1: The Scope of Corporate Finance(Supervision) Act 1993, the Retirement Savings Accounts Act 1997, the Life Insurance Act 1995, the
National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, and the Medical Indemnity (Prudential Supervision and
Product Standards) Act 2003.
Just as companies struggle to develop an effective corporate governance system, so too do countries.
Governments establish legal frameworks that either encourage or discourage the development of
competitive businesses and efficient financial markets. For example, a legal system should permit
efficiency-enhancing mergers and acquisitions, but should block business combinations that significantly
restrict competition. It should provide protection for creditors and minority shareholders by limiting the
opportunities for managers or majority shareholders to expropriate wealth.
We will discuss each of the five major finance functions at length in this text, and we hope you come
to share our enthusiasm about the career opportunities that corporate finance provides. Never before
has finance been as fast-paced, as technological, as international, as ethically challenging, or as rigorous
as it is today; and the market seems to be responding. A notable recent pattern in Australian university
education has been that more students are currently enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate business
and management education courses than in any other broad field such as science, engineering or arts.
In a recent survey by Accenture, analysis found that the following issues were central to the finance function in
the organisation and the role of the CFO in managing it.MANAGING VOLATILITY
Finance functions have made significant progress in the past three years [2012–2014] in their ability to
navigate some of the powerful external forces that affect
performance, including the challenge of permanent volatility.THE RISE OF DIGITAL ON THE CFO AGENDA
Digital technology – which may include cloud computing or software
as a service (SaaS), big data and/or analytics, mobility and social media –
is having a profound impact on the finance function’s performance.NAVIGATING COMPLEXITY
Complexity, in its various guises, is the biggest challenge finance
organisations face today. But it is also an opportunity. High-performance
businesses must find ways of navigating complexity – by standardising
and optimising processes to streamline and simplify the organisation.HIGH-PERFORMANCE BUSINESSES HAVE MORE INFLUENTIAL CFOS
Finance leaders at high-performance businesses are particularly likely to
have seen their influence grow in key strategic activities.
Source: Accenture. Used with permission. https://www.accenture.com/t20150523T021053__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/
Documents/Global/PDF/Digital_2/Accenture-2014-High-Performance-Finance-Study-CFO-Architect-Business-Value.PDF (accessed 18 October 2015).finance in practice