IBM CFO introduces the 2010 Global CFO Study

Mark: Hello. This is Mark Loughridge, Chief Financial Officer for IBM. I think
you would agree that the past year and a half has been a difficult period
for business, but it has also been an interesting one. For many, this tough
economic environment coupled with disruptive new technologies and
increasing globalization are converging to change the business landscape
and the global playing field. In the business community, weve had to
negotiate some unique challenges and many of us have watched our
industries evolve very rapidly. This has highlighted the importance of the
CFOs role and of the finance organization which now must manage
through cost challenges and enable new growth opportunities at the same
time. To shed some light on this and show how financial leaders are rising
to the occasion, IBM conducted a survey, the largest of its kind, looking at
the evolution of the corporate finance organization. The IBM 2010 Global
CFO Study reflects the insights of more than 1900 CFOs and senior
finance professionals from 81 countries and 32 industries around the
world. These findings will interest any business leader looking for
perspective and insights in this highly dynamic climate. The top finance
organizations in our study delivered solid results in 2009 driving
productivity, but also enabling powerful new insight into their businesses.
They leveraged their enterprise data and uncovered new opportunities for
value creation. On the other hand, firms that hunkered down performed
worse, ceded ground to competition, and for some, survival is now a real
issue. While IBM is again a leader in our industry, such challenges are
familiar territory to us. Indeed, the early 1990s was a wrenching time for
IBM, a time when we fought for our own survival. That experience
changed the way we think about our business and set us on the path to
ongoing transformation. We decided to exit commoditizing businesses,
change our business mix to better margin, faster growing sectors like
software, and move from being simply international to becoming a
globally integrated enterprise while we continued to invest aggressively
for growth. We now see continuous transformation as an opportunity in
these disruptive cycles, a time to drive ongoing innovation in the industry.
Virtually every industry has to deal with these challenges posed by this
dynamic environment as they become more digitized, globalized, and
interconnected. We believe the best way to deal with the challenge is to
get ahead of the transformation curve, transform rather than be
transformed by forces beyond your control. Finance organizations are now
playing a central role by driving common global processes, standard
metrics, and clear accountability. They were also pushing for greater
levels of information integration across the enterprise, effectively
instrumenting the business for deeper insight with predictive analytics.
These capabilities will define the leaders of the future. To this end, I
would like to invite you to receive a detailed briefing on the IBM CFO
Study. I am confident that the insights offered by the more than 1900
finance leaders around the world will be helpful as you build your plan for
the future.