzing organization performance with interpretation of financial information in the organization. Catalyst Acting as change agent to execute and monitor necessary changes to achieve the overall strategic objectives of the organization be means of aligning all the above 3 key roles in tandem

The Finance Function in a Global Corporation

As corporations go global, capital markets open up within them, giving companies a powerful mechanism for arbitrage across national financial markets. But in managing their internal markets to build an advantage, CFOs must balance the opportunities with the challenges of operating in multiple environments. By exploiting their internal capital markets, CFOs can create value in three functions: Financing. A CFO can reduce a group's tax bill by, for example, borrowing in countries with high tax rates and lending to operations in countries with lower rates. But the global CFO needs to be aware of the downsides of strategic financing. Saddling the managers of subsidiaries with debt, for instance, can cloud their profit performance. Risk management. Instead of managing currency exposures through the financial market, global firms can offset natural currency exposures through their worldwide operations. Doing so, however, can obscure the performance of local units, making it harder for headquarters to assess local managers and easier for financial managers to take purely speculative positions. Capital budgeting. CFOs can add value by getting smarter about valuing investment opportunities. But adopting an overly formal approach may tempt managers to game the system and can lead to an outcome at odds with the company's objectives. CFOs can help their global finance operations make the most of their opportunities by inventorying their capabilities and ensuring their adaptation to institutional variation and their alignment with organizational goals. To achieve this, a global finance function must locate decision making at a geographic level where other strategic decisions are made, rotate finance professionals through various institutional environments, and codify practices that can be adjusted to suit local conditions.