FD today: RBS CFO interview | Alternatives to M&A

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Diverging from European Union rules after Brexit will mean more costs than benefits for British business, a report by the CBI employers’ group says.

In a survey of 23 industry sectors, the vast majority preferred continued close alignment with EU regulations.

Agriculture, shipping and tourism might benefit, but this was “vastly outweighed” by the impact on other sectors, the CBI said.

The report, called Smooth Operations, suggests the UK could still exert influence over important regulatory decisions through continued membership of many EU agencies.

RBS CFO on reversing greatest banking disaster

Ewen Stevenson, who helped save RBS in the financial crisis, reveals the huge task of turning around one of the biggest ever corporate catastrophes

New alliances: alternatives to the M&A route

Idris Nagri

Growth through M&A is a popular route for many companies, be it for acquiring new talent, technologies, processes or plant, market or territory penetration, or disruption. But M&A is not the only possible route to growth.

Pension industry: challenges, opportunities and what the future holds

Emma Smith | Managing Editor

Financial Director spoke to Helen Dowsey, director of business development and account management at NEST, about challenges and opportunities for the pension sector, and the master trust’s strategy for 2018 and beyond

The Customer Obsessed Finance Leader

Although we’re already deeply embedded in the age of the customer, the pace of technologic advancement and customer empowerment continues to disrupt today’s business models. Throughout it all, there has been one constant: The key to competitive survival is data and insights-driven customer obsession. As the strategic steward of business outcomes, the CFO has a considerable stake in his or her organization’s customer obsession efforts. Given the strong link between customer strategy and business results, it’s critical for CFOs to take an active role in leading their organizations from customer focused to customer obsessed. In February 2017, Dun & Bradstreet commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate how enterprises are leveraging data and analytics to drive decisions and strategy in pursuit of customer obsession and the role the CFO plays in achieving that goal. Forrester conducted an online survey of 250 finance executives at organizations with $150 million or more in revenue to explore this topic. The study revealed distinct data strategy differences between the firms that merely have good customer experience intentions and those that translate customer strategies into favourable business results. KEY FINDINGS:

CFOs have an important role to play in the pursuit of data-driven customer obsession.
CFOs need a new data-driven operating model to overcome
Customer obsession requires mastery of seven key data maturity and competency factors
An investment in data allows for actionable insights

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Lead story: RBS finance chief Ewen Stevenson speaks out

RBS CFO on reversing greatest banking disaster

Other stories

New alliances: alternatives to the M&A route

Pension industry: challenges, opportunities and what the future holds

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The Customer Obsessed Finance Leader