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A CFO has to Make His Attacks and Defences like a Midfielder on a Football Field, Sethurathnam Ravi

brooklyncamrin

#SethurathnamRaviBse In a modern-day corporate world, the role of a Chief Financial Officer, whose key duties include tracking cash flow and financial planning as well as analysing the company’s financial strengths and weaknesses and proposing corrective actions, is being considered quite analogous to the job of a soccer midfielder.


Sethurathnam Ravi Bse, Sethurathnam Ravi, Sethurathnam Bse, S Ravi Bse, Sethurathnam Ravi Chairman, Sethurathnam Chairman
Sethurathnam Ravi Bse Former Chairman

This was affirmed by Sethurathnam Ravi, former Chairman, BSE India and Managing Partner, BSE India, who delivered the keynote address at the Fifth Edition of the CFO & Finance Strategy Awards 2021 organised by BW CFO World and BW Business World.



It is to be mentioned that Sethurathnam Ravi (S Ravi) is a chartered accountant (CA) based in India, promoter and managing partner of Ravi Rajan & Co and the former Chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). He also serves as an Independent Director of Tourism Finance Corporation of India. In 2019, #Ravi also joined SBI Payments Services Pvt. Ltd as one of the Board Directors. Before joining BSE, #Ravi served on boards of various companies such as UTI Company Pvt Ltd., SMERA Ratings, SBI-SG Global Securities, STCI Finance, and BOI Merchant Bankers. He was a member of SEBI’s takeover panel and Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)


Addressing the event at a virtual summit, Sethurathnam Ravi said, “The Indian environment is a very complex habitat for Indian businesses and the role of the CFO is very important considering the complexities that exist there. For example, any company has to go through multiple regulators such as RBI, MCA, IRDA, SEBI and PFRDA. Therefore, the role of a CFO in the journey of a company is very important. That is, in football, it is like the role of a midfielder who knows how to both attack or defend. Therefore, if the opponents attack, the CFO is the person to defend and if there is aggression, the CFO takes the responsibility of making the growth also.”


“You will be surprised to know the amount of compliance that has increased over the last few years. If you take the whole ecosystem together, the compliance cost has also gone up by 4% because there are returns, submissions to the board as well as to regulators, results have to be submitted to SEBI, insider trading guidelines which are very complex, etc. And then, getting the board together to understand all the guidelines, etc. So, every CFO has to deal with a compliance structure. Although we are moving towards automated compliance, the role of the human element of a CFO is indispensable,” Ravi further in his session themed’ CFO as the Chief Future Officer’.


“The promoter is always keen to grow the company and will look for expansion and acquisition and will aim for enhanced bottom-line and top-line. They will expect the CFO to get the resources and do everything. So, it is the CFO who can control the growth because a wrong decision during the period of growth of the company can take it down. He is the regulator to the growth and must provide an ecosystem where the growth can be moderated yet sustain the organisation. The CFO has to mitigate the risks of the organisation and hence his role is evolving,” Ravi further added.


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