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“Today it's not just financial matters but the entire business model that
can be dramatically changed by the manner in which it actually leverages
information technology,” says Yogesh B Mathur, group chief financial officer,
Moser Baer India. With this strategic approach, Mathur implements IT not only in
his own functioning but the organization as a whole.
The fact that he directly reviews IT functioning helps spearhead this
approach at a broader organizational level well beyond the finance function. As
Mathur points out, it would be better to view IT applications in an integrated
manner across the organization to make the most out of it. In fact, the pain
area that he shortlisted as the CFO and on which the company is now working, is
a single window view of the entire organization. This incorporates functions
ranging from sourcing to production to inventory management to supply chain and
logistics management.
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| Yogesh Mathur,CFO, Moser Baer |
Early Orientation to IT
The man at the helm of the financial affairs of the Rs 1,732 crore optical
media giant has no easy task at hand. He copes with the rampant growth while
strategizing the ever-continuing expansion of the company. Being tech savvy,
certainly helps. Perhaps this came from his orientation in IT, early in life.
Though not having received any formal IT education, it is interesting to know
that Mathur headed IT function in his previous assignments with other companies.
Those experiences brought about an early understanding of leveraging IT.
Besides, it certainly made him more appreciative and empathetic towards the IT
function and its requirements even while meeting his own function's
objectives. Thereby, learning the art of fine balancing the two fronts, personal
and company affairs.
Mathur realizes the various challenges faced by a CIO.
In CFO's Avatar
The dynamics of the trade are changing and so is the finance functioning,
which is no longer restricted to just accounting. It also involves strategic
planning and steering the company's growth, making the job of a CFO all the
more challenging and critical. According to Mathur, IT has enabled the evolution
of the finance function from accounting and compliance to processes,
efficiencies and profitability to support decision making to a strategic level.
| Personal
Diary |
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Career Path
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Joined Moser Baer
India as group chief financial officer in July 2005. Responsible for
the functioning of the Finance, Treasury, Accounts, Audit and IT
departments; provides strategic vision and leadership to the company.
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Prior to joining
Moser Baer, he worked with Mittal Steel Group, where he was
instrumental in the turnaround of the Czech Steel plant, post
acquisition.
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Prior to this,
Mathur has held various important positions, including that of chief
finance officer at Dabur India, regional finance director at Gilette
and VP (Finance), Benckiser India.
Education
Alumnus of St Xaviers College and La Martinere Boys, Calcutta. He is
an active member of Institute of the Chartered Accountants of India.
When Not In Office
Listens to classical music, plays golf, squash and loves to swim |
Mathur relies on IT tools that help him climb this ladder of evolution,
towards a strategic level. ERP, datamining and data warehousing are some of the
critical applications that enable him make more accurate and timely decisions.
“For the finance function, the major role for IT is to ensure that right
information is available at the right time. It should give a control perspective
and ensure accuracy of all financial indices,” he explains. This, according to
him, forms the crux of IT in finance.
Managing Expectations
Ask him about his expectations from IT in business benefits as the CFO and
Mathur appears to be quite clear on the returns. According to him, the
3Cs-cash, capacity and cost-are important in assessing the benefits.
“While these are all inter-related but it is imperative to assess these three
areas,” he adds. For instance, cost effectiveness is a given for any IT
deployment. How much cost can IT save over a period of time is the key question.
Second, in terms of a manufacturing setup, Mathur considers it important to
answer if IT can increase capacity effectiveness, will IT mean more efficient
utilization of capacity? Can IT be used to manage the troughs and peaks of
business and schedule production accordingly to get the highest throughput the
year round? Beyond the factory, on the intangible side, one needs to look at how
IT can improve the capacity of each individual in the organization. Finally all
this, feels Mathur, should result in higher cash availability in organization.
“So if IT tracks these three areas and gets a good feedback, I think IT has
done a great job,” he adds.
This CFO's wish list to the IT department-it should be proactive and try
to get the buy-in from the functional heads; it has to ensure that the
application owner are the process owners and not IT owners; it should try to
bring in every department of the organization by leveraging usage of current
applications.
Shipra Arora
shipraa@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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