CFO Priorities 2024
Research insights presented by Simon Hayes, Managing Director, Global CFO Network
Where are multinationals investing in Asia, what’s on the agenda for 2024, and how is the Finance function positioning itself to drive performance? These are just a few of the questions we’ll be answering in this session, as we present insights from our CFO Priorities 2024 research study. The study explores the risks and opportunities multinational companies see in the Asia Pacific region, examines how MNCs are managing risk, and looks at how Finance functions in some of the world’s largest and most innovative organisations are adopting new technologies and ways of working to help them increase their impact. The session will incorporate an opportunity to discuss the findings with your CFO peers.
The practice of transformation : A Finance perspective
Chng Sok Hui, Chief Financial Officer, DBS Group
In any complex organisation, alignment on desired outcomes is a critical ingredient of success. If goals, targets and incentives are aligned, performance is easily managed. If that alignment doesn’t exist, different parts of the organisation pull in different directions, and performance is at a minimum significantly impaired. DBS Group - Singapore’s leading financial institution and a significant player in regional terms - restructured its targets and incentives to focus on customer outcomes across business units and functions, and has used this structure to drive performance improvements across the business. We’ll be joined by DBS CFO Chng Sok Hui, who will discuss how the structure was developed, how it was deployed, and how DBS has measured the outcomes. Sok Hui took on the CFO role in 2008, having previously been Head of Risk. She is a member of the DBS Executive Committee and also serves on the Board of the Singapore Exchange Limited and chairs its Risk Management Committee. She is also a member of the Board of Changi Airport Group and chairs its Audit Committee.
Regional competitiveness - Singapore and Hong Kong compared
Shibani Mahtani, International Investigative Correspondent, The Washington Post and Tim McLaughlin, Contributing Writer, The Atlantic
Facing an increasingly uncertain legislative environment, and a government under much tighter direction from Beijing, Hong Kong is once again risking the confidence of multinational companies with regional or sub-regional headquarters there. ‘De-risking’ from China - including Hong Kong - has become a common phrase in our conversations with CFOs, and that frequently includes decision about where to site HQs, and what tasks to perform in which countries. One clear beneficiary of this is Singapore, with an growing number of multinationals that once ran the region from Hong Kong now basing operations here. In this session we’ll discuss this trend with The Washington Post’s Singapore-based International Investigative Correspondent Shibani Mahtani, and The Atlantic Contributing Writer Tim McLaughlin. Shibnai was The Washington Post’s Hong Kong bureau chief, and prior to that was a reporter with the Wall Street Journal in Singapore and the US. Tim was part of a team at The Washington Post that won the 2020 Human Rights Press Award for investigative feature writing and the Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award for a report on the misuse of force by the Hong Kong police during pro-democracy protests. He was previously based in Yangon as a correspondent with Reuters. Shibani and Tim are co-authors of Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy.
Members may attend with a member of their Finance team. Breakfast and light refreshments will be served.