From liability to asset: A debrief of our strategic consolidation broadcast
Last week, The CFO, in partnership with Lucanet, hosted the Leading Voice Broadcast, “From complexity to clarity: How CFOs turn consolidation into a competitive edge.” This session was designed for senior finance leaders who find their strategic goals hindered by the limitations of their current financial processes. The central theme was a necessary shift in perspective: moving consolidation from a painful, back-office requirement to a powerful asset that creates a competitive advantage.
The discussion, led by experts Patrick Van Gaelen and Natália Ferreira Silva, began with a compelling real-world scenario. A £2.3M consolidation error, stemming from a single broken spreadsheet formula, went undetected and caused a cascade of costly consequences including a delayed earnings announcement. This story framed the core challenge many CFOs face. They are often held back by a reliance on fragile spreadsheets and legacy systems. These manual processes introduce significant risks of material misstatement and consume thousands of high-value team hours.
The session provided a practical framework for moving beyond this operational drag. The experts outlined how modern, unified consolidation platforms solve these problems by automating complex intercompany eliminations and providing a single source of truth. This shift provides two immediate benefits: it instils robust controls, and it ensures data integrity with a full audit trail.
With a reliable foundation, the conversation explored the high-value strategic outcomes. Attendees learned how a fast, automated close directly enables M&A agility. This allows leaders to model acquisition scenarios in hours instead of weeks. We also explored the profound impact a predictable close has on investor confidence, with one expert sharing how it can improve company valuation by as much as 10-1An 15%. Finally, a lively Q&A addressed the practical human challenges, such as how to get a tenured finance team to embrace new tools and how to handle a messy mix of subsidiary ERP systems.
For those who missed it, the broadcast provided a clear and urgent case. In today’s business environment, the quality of your consolidation process directly defines your ability to act as a strategic partner to the business. It is the foundational capability for strategic finance leadership.