Conference Session Summary: IMA India's 28th Annual CFO Roundtable

The sessions at the recent IMA CFO Conference covered a wide range of themes, from markets and geopolitics to capital allocation, leadership behaviour and the changing role of finance itself. The original conclusions paper captures these discussions in full detail. However, we recognise that time is scarce and that many readers prefer to first absorb the essence before deciding where to dive deeper.

This abridged version has therefore been prepared as a simple, readable companion. Each session has been distilled into a concise 1-page summary written in straightforward language, focusing only on the key ideas, arguments and practical implications for finance leaders. The intent is not to replace the full paper but to make the core insights easily accessible so that every participant can engage with the main themes.

Readers who wish to explore a session in greater depth may refer to the original document. For everyone else, we hope these pages serve as a clear and useful reflection of the conversations that shaped this year’s conference.

CFO’s Playbook: Leading Through Disruption 

Shiv Shivkumar, Operating Partner, Advent International

Shiv Shivkumar began with a simple observation. The modern CFO role has expanded so much that the title alone no longer explains what the job really is. Some CFOs protect compliance. Others shape strategy. The most effective ones move between multiple roles depending on circumstance. He introduced a framework that resonated strongly with the audience. The CFO operates through three voices: No, So what, Go.

The first voice is ‘No’. This is the traditional strength of finance leaders. Saying no when governance is compromised, when risk is disproportionate or when a proposal is driven more by optimism than by economic logic. Shiv emphasised that this is not about being negative. It is about protecting survival. Many corporate crises begin when someone should have said no earlier and more clearly.

The second voice is ‘So what’. Organisations today are flooded with data yet often starved of insight. The CFO’s job is to convert numbers into meaning. What changed. Why did it change. What should we do next. Without this translation, reports become noise and decisions lose clarity. A strong CFO refuses to accept data without interpretation.

The third voice is ‘Go’. This is the least appreciated role. Finance leaders are not only guardians of caution. They also make action possible by building financial readiness and operational discipline. The CFO who can say go ensures that the organisation has the balance sheet strength and execution capacity to move when opportunity or disruption demands speed.

He used the cockpit metaphor to describe the relationship between the CEO and CFO. The CEO is the pilot, but the CFO is the co-pilot who cross checks assumptions and prevents avoidable mistakes. A CFO who cannot challenge effectively is not just passive. It becomes a governance risk.

The discussion moved into disruption. Shiv urged participants to ask two questions constantly. What is disrupting the industry, and what is disrupting your company. Early signals often appear quietly through customer behaviour, working capital patterns or competitive moves. Finance leaders are often the first to see these signals if they look beyond quarterly narratives.

He also discussed boardroom dynamics. CFOs who raise concerns are sometimes labelled as blockers. His advice was to enter conversations as a plan improver rather than a critic. Tone and framing matter because influence depends on keeping people receptive.

One striking insight was the growing pathway from CFO to CEO. More finance leaders are stepping into top leadership roles, but the transition requires enterprise thinking rather than financial expertise alone. Future CEOs must demonstrate ownership of growth, teams and strategy, not just controls.

His closing summary captured the essence of the session. Say ‘No’ when integrity is at stake. Ask ‘So what?’ to create meaning. Say ‘Go’ when the organisation is ready. The modern CFO must move fluidly across all three voices every day.

Every Rupee Leaks or Performs: How CFOs Reclaim Control of Enterprise Spend

Ruchika Kohli, Presales Senior Specialist, SAP Concur and Sudheendra Bharadwaj, Senior Solution Consultant, Enterprise Spend & Travel Management, SAP Concur

For most organisations, travel and expense (T&E) is often the second or third largest reimbursable spend category. Despite this, it is frequently managed as a back-office reimbursement function rather than a strategic cost lever. Unmanaged T&E processes can lead to leakages, delayed reimbursements, policy violations and audit inefficiencies. Over time, seemingly minor exceptions can compound into systemic inefficiencies, eroding both financial control and governance discipline.

From Reactive Policing to Proactive Governance

There has been a marked shift from correcting errors after submission to preventing them at source. Organisations that implemented automated systems reported a 30-40% reduction in non-compliant spends within a few months. More strikingly, employee behaviour adjusted significantly, with a 60-80% improvement in compliance once visibility increased. Duplicate submissions, previously estimated at 7% globally and 9% in India, were virtually eliminated. The lesson is clear: transparency drives discipline. When controls are embedded into workflows, compliance becomes habitual rather than enforced.

AI-enabled systems now review 100% of expense transactions rather than relying on sampling. They can flag non-policy items, detect duplicate claims across employees, merge credit card feeds with uploaded receipts, and identify potentially manipulated or synthetic invoices. As fraud risks evolve with rising technological sophistication, governance mechanisms must keep pace. AI functions as a silent, continuous auditor which is consistent, scalable and proactive.

Compliance by Design: Booking Within Policy

Another significant shift is towards integrating travel bookings directly within policy frameworks. Employees may only see flight classes or hotel categories aligned with their eligibility. Budget checks can be triggered before approvals and exceptions automatically escalate through defined workflows. This transforms compliance from a rejection-based process into a design-based system, reducing friction while strengthening oversight.

 Efficiency and Employee Experience

Automation also delivers measurable productivity gains. What once required 30–45 minutes for expense submission might now take just 5–10 minutes. Expense reports can be auto-generated post-travel and reimbursements in some organisations occur within 48 hours. Faster processing not only reduces the administrative burden but enhances employee trust and satisfaction, an increasingly important consideration for finance leaders.

Audit Readiness in a Regulated Environment

With evolving audit-trail and documentation-retention requirements, digital retrievability is no longer optional. Systems that log every action, preserve documentation for extended periods and enable traceability strengthen the compliance architecture. Governance resultantly shifts from paperwork to embedded digital control. Ultimately, T&E automation is a governance decision and not just an operational upgrade. Its suitability depends on organisational scale, spend volume and complexity. However, the broader insight remains: travel and expense management is no longer just about reimbursement. It is about risk mitigation, behavioural discipline, data visibility and strategic financial control.

Navigating a Fragmented World: India’s Growth Decade

Adit Jain, Chairman and Editorial Director, IMA India

Adit Jain opened with a clear warning – the world may look stable on the surface, but uncertainty has become structural. Markets now reprice currencies, rates and commodities almost instantly in response to geopolitical signals. For CFOs, volatility is no longer an occasional disruption – it is the operating backdrop.

He argued that the CFO’s role has expanded accordingly. External shocks transmit through financial channels far faster than companies can adjust operationally. Treasury decisions, liquidity buffers and capital allocation now determine whether organisations respond calmly or react under stress. Finance leaders must therefore interpret global risk, not merely record financial outcomes. 

Adit illustrated how geopolitical risk enters the balance sheet through two examples. In one case, a manufacturer exporting to Europe faced a regulatory investigation over environmental compliance. No fine had yet been imposed, but the possibility of a 5 million euro penalty and suspension of imports represented a contingent liability – a risk that becomes real only if a future decision goes against the company. In another example, goods sold on credit to a financially stressed distributor created a potential Rs 30 crore loss, contingent on whether the counterparty defaulted. In both cases, exposure existed in probability before it became certain. The message was simple, CFOs must recognise risk early, before it crystallises.

The session then broadened to the global context. Trade, technology and finance are increasingly shaped by security concerns rather than pure economics. Growth averages conceal widening divergence across regions. In such an environment, planning around single forecasts is less useful than preparing for ranges of outcomes. Efficiency alone is no longer sufficient; resilience and optionality have economic value. India, Adit noted, remains relatively well positioned, with domestic demand supportive and investment momentum building. Yet currency and commodity volatility remain important risk channels that require disciplined management.

On currency, he stressed that direction matters less than speed. A gradual move in the rupee from Rs 80/$ to Rs 84/$ over a year allows time to hedge and reprice. The same move in two weeks can trigger margin calls, liquidity stress and panic in capital markets. It is not depreciation itself that destabilises firms, but its velocity. 

A final case study made this tangible. Shakti Appliances, an Indian electronics manufacturer importing over half its components in dollars, saw the $/Rs exchange rate rise from Rs 82 to Rs 88 in three months. A 6-rupee move increased input costs by Rs 60 crores and reduced margins from 18% to 15%. The CFO responded by mapping sensitivity, assessing how much cost could be passed through to customers, and implementing mitigation measures such as hedging, selective price increases and partial domestic sourcing. Margins stabilised at around 16.5%. The lesson was clear: volatility cannot be eliminated, but it can be managed through disciplined analysis and action. 

Adit closed by reframing the CFO’s mandate. Geopolitics, currencies and commodities are interconnected forces shaping business outcomes. The competitive advantage lies not in predicting shocks, but in building systems that absorb them. In a world where uncertainty is permanent, resilience becomes strategy.

Building Governance Confidence in India’s Evolving Markets

Ananth Narayan, Former Whole Time Member, SEBI

Ananth Narayan’s session helped CFOs make sense of an environment where many things feel contradictory. Asset prices look high, global growth feels uncertain, technology is moving faster than organisations can absorb and regulators are trying to balance safety with innovation. His central message was that none of these themes exist in isolation. They are connected through liquidity, behaviour and trust.

He began with markets. Across the world, money supply expanded sharply after Covid. Some of this translated into consumer inflation but a large portion flowed into financial assets. When capital rises faster than productive opportunities, it moves into equities, property and gold. This explains why asset values look stretched even when growth feels fragile. For CFOs, the implication is clear. Volatility may not be temporary. It may be built into the structure of markets.

The conversation then moved to the global monetary order. There is increasing talk of de-dollarisation, but Ananth argued that diversification does not mean replacement. Central banks may reduce concentration risk, yet the dollar remains dominant because of liquidity and scale. Companies should not plan for a sudden end to dollar dominance but should prepare for more currency volatility and fragmented capital flows.

AI formed the third theme. AI, he said, is not another technology cycle but a structural shift that is compressing years of change into a short period. Waiting for policy clarity will not work because regulators are still learning. Organisations must redesign workflows themselves and rethink talent and governance. Pilot projects are no longer sufficient. AI must move into core operating models.

India’s capital markets were another area of reflection. Domestic flows have strengthened equities significantly, but success brings new challenges. When demand for stocks exceeds supply, valuations rise and global investors become cautious. At the same time, corporate bond markets remain shallow. A healthier financial system needs greater balance between equity and fixed income so that risk is distributed more evenly. 

Perhaps the most memorable idea came from his description of regulatory thinking. Regulators fear failures that become public scandals. Businesses fear excessive regulation that discourages innovation. These opposing instincts create permanent strain. His advice to CFOs was practical. If industry wants lighter regulation, it must help regulators understand risks early rather than simply criticise compliance burdens.

He closed by placing geopolitics at the centre of decision making. Trade tensions and policy shifts are reshaping supply chains and capital flows. Yet disruption often forces reform and accelerates change. For CFOs, geopolitics is no longer background noise. It now influences funding decisions, risk models and strategy itself. 

The session left one clear conclusion. Markets, policy, technology and trust are now tightly intertwined. Finance leaders must manage all four together rather than treat them as separate issues.

The Future Ready CFO 

Nishant Vyas, General Manager – India, CCH Tagetik (Wolters Kluwer)

AI is reshaping the CFO’s role from financial steward to enterprise strategist. Today’s finance leader is expected to go beyond reporting and compliance to actively shape the business’ direction, steer digital transformation and generate forward-looking insights. While most organisations aspire to transform, the real differentiators are disciplined execution and decisive leadership. Technology enables change but CFO sponsorship and organisational alignment determine whether it delivers impact.

AI as a Strategic Co-Pilot

AI should be seen as a co-pilot to the CFO, enhancing speed, scale and analytical depth without replacing human judgment. It can automate transaction mapping, flag anomalies, run complex scenario models, dynamically refresh forecasts and analyse historical patterns to identify performance drivers. Planning and consolidation cycles can shrink dramatically. Yet decisions around capital allocation, risk appetite, strategic trade-offs and stakeholder management remain fundamentally human. The shift underway is from isolated AI experimentation to embedding intelligent capabilities within core finance workflows.

From Data Architecture to Actionable Insight

AI delivers value only when supported by strong data foundations. Structured financial models, clean master data and clearly defined business drivers are prerequisites, not optional enhancements. When AI operates on well-modelled relationships between revenue levers, cost structures, allocations and profitability, it can generate meaningful, decision-ready insights. Integrated within Enterprise Performance Management systems, it can pinpoint high-impact drivers, update forecasts as actuals evolve, detect inefficiencies and simulate strategic scenarios using both internal and external variables. Robust modelling and disciplined governance remain the bedrock of reliable outcomes. 

Building Trust Through Transparency

Adoption at scale depends on trust. Concerns around cloud deployment, data sovereignty, model learning and hallucination risks are both, legitimate and central to finance leadership. Enterprise AI must be explainable and auditable. Finance leaders need clarity on how conclusions are reached: what variables were considered, how weightings were applied and what assumptions underpin recommendations. Explainability transforms AI from a black box into a decision-support partner. Insight may be algorithmically generated, but accountability remains human.

Elevating Finance Capability

AI’s greatest contribution may be its ability to elevate finance talent. Traditional tasks such as manual consolidation, reconciliation and repetitive spreadsheet processing consume time without adding strategic value. Automating these processes allows teams to shift toward scenario planning, performance interpretation and cross-functional advisory roles. This repositioning not only strengthens finance’s strategic relevance but also aligns with the expectations of next-generation professionals seeking analytical and intellectually engaging work. The opportunity extends beyond efficiency, strengthening the strategic core of the function.

From Experimentation to Enterprise Value

While piloting AI initiatives, many organisations struggle to demonstrate measurable returns. Sustainable impact requires moving from fragmented use cases to integrated platforms that span the data lifecycle, from ingestion and validation to analysis and decision support. With clear governance, defined metrics and strong CFO ownership, AI can transition from promise to performance. The competitive advantage will belong not to those who merely adopt AI, but to those who redesign finance processes around intelligent, continuously learning systems.

Geopolitics to Boardroom: India's Foreign Policy and Corporate Strategy

Yashvardhan Sinha, Former Indian High Commissioner to United Kingdom

Yash Sinha’s session positioned geopolitics not as distant diplomacy but as a direct business variable. The world, he argued, is moving away from stable global integration toward policy driven fragmentation. Tariffs, industrial policies and strategic rivalries are reshaping trade patterns and investment flows. This shift is structural rather than temporary. Businesses can no longer assume that global rules remain steady across long planning cycles. Government decisions now influence supply chains, costs and market access more quickly than many companies can adapt. 

He described a world moving toward a more fluid multipolar order rather than a simple two-power rivalry. For countries like India, this creates both opportunity and risk. India’s current strategy of multi-alignment allows flexibility by building relationships with multiple partners rather than committing to a single bloc. This mirrors corporate diversification logic.

An important theme was that disruption can accelerate outcomes. Agreements that once took years can suddenly move when geopolitical pressures change incentives. Companies must therefore remain alert because shifts can happen faster than expected.

The discussion also addressed why diplomacy still matters in a digitally connected world. Relationships, trust-building and negotiation happen on the ground. Political engagement often determines whether overseas business projects succeed or fail, especially in strategic sectors or sensitive regions.

For companies investing abroad, he stressed the need for political risk mapping. Business decisions cannot rely only on financial models. Engagement with government and understanding national interests increasingly shape outcomes.

His most practical takeaway was what he called a ‘dependency check’. Boards should regularly ask where the organisation is exposed. Inputs, logistics routes, markets, financing or regulatory environments can all become points of vulnerability. The question is not if disruption will occur, but when.

The session reframed geopolitics as a governance issue. Resilience now requires diversified partnerships, alternative supply options and closer coordination between business and public policy. For CFOs, this means incorporating geopolitical scenarios directly into capital allocation and risk planning.

Shifts in Credit: Post-Pandemic Credit Landscape in India and Implications for Corporate Financing

Dr Rajeshwari Sengupta, Associate Professor of Economics, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

Rajeshwari Sengupta focused on a fundamental question: If India aims for higher long-term growth, does the financial system provide enough ‘fuel’ – i.e., credit and investment capacity – to support it? 

India remains a credit underpenetrated economy. Credit growth has not moved significantly ahead of GDP growth, which raises concerns about whether the economy can accelerate beyond its current trajectory. Sustained high growth requires credit to expand faster than output so that investment can drive capacity creation.

She highlighted a major structural shift. Banks no longer dominate financial intermediation as strongly as before. Capital markets and non-bank institutions have grown, which appears positive. However, the bond market remains concentrated in highly-rated issuers. The middle tier, where many growth businesses sit, still struggles to access risk capital.

On the demand side, the shift towards retail lending is striking. Personal loans and housing finance have grown rapidly while industrial credit remains subdued. Banks find retail lending safer after the stress of previous corporate cycles. Yet long-term development requires productive investment in manufacturing and infrastructure rather than only consumption finance. Corporate balance sheets are healthier today, but the broad investment cycle has not fully revived. Capacity utilisation remains uneven and many companies still hesitate to commit to large expansion plans.

She also discussed savings. Household financial savings have softened, and more money is moving into physical assets or equity markets rather than traditional deposits. In a domestically financed economy, this reduces the pool of lendable resources and can keep capital costs elevated.

A key conflict emerged between stability and growth. India’s regulators have prioritised financial safety, which has helped avoid major crises. Yet excessive conservatism limits risk taking, and without risk capital, faster growth becomes difficult.

Her message was not pessimistic. The system is stable and healthier than in the past. The concern is whether it is adequate for the scale of ambition being discussed. For CFOs, this means diversifying funding sources, maintaining strong balance sheets and watching liquidity conditions carefully.

The underlying message was simple. India has fuel, but not necessarily enough to support an aggressive acceleration without deeper financial expansion.

Real Capital Decisions: CFOs on Investing and Winning

Rajat Mehra, Chief Financial Officer, SAMHI Hotels and Preeti Chheda, Chief Financial Officer, Mindspace Business Parks REIT

This session focused on the most practical responsibility of any CFO. Capital allocation turns strategy into real outcomes. Every large investment reshapes risk, liquidity and long-term flexibility.

Rajat Mehra spoke from the perspective of hospitality, where investment cycles are long and decisions are difficult to reverse. Building a hotel commits the business to years of development and exposure to multiple economic cycles. His philosophy centred on resilience. In cyclical industries, the aim is not to maximise gains in good times but to ensure survival during downturns.

He explained how location decisions go beyond city level analysis. Micro markets matter because small geographic differences can change performance dramatically. Before committing capital, his team tracks indicators such as office development, travel connectivity and industry diversification to avoid relying on a single demand source.

A powerful theme was the discipline of exit. Companies often struggle to let go of underperforming assets. His test was straightforward: If you would not invest in the asset today, why are you still holding it? Capital recycling requires courage.

Preeti Chheda provided a contrasting perspective from the REIT world, where capital allocation is shaped by external market discipline. REITs distribute most earnings, so growth requires raising new capital. Every investment decision therefore becomes a balance between debt, equity and investor expectations.

 Her focus was on asset quality and governance. Only top-quality assets attract global tenants and sustain stable yields. Cheap assets are not always bargains if they compromise long-term performance. Exit decisions are equally important. When growth potential fades, recycling capital becomes a strategic necessity rather than a failure.

The discussion highlighted broader market realities. Yield compression is occurring because significant capital is chasing limited high-quality assets. Even so, long-term returns can remain attractive if rental growth continues.

Both speakers agreed on one point: The hardest part of capital allocation is deciding where not to invest. Avoiding bad capital decisions is often more valuable than chasing every opportunity.

The Subtleties of Dharma

Arshia Sattar, Sahitya Akademi Award–winning writer, translator and scholar of the Ramayana

Dharma is one of the most elusive words in the Sanskrit language. It resists a single translation. It can mean duty, justice, responsibility, righteousness or obligation – yet its true meaning is subtler than any of these. The epics remind us that dharma is sukshma: complex, contextual and often difficult to define with certainty. 

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata emerged in worlds vastly different from ours, but the human dilemmas they portray remain strikingly familiar. The questions endure: Who am I in this moment? What is the right thing to do? Which responsibility takes precedence? For modern leaders, and particularly for CFOs, these are not philosophical abstractions. They are daily realities.

In the epics, dharma rarely presents itself as a choice between right and wrong. More often, it is a choice between competing rights. Dasharatha must decide whether he is first a king, a father or a husband. Rama must weigh filial obedience against maternal obligation, and later, kingship against marital loyalty. In each case, honouring one role means sacrificing another. Every decision leaves consequences. Every choice defines identity.

This idea of the ‘relational self’ is deeply relevant to business leadership. A CFO is never just a financial steward. CFO is accountable to shareholders, responsible to employees, answerable to regulators, aligned with the CEO, sensitive to customers and conscious of broader societal expectations. Each role carries its own dharma. And these obligations often intersect and collide.

Consider the familiar tensions: protecting margins versus preserving jobs; rewarding investors versus investing in long-term resilience; maintaining strict compliance versus enabling entrepreneurial risk-taking; transparency versus competitive confidentiality. These are not choices between good and bad. They are choices between legitimate priorities. The challenge lies in discerning which obligation is most pressing in each context.

 The Mahabharata sharpens this complexity. Characters justify questionable means in pursuit of noble ends. Others, like Bhishma, are paralysed by moral ambiguity and choose inaction. The lesson for corporate leadership is sobering: ethical failure may arise not only from deliberate wrongdoing, but from rationalisation, silence or avoidance. In boardrooms, as in epic courts, inaction is itself a decision.

At the same time, the social codes of the ancient world cannot dictate modern corporate ethics. We operate in a plural, democratic and highly regulated environment. Yet what remains deeply relevant is the insistence that dharma is contextual. It depends on who we are, the roles we inhabit, and the circumstances we confront.

For CFOs, this translates into the exercise of viveka discernment. Financial models, risk frameworks and governance structures provide guidance, but they cannot eliminate judgment. In moments of uncertainty during crises, restructurings, market shocks or reputational risk, the ultimate responsibility rests with decision-makers. Systems can inform; they cannot absolve.

Dharma, understood this way, places accountability squarely on the individual. Every capital allocation, every disclosure choice, every stance on compliance or culture contributes to institutional character. Organisations, like individuals in the epics, become what they repeatedly choose to do – and there is a deep sense of empowerment that comes from adopting this perspective. It affirms that ethical leadership is not about perfect clarity, but about conscious responsibility. Yet there is also weight. One cannot hide behind precedent, policy or profit alone. Each choice shapes both reputation and self.

In uncertain economic and geopolitical times, this may be the most enduring insight. Dharma does not offer rigid rules for the boardroom. It offers something more demanding: the courage to choose wisely among competing obligations and to own those choices fully.

More Than Numbers: The CFO as a Driver of Change

Biju Dominic, Chief Evangelist, Fractal Analytics

Biju Dominic challenged one of the strongest assumptions in modern management: that more information automatically leads to better decisions. He began with a powerful example from aviation. Even in environments filled with sophisticated data and warnings, human beings still make mistakes. The problem is not a lack of information, but how people process it.

Digital marketing offered another example. Despite dramatic advances in analytics, engagement rates and change success remain weak. Organisations measure more than ever but still struggle to influence behaviour. The root issue, he argued, lies in our understanding of human decision-making.

Traditional management assumes people are rational and conscious decision makers. Neuroscience tells a different story. Much of human behaviour is driven by non-conscious emotional processes. Emotion is not separate from decision-making; it is central to it. 

Context and anticipation shape how people interpret information. The same number can produce different reactions depending on expectations. Large, distant goals often fail because the brain responds better to small, immediate signals and rewards.

He introduced the idea of behavioural architecture. Instead of relying only on communication and incentives, organisations should design environments that gently influence decisions at the moment action happens. Small cues can alter behaviour more effectively than large campaigns.

Examples from banking, health and road safety showed how subtle changes in design can dramatically improve outcomes. The lesson for CFOs was that numbers diagnose problems, but behaviour determines whether solutions work.

In a world of shrinking attention spans, influence happens faster and more emotionally than before. Reputation and market perception can shift instantly. This makes behavioural understanding a risk and governance issue, not just a marketing concept.

His closing argument expanded the CFO role. Finance leaders do not just manage numbers. They shape systems that guide behaviour. Strategy succeeds only when people act differently. The most effective CFOs understand that behind every spreadsheet are human choices driven by emotion, context and meaning.