Dubai - The Middle East market is booming in all sectors from real estate to hospitality, to oil and gas, to FMCG and so on. This dynamic environment is creating increased competitive pressures and imposing new priorities on companies and their CFOs to be more strategic and innovative in their approach. naseba created a strategic business platform called the CFO Strategies Middle East, which focused on the emerging role of the CFO in the booming Middle East market.
The CFO of Julphar/Gulf Pharmaceuticals Limited explained that "The CFO Middle East event alerts you for the challenges being faced in the Middle East as well as enhance your skills to add value to the organization."
Working in strategic partnership with Time Magazine, CNBC Arabiya, Middle East Monitor, Capital, Business Islamica, Business Intelligence Middle East and AME Info, this unique platform gave the opportunity to top-level executives from diverse industries like banking, FMCG, oil and gas, real estate, construction, hospitality and retail to discuss and interact with their peers while obtaining real business solutions that help their corporations become more efficient and competitive.
While commenting at the venue, the congress producer, Prachi Dawar, said, "Our aim to bring together CFOs from different industry verticals sharing their views on the challenges facing them in the region was very well responded. Looking at the positive outlook from the attendees and the added value the CFOs had from the congress, we look forward to hosting the next edition with the most forward thinking CFOs in the region in November 2008".
Educational presentations and interactive panel discussions, moderated by Jim Frederick, Senior Editor of TIME, focused on the changing role of CFOs in the Middle East.
Mr. Sanjay Uppal, the Group CFO of EMIRATES NBD, set the scene by unfolding the new CFO agenda and emphasized on the evolving role of the CFO as the strategist. According to him, the CFO has to enhance cost efficiencies & shareholder value, transform people, process & technology, integrate finance function into business operations, build & maintain effective risk management approach and drive financial transparency.
Ghassan Hasbani, the Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton, explained in his presentation "The new CFO - Public lessons from private equity" that the finance function is increasingly interacting with the CEO while focusing less on transactional activities,. The new role of finance consists of advising the CEO on strategy, revenue/cost, and corporate structure. They are both strategic and externally focused striving to achieve business growth and overall organization harmony while acting.
Surinder Sarna, the Group CFO of AlShaya Group added in his presentation "Corporate relationships: The CFO-CEO partnership in a 'diverse business'" that the role of CFO will continue to become more critical and important, considering the changing regulations, complexity and diversification of businesses and growing investor awareness. The CFO will actually not only be a business partner, but also a confidant, advisor, negotiator and a visionary at the same time, who has to constantly be on a lookout for new ideas and concepts.
While brainstorming in roundtables, CFOs could hear about increased emphasis on IFRS adoption and BASEL II norms. Some voices were also raised for common standards to be followed by the entire Middle Eastern organizations. While the CFOs discussed the new company economics with direct impact of globalization, diversification of businesses and new prominent mergers and acquisitions, they acceded to the fact that a new evolved strategic role for their position is now mandatory.
On the second day, Dilip Kumar, Financial head of Arab Banking Corp. further explained transparency and disclosures. Andy Raheja, CFO of Al Barari group shared his vision on the CFOs role in the boom market, giving a great analogy on known and unknown of boom economies. The CFO of Jumbo Electronics, Vipin Agarwal, aptly representing the FMCG market in the Middle East, focused on emerging paradigm of risk management while P.K. Dutta, the CFO of DAMAS shared his valuable insight on Cross Border expansion.
Finally, Deepak Shrivastava, the CFO of Oman LNG, concluded the event on a very high and lively note by emphasizing "real asset management". He explained that managing and retaining people in the finance function was of great significance to the success of a company.
On top of those educational sessions, participants attended one-to-one business meetings, which enhanced deal making opportunities and gave a chance to delegates to find customized solutions for their companies. Some of the key solution providers at the congress included: the global strategy and consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH); Financial Markets Intelligence provider and world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices and risk evaluation, Standards and Poors; Investor Services and Credit risk assessing firm, Moody's Middle East and the credit risk management solutions firm, Atradius.
The Country Manager of Atradius described the first annual CFO Strategies Middle East as followed: "Excellent event - very well organised. My appreciation and thanks to the entire naseba team involved in making this event a success. Loved the networking opportunities. Keep it up naseba!"
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Naseba
Established in 2002, naseba produces business platforms focused on re-education, networking and most importantly increasing deal-making opportunities for executive clients. With offices strategically located in 7 cities around the world, naseba employs over 250 executives from more than 30 nationalities. naseba group went public on the Paris Stock Exchange on October 5th, 2006.
Press Release 2007
