Indias Best CFOs 2011

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

CFO's role has changed significantly: Montek

Speaking at the Business Today Best CFO Awards ceremony, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that role of a CFO has changed significantly in a new world in which finance has become global and there are a lot of global uncertainties. He complimented both Business Today and YES Bank for instituting an award to honour CFOs. (<a href="http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/montek-singh-ahluwalia-business-today-cfo-awards/1/17050.html" mce_href="http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/montek-singh-ahluwalia-business-today-cfo-awards/1/17050.html" target="_blank">Transcript of Montek's speech at the event</a>)

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

Inflation is our major challenge in short term: FM

Speaking at the Business Today Best CFO Awards ceremony, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "Our major challenge in the short-term is inflation, which has implications for sustaining high growth momentum in the Indian economy. Inflationary pressures persist both from higher global commodity prices and domestic structural demand-supply imbalances in several commodities." (<a href="http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/business-today-cfo-awards-pranab/1/17049.html" mce_href="http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/business-today-cfo-awards-pranab/1/17049.html" target="_blank">Transcript of Pranab Mukherjee's speech at the event</a>)

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

How to make best business decisions

DK Sarraf, director of finance at ONGC, says, "When you take a business decision, put yourself as the owner of the business. When you do that you take the best decision for the company."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'Transparency builds your credibility'

Indrajit Banerjee, executive director and CFO of Cairn India, says, "I rely on three basic principles: trust, transparency and timeliness. Transparency builds your credibility and its gives you character and gives you principles to move ahead with."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

Will the RBI steps affect the dollar rate?

M Srinivas, head of finance at Opto Circuits, said, "The libor is expected to go up. If the banks have the foreign currency they will give us. If the banks have to borrow, they (the banks) will charge us more."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'We act with a lot of discipline'

Ravi Sud, CFO of Hero Honda, says, "When we invest money, we look at three things: the return on the investment, what are the underlying securities it will be invested, what is the risk involved in those securities."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

Tracking inventory, differently

Sangeeta Gulati, CFO of Educomp, says, "We have gone for a very different blend of ERP. For example, we use barcodes for inventory tracking, normally used by the retail industry."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'We set aside resources for challenging times'

Uday Phadke, president for finance, legal and financial services sector at M&M, said, "During good times we had set aside sufficient resource for challenging times. Our ability to time and execute calls on the convertible bonds was also the highlights for 2009-10."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'Acquisition is not an end in itself'

V. Balakrishnan, CFO of Infosys, said, "Last year we grew about 26% in revenues. Acquisition is not a driver for our growth; we look at acquisition for filling in some of the gaps..."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'Be ultra-careful in deploying excess cash'

R Rajendran, CFO of LMW, said, "A company has to be very careful when it has excess cash. Everybody is going to us what are going to do with the excess cash. The cash-surplus position helps when the market situation is not very good."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'You have to be a little paranoid'

Akhil Gupta, CFO of Bharti Airtel, says, "the fundamental thing for any company is that you have to be a little afraid in whatever you are doing and this brings in some discipline."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'We have two vendors for each component'

Ajay Seth, Chief Financial Officer of Maruti Suzuki, says, "We believe that there should be at least two vendors for each component. It helps to de-risk from the constraints of any particular vendor."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'Our receivables are the best in the industry'

MB Kapadia, senior executive director at GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, says, "We give a lot of importance to cash generation and we manage our working capital very tightly. Our average receivables are about 17 to 18 days."

Updated : Dec 3, 2014

'95% of our projects are hedged'

Yeshwant Moreshwar Deosthalee, CFO and whole-time director at Larsen & Toubro, says, "We have implemented enterprise wide risk management to remove uncertainty."

Updated : Sep 16, 2014

Ambuja cements makes up for the damage to the environment.

When you are the country's second-largest cement maker, you may feel compelled to make up for the damage to the environment.

Updated : Sep 16, 2014

D.K. Sarraf is the Best CFO of a PSU

Business Today and YES Bank got together to pick the best CFOs who succeeded during the difficult financial year of 2009/10. Managing the finances of the state-run ONGC as smoothly, Sarraf won the Best CFO award in the PSU category. Meet the winners

From Left: Vibha Padalkar, Pratibha Advani and Rupa Vora

Updated : Sep 16, 2014

Paucity of women CFOs in big companies

A survey of CFOs by YES Bank and Business Today brought up only one woman's name: Sangeeta Gulati of Educomp Solutions. If women have what it takes to be successful CFOs, why aren't there more of them in big companies?

Updated : Sep 16, 2014

It is not easy being a CFO, says Steven Ehrenhalt

Between juggling the pressures of economic forecasts, high shareholder expectations, transparency and lumbering operating models, CFOs have a lot on their minds.

V. Balakrishnan, Executive Director and CFO, Infosys

Updated : Sep 16, 2014

V. Balakrishnan wins the global CFO title

CFO since 2006, V. Balakrishnan is pleased that Infosys' clients across the world have healthy information technology budgets this year.

Uday Phadke, President, Finance, Legal & Financial Services Sector, Mahindra Group

Updated : Sep 16, 2014

Uday Phadke wins in enhancing competitiveness through M&As category

Uday Phadke is the man who ensures that there is enough cash for mergers and acquisitions as Mahindra Group strives to grow.

Mehernosh Kapadia, Senior Executive Director, GSK Pharmaceuticals

Updated : Sep 16, 2014

Mehernosh B. Kapadia wins in transformation agent mid-size category

Mehernosh B. Kapadia is soft-spoken, extremely patient and prudent - not exactly qualities that one would associate with the winner in the category of Best Transformation Agent.