Topic: Secrets of High Performing CFOs: Live case studies - From the book "The CFO Lens" 

Speaker: Shri Ramanan Ravikumar, Author
 

Presentation:

- Building a deeper understand of the business: How Founders, CEOs and CFOs understand and experience the business, to manage it better 

- Taking finance to the next level of business support and performance

- Soft skills 

- The dynamics of managing finance in the digital economy (start-ups, e-commerce): Unlearning traditional concepts and embracing new ones. 

Speaker’s bio:

Shri Ramanan Ravikumar is a Chartered Accountant with 30 years of experience. He was the CFO & Board member of IBM India and has Global experience.

He started his career in Management Consulting, in Mumbai. The job carried responsibility for both delivery and sales. He then moved to Bangalore and worked with two iconic IT companies Digital Equipment and IBM. He gained varied experience in strategy, business value creation, business recovery, International Taxation and M&A. 

Ravikumar has also performed non-finance roles. In addition to being in Consulting, he spent significant time in sales activities of Business Development and Deal-making, in the process, engaging very extensively with customers. In fact, as IBMs Financial Controller, on over half a dozen occasions, he received special sales commission and recognition for working with customers, helping sales teams close deals. He led Enterprise Risk Management and managed a large $400M, Asia-Pacific, Cost Centre. 

He was a member of Industry and policy bodies such as the CII CFO forum. 

Authorship: Ravikumar has written two books. The first one "Oriental Tunes" is about the culture and customs in Japan and China, where he and his family had lived. Earlier in April 2023 he published a book THE CFO LENS – How to thrive in the fast changing world of finance”.

Book reviews:

- There are many books about what makes CEOs tick. One has rarely heard of such a book on CFOs. With a lively narrative and short, snappy chapters, it breaks fresh ground on how finance professionals can be more effective - T T Ram Mohan, former Professor (Finance and Economics), IIM Ahmedabad and Member, PM's Economic  Advisory Council
- Ravi clearly outlines the expectations of today's CEOs of their CFOs and how finance can enable an organisation to succeed, transform and grow:- Bhaskar Pramanik, former Board Member, State Bank of India, former Chairman, Microsoft India.
- Invaluable guidance from CFOs who have managed modern finance. The anecdotes make the book relevant and interesting - Praveen P. Kadle, former MD & CEO Tata Capital and ex-CFO Tata Motors
- This is a practitioner's book - insightful and pragmatic - with illustrations, from Ravi's rich experience at IBM, and from CFOs across industries, who have successfully partnered CEOs to generate profitable & sustainable business growth - Vinita Bali, former Managing Director, Britannia Industries; Independent Director on Global & Indian Boards. 
- Engaging and insightful, it covers several areas of impact on finance professionals and provides practical guidance on how to enable growth and create value. A must read - V.S. Parthasarathy, Ex-Group CFO, Mahindra & Mahindra; Independent Director, LIC & others, Social worker.

Amazon link to buy https://a.co/d/1ryqTjH

Articles LinkedIn:
a) How real is your cost reduction: www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-real-your-cost-reduction-ravikumar-ramanan? trk=public_profile_article_view 
b) Why waste time working hard! www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-waste-time-working-hard-ravikumar-ramanan?trk=public_profile_article_view
c) Making decisions without sufficient data - The Principle of Occam's razor www.linkedin.com/pulse/decision-making-without-sufficient-data-principle-occams-ramanan?trk=public_profile_article_view