CFO Studio Magazine with Craig Steeneck, CFO, Pinnacle Foods

18 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 3rd QUARTER 2015 There was a hum of business networking and a buzz of anticipation inside MetLife Stadium as early as 7 a.m. on May 12, 2015. Entering at the Bud Light Gate were not the usual football fans, but participants in the CFO Innovation Conference and Awards. This was the first-ever such conference, and financial executives from around the region came to get ideas, refine their thinking, share their insights on panels, shake hands with friends and business associates, find new vendors, earn CPE credits, and — for 49 who’d been named finalists — potentially take home a CFO Innovation Award. A DAY OF INNOVATION CFOs in the Digital Age: The conference kickoff session, presented by Mike Hipps, senior director of sales consulting for Oracle, and a former finance executive himself, reported on best practices of CFOs in the modern age. He described technology-enabled, timesaving tactics such as the capability to embed an active link in a PowerPoint presentation that connects to a spreadsheet and automatically updates the presentation throughout the quarter. Early adopters are using that and other examples of business apps with a social media aspect both to collaborate and to refine databases and documents. “We believe the CFOs of today are taking on the role of general counsel for data,” Hipps said, describing a better world — that is possible today —where the technology enables CFOs to control the content through adjustments and iterations so that “you are providing the appropriate governance … [and] everyone knows you’ve blessed the data.” Turning to cloud technology, Hipps said, “We’re seeing [CFOs] take on more of a modular-based implementation.” He described ways that cloud-based apps are speeding decision-making among dispersed teams and how that technology transforms finance departments, moving them to a touchless payment process. He spoke of project-centric businesses using apps to stay on top of staffing and resourcing their projects, no matter who is traveling and where the project is based. Finally, he described ROI’s newest wrinkle. “Today you have to look at the social capability. The relevant question now is, ‘If I approach the marketplace on a social-media, digital basis, how is that going to change my business?’” CFOs are the best suited to do this analysis and to appreciate the impact this evolution will have on the business, he said. 9 AM