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DAY ONE: MONDAY 13 
OCTOBER 
Wrap up
Michael Blythe 
Chief Economist and Managing Director of Economics, Commonwealth Bank of Australia 
Economic insight: Risks and issues in the year ahead 
Key points: 
1. Australia needs to find new sources 
of income and jobs. 
2. Chinese growth sourced tipped to 
grow by 7.4% in 2014. 
3. More jobs in construction that have 
been lost in mining. 
4. China's middle class boom will help 
Australia. 
5. A modest righting cycle for early 
2015 in interest rates.
Paul Broderick PSM 
Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner, State Revenue Victoria 
Change – it’s really not that hard! 
Key points: 
1.Make the case for change, ensure your people 
understand the ‘Why’? 
2. Don’t make too many changes at once. 
3. The change must be supported by leaders. 
4. Communication is not engagement, you need to 
involve people in the change and bring them along with 
you. 
5. Culture is critical to success, your people need to have 
trust and believe in the organisation. 
6. Unleash the power of the informal leaders, identify the 
people who can influence change in your organisation. 
7. Speak to the individual and treat people with respect 
and dignity.
Tom McLeod 
Managing Consultant, McLeod Governance 
Preventing corruption – lessons from the past 200 years 
Key points: 
1.Truth is the first casualty of corruption. 
2. Every corruption investigation can not divorce 
itself from politics. 
3. External vigilance is the only answer to 
corruption. There is no end point. 
4. Corruption happens when people aren't held 
accountable. Start the conversation early. 
5. If you don't want people to be corrupt, talk to 
them about the impact it will have on their 
families.
Paul Looker CPA 
Group Risk and Assurance Manager, SEEK 
Risk management in a complex 
commercial environment 
Key points: 
1. Change is constant and getting faster. 
2. The pace of ‘big data’, technology, use of social 
media and social consciousness won’t scale back - 
so get on board! 
3. Don’t talk to people about what might go wrong, 
introduce risk management by asking “what must go 
RIGHT?” 
4. As finance professionals, we have many tools and 
techniques at our disposal to manage risk. 
5. We need to embrace new technologies but work 
equally as hard on soft skills such as interpersonal 
engagement, being aware of cultural issues, and so 
on.
Lynette Nixon 
Director, Deals Innovation, PwC 
Practical guide to implementing an innovation program 
Key points: 
1. Change can be defined by the 
acronym ‘VUCA’: Volatility. Uncertainty. 
Complexity. Ambiguity. 
2. How businesses adapt to the world 
changing will determine their failure or 
success. 
3. We talk about people being our 
biggest asset but don't use them to their 
full potential. 
4. Four steps to innovation using design 
thinking: Discovery. Synthesis. Ideation 
and Prototyping. Implementation. 
5. Innovation is an outcome of great 
choices in an organisation.
Nikole Gyles 
Director - Technical Projects and Board Activities, Australian Accounting Standards Board 
An accounting standard setting update: Forthcoming standards and major projects 
Key points: 
The Australian Accounting Standards Board is working on 
several projects, including: 
1.Leases. 
2. Revenue from contracts with customers. 
3. Financial Instruments. 
4. Income from transactions of NFP entities. 
5. Service performance reporting. 
6. Service concession arrangements. 
7. Addressing complexity in financial reporting. 
The Australian Accounting Standards Board is working on 
several projects, including: 
1.Leases 
2. Revenue from contracts with customers 
3. Financial Instruments 
4. Income from transactions of NFP entities 
5. Service performance reporting 
6. Service concession arrangements 
7. Addressing complexity in Financial reporting
Gael McLennan CPA 
Financial Planning and Analysis Lead, Microsoft Australia 
Managing the shift to business partnering 
Key points: 
1. New business intelligence strategy: 
‘Core finance’ means discipline at the core 
and flexibility at the edge of the 
organisation. 
2. Success requires focus on three areas: 
Integrated user interface. Reliable 
information architecture. Powerful IT 
infrastructure. 
3. You need to have the resources 
available to reach your goals. 
4. Your people are the most important part 
of the puzzle when it comes to succeeding. 
5. Your organisation must continuously 
evolve with the changing environment and 
business needs.
Andrew Wilson CPA 
Chief Financial Officer, Retail Zoo 
Cash flow forecasting for effective decision making 
Key points: 
1. Daily cash flow reporting is essential, there are good cash flow forecasting and recording tools available 
but human and manual input is also important 
2. Build a cash flow psyche in the Finance team, have clearly defined roles, responsibilities and 
accountabilities and regular meetings where you encourage the team to challenge, ask and discuss. 
Visibility of your cash flow without looking at your bank account and a no surprises culture, when it comes 
to reporting is essential. 
3. Understand cash protection and identify any vulnerabilities. Work with your team to identify systems for 
fraud detection and prevention. 
4. Engage the broader business and be transparent with decision makers. Get buy in on your cash policies 
and ensure internal controls are set. Have remuneration benefits tied to cash settlements not accounting 
policies. 
5. Good cash flow management gives you a competitive advantage and helps you to prosper in downtimes. 
Don’t become a case study of poor cash flow management.
Christine Nixon APM 
Deputy Chancellor, Monash University Chair, Monash College Pty Ltd and Chair, Good Shepherd Micro Finance 
Leadership in focus 
- To lead people you need to let them know you 
believe they’re capable of success. 
- Leaders are not born, they are made and developed 
through experience. All of us can become leaders. 
- You have to have resilience — sometimes you will 
be knocked over and you need to pick yourself up. 
- Bad systems can stop good people from 
succeeding. 
- Leadership is not about wealth, power or rank. It’s 
about doing what is right. 
- Leaders never have the right to believe they’re 
better than others. 
“If you’re a good leader and a good manager, you’ve got to 
be focused on developing and encouraging people”
The changing face of the public sector CFO: 
From provider to strategist 
From provider to strategist 
Key points: 
1. Assess the effectiveness of the CFO 
2. Transform from the top; support the re-engineering of business process 
through demonstrated acceptance of change. 
3. Adopt a client or citizen perspective when designing services to foster 
greater collaborations across agencies. 
Speakers: Shaun Condron FCPA, Chief Finance Officer, Department of Justice; Taryn Rulton, Chief Financial 
Officer, Ambulance Victoria; Dennis Bastas, Assistant Director - Financial Operations, Department of 
Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure
Danny Davis 
Principal Innovation Consultant, Vandis Advisory 
Innovation aware governance and 
the director’s role in innovation 
Key points: 
1. The complexity and velocity of change 
in companies' competitive environments 
are accelerating dramatically. 
2. The most advanced organisations are 
looking at striking a consistent rate of 
innovation performance. 
3. Today, 75-80% of companies' true risk 
profile and value potential lies below the 
surface and cannot be captured by 
traditional financial analysis.
Sally Underwood 
General Manager, Finance Shared Services, Telstra 
Finance shared services – an exercise in resilience 
Key points: 
1. Change takes time. You need energy to sustain a long term change 
2. Building Shares Services isn't always about cost cutting but business needs. 
3. Shared services does not mean outsourcing 
4. Shared services is about moving focus from value preservation to value creation. 
5. Challenges to transformation: culture + capability + complexity
Richard Jamieson 
Acting General Manager - Superannuation, Marketing and Direct, BT Financial Group 
Humanity in big business – adopting a values based leadership approach 
Key points: 
Key points: 
1. High turn over decreases retention of knowledge for 
an organisation so it’s important to keep staff happy so 
they want to stay. 
2. You have to ‘care’ for your staff. Caring for others is 
when helping someone does not provide you with 
personal benefit. 
3. If a staff member is really unhappy in an organisation 
they have four options: 
- Flight: Leave the organisation. 
- Passive objector: Unhappy but put up with it 
because they’re unwilling to object. 
- Passionate objector: Object in a noisy way, but 
not willing to quit or impact change. 
- Passionate agent of change: Can’t control 
culture but can influence it.
Tim Orton 
Managing Director, NOUS Group 
Tackling the big challenges facing the public sector 
Key points: 
1.The public sector is facing a range of 
international, national, economic and 
social challenges. 
2. The public service needs to be more 
focused on what it can deliver. 
3. The public sector needs to collaborate 
with NGOs and businesses. 
4. Technology is a huge opportunity for 
the public sector but it needs more 
investment. 
4. Government needs to think more long 
term rather than having a short term 
vision.
Chris Skelton 
Partner, BDO 
How to get the most out of your auditor 
Key points: 
1. Insist on getting the audit plan early so 
the risks of material misstatement can be 
confirmed with the committee or board. 
2. Get an understanding of what the 
auditor is likely to test and prepare the 
documents. 
3. Use the audit as a mutual learning 
experience. 
4. Have more meaningful communication 
and seek communication outside of the 
audit periods.
John Chandler 
Chief Executive Officer, Toyota Finance Australia 
What the CEO wants from the CFO and finance team 
Key points: 
Key points: 
1. The finance department has to be fully 
engaged with the company, rather than working 
separately. 
2. It's not always about continuous 
improvement, but taking a leap. 
3. Most of the answers to the problems are 
already in team, we just need to ask. 
4. CEOs and CFOs who fail to grow trust within 
their teams, will ultimately fail in today's 
aggressive business environment. 
5. Every member of the team is connected to 
the customer and there are tangible outcomes.
Murray Altham 
Creator, Peak Performance Bubble 
Discover the best of yourself: 
Choose excellent health 
Key points: 
1.Picture yourself in 10 years’ time. What kind of shape do you 
want to be in? What kind of life do you want to be living? Plan to 
make this happen. Its only 120 months away. 
2. We spend more time in front of a screen than we do sleeping. 
Sitting is the new smoking. Every hour of TV from age 25 = 20 
mins off your life expectancy. 
3. If food can go bad it is not good for you. If food can go bad, it 
is generally good for you. Stick as close to nature as you can 
when choosing foods. 
4. What to do now: Make a plan for your health. Plan meals and 
snacks. Have a movement & strength strategy. Read or listen 
about health every day. Look after number one. 
5. Some good habits to make: Have a glass of water in the 
morning. Pack healthy snacks for work. Before turning on the 
TV, take a 20 minute walk.
Dr Andreas Weigend 
Former Chief Scientist, Amazon and Founder, Social Data Lab (USA) 
Big data for big decisions 
Key points: 
1. Every decision you make leaves 
data. 
2. The value of data equals the impact 
of decisions. 
3. What matters is not counting the data 
but what you do with the data. 
4. Start with a question not with the 
data. 
5. In 2000, the market was 
conversation. In 2014, conversations 
are the market.
Stay tuned for the 
Day Two Wrap Up 
tomorrow at 
cpaaustralia.com.au

More Related Content

CPA Congress 2014 - Day One Wrap Up

  • 1. DAY ONE: MONDAY 13 OCTOBER Wrap up
  • 2. Michael Blythe Chief Economist and Managing Director of Economics, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Economic insight: Risks and issues in the year ahead Key points: 1. Australia needs to find new sources of income and jobs. 2. Chinese growth sourced tipped to grow by 7.4% in 2014. 3. More jobs in construction that have been lost in mining. 4. China's middle class boom will help Australia. 5. A modest righting cycle for early 2015 in interest rates.
  • 3. Paul Broderick PSM Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner, State Revenue Victoria Change – it’s really not that hard! Key points: 1.Make the case for change, ensure your people understand the ‘Why’? 2. Don’t make too many changes at once. 3. The change must be supported by leaders. 4. Communication is not engagement, you need to involve people in the change and bring them along with you. 5. Culture is critical to success, your people need to have trust and believe in the organisation. 6. Unleash the power of the informal leaders, identify the people who can influence change in your organisation. 7. Speak to the individual and treat people with respect and dignity.
  • 4. Tom McLeod Managing Consultant, McLeod Governance Preventing corruption – lessons from the past 200 years Key points: 1.Truth is the first casualty of corruption. 2. Every corruption investigation can not divorce itself from politics. 3. External vigilance is the only answer to corruption. There is no end point. 4. Corruption happens when people aren't held accountable. Start the conversation early. 5. If you don't want people to be corrupt, talk to them about the impact it will have on their families.
  • 5. Paul Looker CPA Group Risk and Assurance Manager, SEEK Risk management in a complex commercial environment Key points: 1. Change is constant and getting faster. 2. The pace of ‘big data’, technology, use of social media and social consciousness won’t scale back - so get on board! 3. Don’t talk to people about what might go wrong, introduce risk management by asking “what must go RIGHT?” 4. As finance professionals, we have many tools and techniques at our disposal to manage risk. 5. We need to embrace new technologies but work equally as hard on soft skills such as interpersonal engagement, being aware of cultural issues, and so on.
  • 6. Lynette Nixon Director, Deals Innovation, PwC Practical guide to implementing an innovation program Key points: 1. Change can be defined by the acronym ‘VUCA’: Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. 2. How businesses adapt to the world changing will determine their failure or success. 3. We talk about people being our biggest asset but don't use them to their full potential. 4. Four steps to innovation using design thinking: Discovery. Synthesis. Ideation and Prototyping. Implementation. 5. Innovation is an outcome of great choices in an organisation.
  • 7. Nikole Gyles Director - Technical Projects and Board Activities, Australian Accounting Standards Board An accounting standard setting update: Forthcoming standards and major projects Key points: The Australian Accounting Standards Board is working on several projects, including: 1.Leases. 2. Revenue from contracts with customers. 3. Financial Instruments. 4. Income from transactions of NFP entities. 5. Service performance reporting. 6. Service concession arrangements. 7. Addressing complexity in financial reporting. The Australian Accounting Standards Board is working on several projects, including: 1.Leases 2. Revenue from contracts with customers 3. Financial Instruments 4. Income from transactions of NFP entities 5. Service performance reporting 6. Service concession arrangements 7. Addressing complexity in Financial reporting
  • 8. Gael McLennan CPA Financial Planning and Analysis Lead, Microsoft Australia Managing the shift to business partnering Key points: 1. New business intelligence strategy: ‘Core finance’ means discipline at the core and flexibility at the edge of the organisation. 2. Success requires focus on three areas: Integrated user interface. Reliable information architecture. Powerful IT infrastructure. 3. You need to have the resources available to reach your goals. 4. Your people are the most important part of the puzzle when it comes to succeeding. 5. Your organisation must continuously evolve with the changing environment and business needs.
  • 9. Andrew Wilson CPA Chief Financial Officer, Retail Zoo Cash flow forecasting for effective decision making Key points: 1. Daily cash flow reporting is essential, there are good cash flow forecasting and recording tools available but human and manual input is also important 2. Build a cash flow psyche in the Finance team, have clearly defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and regular meetings where you encourage the team to challenge, ask and discuss. Visibility of your cash flow without looking at your bank account and a no surprises culture, when it comes to reporting is essential. 3. Understand cash protection and identify any vulnerabilities. Work with your team to identify systems for fraud detection and prevention. 4. Engage the broader business and be transparent with decision makers. Get buy in on your cash policies and ensure internal controls are set. Have remuneration benefits tied to cash settlements not accounting policies. 5. Good cash flow management gives you a competitive advantage and helps you to prosper in downtimes. Don’t become a case study of poor cash flow management.
  • 10. Christine Nixon APM Deputy Chancellor, Monash University Chair, Monash College Pty Ltd and Chair, Good Shepherd Micro Finance Leadership in focus - To lead people you need to let them know you believe they’re capable of success. - Leaders are not born, they are made and developed through experience. All of us can become leaders. - You have to have resilience — sometimes you will be knocked over and you need to pick yourself up. - Bad systems can stop good people from succeeding. - Leadership is not about wealth, power or rank. It’s about doing what is right. - Leaders never have the right to believe they’re better than others. “If you’re a good leader and a good manager, you’ve got to be focused on developing and encouraging people”
  • 11. The changing face of the public sector CFO: From provider to strategist From provider to strategist Key points: 1. Assess the effectiveness of the CFO 2. Transform from the top; support the re-engineering of business process through demonstrated acceptance of change. 3. Adopt a client or citizen perspective when designing services to foster greater collaborations across agencies. Speakers: Shaun Condron FCPA, Chief Finance Officer, Department of Justice; Taryn Rulton, Chief Financial Officer, Ambulance Victoria; Dennis Bastas, Assistant Director - Financial Operations, Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure
  • 12. Danny Davis Principal Innovation Consultant, Vandis Advisory Innovation aware governance and the director’s role in innovation Key points: 1. The complexity and velocity of change in companies' competitive environments are accelerating dramatically. 2. The most advanced organisations are looking at striking a consistent rate of innovation performance. 3. Today, 75-80% of companies' true risk profile and value potential lies below the surface and cannot be captured by traditional financial analysis.
  • 13. Sally Underwood General Manager, Finance Shared Services, Telstra Finance shared services – an exercise in resilience Key points: 1. Change takes time. You need energy to sustain a long term change 2. Building Shares Services isn't always about cost cutting but business needs. 3. Shared services does not mean outsourcing 4. Shared services is about moving focus from value preservation to value creation. 5. Challenges to transformation: culture + capability + complexity
  • 14. Richard Jamieson Acting General Manager - Superannuation, Marketing and Direct, BT Financial Group Humanity in big business – adopting a values based leadership approach Key points: Key points: 1. High turn over decreases retention of knowledge for an organisation so it’s important to keep staff happy so they want to stay. 2. You have to ‘care’ for your staff. Caring for others is when helping someone does not provide you with personal benefit. 3. If a staff member is really unhappy in an organisation they have four options: - Flight: Leave the organisation. - Passive objector: Unhappy but put up with it because they’re unwilling to object. - Passionate objector: Object in a noisy way, but not willing to quit or impact change. - Passionate agent of change: Can’t control culture but can influence it.
  • 15. Tim Orton Managing Director, NOUS Group Tackling the big challenges facing the public sector Key points: 1.The public sector is facing a range of international, national, economic and social challenges. 2. The public service needs to be more focused on what it can deliver. 3. The public sector needs to collaborate with NGOs and businesses. 4. Technology is a huge opportunity for the public sector but it needs more investment. 4. Government needs to think more long term rather than having a short term vision.
  • 16. Chris Skelton Partner, BDO How to get the most out of your auditor Key points: 1. Insist on getting the audit plan early so the risks of material misstatement can be confirmed with the committee or board. 2. Get an understanding of what the auditor is likely to test and prepare the documents. 3. Use the audit as a mutual learning experience. 4. Have more meaningful communication and seek communication outside of the audit periods.
  • 17. John Chandler Chief Executive Officer, Toyota Finance Australia What the CEO wants from the CFO and finance team Key points: Key points: 1. The finance department has to be fully engaged with the company, rather than working separately. 2. It's not always about continuous improvement, but taking a leap. 3. Most of the answers to the problems are already in team, we just need to ask. 4. CEOs and CFOs who fail to grow trust within their teams, will ultimately fail in today's aggressive business environment. 5. Every member of the team is connected to the customer and there are tangible outcomes.
  • 18. Murray Altham Creator, Peak Performance Bubble Discover the best of yourself: Choose excellent health Key points: 1.Picture yourself in 10 years’ time. What kind of shape do you want to be in? What kind of life do you want to be living? Plan to make this happen. Its only 120 months away. 2. We spend more time in front of a screen than we do sleeping. Sitting is the new smoking. Every hour of TV from age 25 = 20 mins off your life expectancy. 3. If food can go bad it is not good for you. If food can go bad, it is generally good for you. Stick as close to nature as you can when choosing foods. 4. What to do now: Make a plan for your health. Plan meals and snacks. Have a movement & strength strategy. Read or listen about health every day. Look after number one. 5. Some good habits to make: Have a glass of water in the morning. Pack healthy snacks for work. Before turning on the TV, take a 20 minute walk.
  • 19. Dr Andreas Weigend Former Chief Scientist, Amazon and Founder, Social Data Lab (USA) Big data for big decisions Key points: 1. Every decision you make leaves data. 2. The value of data equals the impact of decisions. 3. What matters is not counting the data but what you do with the data. 4. Start with a question not with the data. 5. In 2000, the market was conversation. In 2014, conversations are the market.
  • 20. Stay tuned for the Day Two Wrap Up tomorrow at cpaaustralia.com.au