Paragon Consulting

UK 100 GFC Forum

The next Forum will be held on Tuesday, November 25th 2008 – An evening with Dr. Jurgen Ott of Allianz where we will be discussing Group Transformation Programs and benefits delivered.

The after dinner discussion for the September forum was lead by Malcolm Cheetham, Head of Novartis Group Financial Reporting & Accounting. Novartis is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, headquartered in Switzerland, and has been recognised for the excellence of its reporting processes for several years. For example, in the annual BPMi Close Cycle Rankings it has been the fastest FT EuroTop100 Company to report since the rankings inception. In 2008, Novartis announced its audited annual results for the year to 31st December 2007 on 17th January, publishing its full annual report and accounts on the same day. Malcolm lead off our after dinner discussion by taking us through the transformation story that has lead to Novartis achieving this remarkable performance, including a discussion of the business drivers for the change, the policy, process and systems changes that have enabled it and, of greatest interest to many Controllers, the business benefits that have accrued.

To help guarantee a lively and informative after dinner discussion other recipients of BPMi Close Cycle Excellence awards were present, including Nick Keveth, Group Financial Controller, Imperial Tobacco Group PLC. Nick has lead a programme of change that has seen Imperial Tobacco reduce its reporting timetables by 40% and move into the UKFT100 Top 3 in the BPMi Close Cycle Rankings. Paul Blackburn, our Patron and Senior Vice President and Financial Controller at GlaxoSmithKline Plc, consistently in the UKFT100 Top 10 in the BPMi Close Cycle Rankings also added his own observations. Finally, David Jones, Director of Paragon and Chairman of BPM International, announed the full list of recipients of BPMi Close Cycle Excellence awards based on the results of the Close Cycle Rankings 2008.

If you are a Group Financial Controller of the FTSE100 and would like to attend the November 2008  “The 100: Group Financial Controllers Forum”, please contact David Jones.
 

 What is "The UK 100: Group Financial Controllers Forum"?

• It is an intimate forum, with numbers not allowed to exceed 25 guests which meets four times a year

• Its objective is to provide an informal meeting place for Directors of Financial Control and Group Financial Controllers of the UK's largest 100 quoted companies

• It is a forum where you can discuss topics of interest; explore alternative approaches taken by peer group organisations to current hot issues; and above all

• It provides a key opportunity for you to further extend your own network with senior finance staff.

Your hosts is David Jones, Director at Paragon Consulting Group. The patron of the forum is Paul Blackburn, Financial Controller at GlaxoSmithkline.