The core concern of chief financial officers (CFOs) across the Middle East and in global markets is primarily financial volatility, in addition to extended macroeconomic ups and downs arising in recent years, said a report.

“The role of the CFO has become more demanding as a result of increasing pressures from economic stagnation, employment hindrances and growing debts,” said James Babb, partner and CFO program leader, Deloitte Middle East, a leading professional services firm.

“The impact of globalization has never been more prevalent, with even the remotest events affecting a country’s national economy in the Middle East,” he added.

In addition to global volatility, the latest Deloitte CFO Insights, a periodical publication that addresses the issues that finance executives face today, identifies 9 other main concerns facing CFOs today. They include:

Identifying the right growth strategies

Cost-cutting initiatives are yielding less and less returns. This shift is shining a brighter spotlight on finding growth. One in five CFOs, in fact, say they are actively pursuing major transformational deals, and more than half are looking to make smaller deals.

Execution missteps

Given external uncertainty, CFOs are focused on helping their organizations assess the broader environment, determining which decisions should be made now, and getting their organizations focused on the necessary strategies.

But CFOs reveal they are worried about their organizations’ ability to implement those strategies. In the Q3 2011 CFO Signals survey, CFOs were asked strategic risks they are most worried about, almost 70 per cent indicated that their strategies were not well-enough (re)defined, and 28 per cent indicated strong concerns.

Hiring stalemate

Employment or lack thereof is proving to be a double-edged sword for CFOs. While they are worried about the major consequences unemployment has on consumer spending, CFOs are not planning to increase hiring any time soon. In fact, the hiring projections have hovered around 1 per cent and 2 per cent since the launch of the CFO Signals survey. Instead of adding full-time hires, CFOs are continuing to clean up their balance sheets and execute capital projects often through outsourcing techniques.

Cash deployment and liquidity management

Many large companies ran into this recessionary period with more cash on hand than ever before and then responded rapidly to control costs and restore earnings. As a consequence, many companies have been able to grow their cash positions and lower their debt numbers.

In addition, many large companies have recapitalized at very low interest rates and that also lowered their cost of capital. It also allowed them to outrun their competitors thanks to a market divergence that forces companies with poor balance sheets to raise new capital at higher rates.

Wildcard risks

The impact of a black or grey swan event is something CFOs continue to worry about — and should prepare for. Companies with operations in Europe, for example, should plan for additional surprises and residual effects stemming from the euro situation. In addition, a potential conflagration in the Middle East could affect oil supplies and create global instability and demand reductions for an extended period.

Government policy and regulation handicaps

There are two policy areas that make it to the top of many CFOs’ lists of core concerns: corporate taxes and health care. In fact, CFOs named tax complexity as their number one burdensome government regulation, and 60 per cent expect a major tax overhaul in the next few years.

Identifying and developing talent

Finding and developing the right talent is consistently number one or two on many transitioning CFOs’ agendas. Given the increased demands on finance and correspondingly on the skill sets that are valued, many CFOs are finding their current staffs lacking.

Time management

To meet the demands of their role, many CFOs say they are putting in 12- to 15-hour days at work. A major contributor to this time creep is the massive amount of emails CFOs receive, and they need to put better processes in place, including better delegation, to deal with the decision making inherent in that communication.

“Whilst global volatility tops CFOs core concerns, there has been a strong shift away from U.S.-centered ways of thinking about finance’s most worrisome risks to a wider global outlook. The impacts of the European sovereign debt crisis and the overall global economic climate are the main drivers behind this shift,” said Babb. – TradeArabia News Service