April 24, 2024 10:41 (IST)
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Indian CFOs plan to increase investment activities: Survey
Kolkata, Jun 11 (IBNS): The seventh annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business and Spending Monitor recently noted that the senior Indian finance executives are bullish about the domestic economy and the balance is shifting more towards a growth outlook with business confidence on a high.
A phenomenal 100 percent of the Indian CFOs plan to increase their spending and investment activities this year, the research study stated.
Manoj Adlakha, Vice President and General Manager, Global Corporate Payments, American Express India, said, “There is a strong positive sentiment amongst Indian CFOs towards the domestic economic and business environment.”
Adlakha said, “With more than 86 percent Indian CFOs expecting the Indian economy to expand over the next year, the confidence in the domestic economy is the highest that our report has shown in last three years.”
He added, “A particularly positive sign is the CFO plans to aggressively increase their spending and investments across categories including IT, financial reporting, business travel, etc. Against this background, Indian CFOs will need to implement effective expense management solutions to improve control, build transparency and achieve savings.”
According to the research study, while CFOs from China, Hong Kong and other Asian countries have significantly scaled back their expectations for their local economy, 86 percent of Indian CFOs have demonstrated a leap of faith in their local economy compared to last year.
A large 77 percent of Indian CFOs expect their company’s sales to increase the most in the Indian subcontinent while another 67 percent expect growth from within Asian markets.
The annual study noted that the Indian CFOs lead the Asian region in terms of their investment plans across various business functions including transportation and logistics, computer hardware, Enterprise IT, and business and professional services.
With the environment looking positive for India, a high 93 percent of Indian CFOs are likely to increase spending on business travel in 2014, the survey said.
Indian CFOs are likely to increase spending across four broad categories – travel to meet with current or potential customers (57%), travel to internal meetings and engagements (57%), travel for industry engagement or professional developments (53%) and travel to meet with suppliers or vendors (48%).
Adlakha added, “Travel and Entertainment (T&E) remains a business catalyst and companies will continue to invest in business travel to aid growth as reflected in the report.”
“With T&E expenses accounting for the second-largest area of spend for most corporations, Expense management solutions can give businesses transparency, control, savings and rewards, resulting in operating advantages,” he said.
The report further revealed that this year, emerging economies will lead the way on investing for growth, and gear up to meet increased demand.
Globally, 17 percent CFOs said they will aggressively approach spending and investment to boost top-line revenues.
The report stated that 30 percent Indian CFOs and senior finance executives will look at aggressive spending and investment while a higher 57 percent will approach spending more moderately to support top-line growth while improving profitability.
This indicates a more forward-looking stance for finance officers, compared to the conservative view focused on cost control in 2013.
Across the population of respondents, survey results indicate that companies plan to invest more in expanding market access (57%), improving business intelligence and analytics (57%), improving production-process efficiency (55%) and new product/service development (55%).
Respondents have cited a wide range of needs for spending on information technology in 2014, with 70 percent respondents agreeing that information technology will contribute most to their growth strategy by improving efficiency and productivity, and reducing costs for the company.
77 percent Indian CFOs agree that use of information technology will improve management decision making, while a 57 percent look at it for improving financial reporting and analysis.
In India, 47 percent of respondents say their companies have critical needs to invest both in cloud computing and in mobile technologies.
Adlakha added, “American Express Global Corporate Payments provides MIS-based proven expense management solutions, which generates management information from card usage, providing an invaluable management tool to help corporations monitor expenditure patterns and identify opportunities for cost savings.”
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