Ep. 121: Ramesh Shettigar - ESG from a Finance Perspective

05/03/21 • 15 min

Contact Ramesh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramesh-shettigar-9ba1243/

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Adam: (00:00)
Hey everyone and welcome to Episode 121 of Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Adam Larson, and I'm pleased to introduce you to today's featured guest, Ramesh Shettigar. Ramesh is Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Treasurer at Glatfelter, a leading global supplier of engineered materials. He joined my co-host Mitch to talk about ESG and its importance across the organization. Keep listening to hear about the finance team's role in ESG, prioritizing ESG over return objectives, and strategies to make ESG truly sustainable.
Mitch: (00:47)
So in your perspective, how have recent events increased the importance of ESG in business? And obviously for our listeners, we would like to get your perspective, particularly for the finance function.
Ramesh: (01:00)
Sure Mitch, I'm assuming by recent events you're referring to the pandemic, climate issues, social injustice, and corporate governance matters we've seen play out in 2020. If so I think companies play a very important role in representing to employees and their communities where they stand on these topics. The pandemic for example, has highlighted the importance of ensuring the health and safety of our employees and the communities where we operate. With regard to climate, corporations I think need to be responsible stewards of the environment in the geographies where they operate and need to abide by all local and federal environmental standards so that we can all preserve humanity's long-term health and sustainability for generations to come. We're seeing this play out in broader mega trends. For example, this move from fossil fuels and toward alternative energy sources or the plastics free movement. Working for an engineered materials company like Glatfelter, I feel incredibly proud that we have focused heavily on natural and bio-based feedstocks in our manufacturing process and our product innovation efforts are heavily focused on minimizing synthetic materials in the products we make. As it relates to social topics, employees need to know where their employers stand regarding racial, gender, and socioeconomic disparities in the workplace and if their companies are playing an active role in facilitating an environment that welcomes diversity, equity, and inclusion. Glatfelter for example, has made it very clear through an internal message from our CEO that treating people of all backgrounds fairly and consistent with our core values of mutual respect, integrity, and social responsibility is of utmost importance. We have committed to enhancing compliance training that focuses on diversity and eliminating unconscious biases. Also a meaningful portion of corporate giving will go towards causes that address social inequities and racial injustice. From a governance standpoint, I think ensuring that there is adequate board diversity in terms of experience, gender, and race is very important for investors seeking reassurance that company leadership exemplifies and values diversity. So bringing all this back to the finance question, which I think you're trying to get to, I think the long-term returns of these initiatives and the stand we take regarding ESG will ultimately be positive and rewarding for the company, its employees, and society. So I think that's how we think about what ESG does for us, particularly for the finance function.
Mitch: (03:56)
That really was beautifully said and thank you for taking us through step-by-step, I think it was a perfect response. Its great to hear those kinds of initiatives put in place and you know, your organization really taking a big step forward in making sure that everybody within the organization is on the same page. I think that clear communication is vital for making sure these ESG initiatives are effective, really is what it comes down to. And you talked about the finance function, the long-term returns. I think it's been a year now with this pandemic that you brought up and obviously there is a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel. I think some people are starting to see it as businesses seek to return to their normal and that obviously has a different definition than it did a year from today. But how do you prioritize ESG in relation to these return objectives that you mentioned within finance?
Ramesh: (04:53)
Sure. So you know, the pandemic has clearly appended organizational priorities when it comes to ESG and I think you said it well, right? We've we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We've been through this pandemic now for a year, organizations have flexed and adapted to the marketplace and what the pandemic has brought about. But if anyth...

Contact Ramesh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramesh-shettigar-9ba1243/

Previous Episode

Ep. 120: Jeffrey Dailey - CFO Strategist for Data and Technology

Jeff Dailey: https://www.prometric.com/about-us/leadership/jeff-dailey

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch: (00:05)
Hey everyone, welcome back for episode 120 of Count Me In. I'm your host Mitch Roshong and this is IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Our featured speaker for today is Jeffrey Dailey. Jeff is Prometrics Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and he joined my co-host Adam to talk about data and technology. During their conversation, Jeff addresses the challenges associated with mass amounts of data, how to make decisions based on data and how the CFO's role has changed because of data and technology. Keep listening as we head over to their conversation now.
Adam: (00:47)
So Jeff, data is becoming more and more important each day whether it's your latest smartwatch, a smartphone, your internet, things on your refrigerator, or your washing machine. It's getting thrown at us from every direction and even more so in business and for you at Prometric, how are you facing that challenge with all the data that we have in business and how have you adapted as an organization to meet those challenges?
Jeff: (01:12)
Thanks Adam. Yeah look, I think the role that I play in Prometric as the CFO is really going to be leading to driving data-driven decision-making. And in order to do that, we really leverage analytic capabilities, not just within the finance function, but across the business. Our business relies heavily on understanding volume and capacity, of our clients and global candidate base for those taking tests in our test centers, as well as new modalities around remote assessment. So we're constantly looking at opportunities to gather and understand data, but also to use that to be quicker and more agile in our decision-making, it really becomes sort of foundational to us driving, data-driven decisions across the organization, it helps enhance forecasting, it helps us understand how we're allocating resources across the operations, as well as our technology investments.
Adam: (02:11)
So if you look at your technology roadmap that you're looking into the future, what does that look like for you?
Jeff: (02:18)
Well, right now we're in a unique disruption coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. And I say that it's created opportunity in some ways, given all the disruption to our clients and frankly to all of the candidates that we support. One of the areas from a global technologies we've gone from what was traditionally largely a brick and mortar business model, to enhancing our remote assessment capability, to offer assessments and opportunities for candidates to sit from any location has been key when you're going through national and regional restrictions around social distancing and access to traditionally facilities where we have tested candidates. So operationally or product, we have deep investments that we're making across the technology platform to enhance both functionality, as well as expand in those areas of key features. Within our finance organization, we've actually also taken this as an opportunity to really invest in more, I'll call it cloud native systems and financial reporting technologies that are going to enhance our ability to streamline our close that are helping us in terms of forecasting and helping drive, more data-driven insights across the business from the finance organization, so we've not only had product investment, but also investment in our core ERP platform during this time.
Adam: (03:45)
So what were some of the drivers for the decision to enhance your ERP solution?
Jeff: (03:51)
Yeah, so I think first off is we have for several years looked into opportunities to consolidate multiple platforms that we had that had evolved both over time in different regions as well as, you know, take advantage of what I think now is really, truly a much more secure, fundamentally sound and feature rich opportunity, in what you're seeing in the cloud native ERP platforms. We see this as an opportunity to not only attack technology as our focus for the investment, but also process improvement and there are a number of areas that are features that we're rolling out that will be further automating the closed process, automating the financial reporting and forecasting process, and also just really trying to drive process improvement in business intelligence deeper into the finance organization.
Adam: (04:48)
How has it been trying to do an implementation while having, probably your workforce working from home?
Jeff: (04:55)
Great question. I think we have certainly been working remote for the most part, since the onset of COVID-19 about a year ago, but that being said, I think we have a global team and we've always had deep resources...

Next Episode

BONUS | International Management Accounting Day

IMA's website: https://www.imanet.org/

International Management Accounting Day: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/international-management-accounting-day

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Adam: (00:00)
Welcome back everyone and happy International Management Accounting Day. Each year, IMA celebrates International Management Accounting day on May 6th. This global day of recognition commemorates the important role management accountants play within their organizations. Around the world, finance and accounting professionals work to bring insight and help their organizations realize untapped opportunities and operate more efficiently. While this work happens every day of the year, on May 6th management accountants are publicly recognized by IMA. So to celebrate and support the public recognition, Count Me In has a special bonus episode for you featuring IMA's President and CEO, Jeff Thomson. Jeff spoke with Margaret Michaels, IMA's Manager for Brand Content and Storytelling about the future of finance and accounting. Keep listening to hear them discuss the valuable ongoing efforts of management accountants and the race for relevance in a digital age.
Margaret: (01:03)
Digital transformation enabled by automation, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and other technologies has been the headline story when people talk about the future of finance, but you often bring up the fact that these are really not new technologies. Can you elaborate on that theme and talk a little bit about how the foundational concepts in competing on analytics and other texts laid the groundwork for the transformation we see today?
Jeff: (01:41)
Sure Margaret. Great question and two related, but somewhat different concepts. So these technologies have been around and developing for some time. Artificial intelligence, has been around for some time, blockchain has been around for some time. But what's different is that all industries have been impacted by these technologies and the applications have been exploding. You know blockchain, for example, the use cases for blockchain were just a few several years ago, but now blockchain use cases have absolutely exploded. You know, blockchain was something we've heard about several years ago, primarily in the financial services industry, but now blockchain applications are permeating many, many industries including education, non-for-profits, and when we think about artificial intelligence, it's not just artificial intelligence in certain industries, it's artificial intelligence in many industries and many applications, so the question is our ability to leverage all of these wonderful uses of these technologies. Now, and then when we think about, RPA robotics process automation, robotics process automation has actually been around for nearly a decade. So when we talk about new technologies, the technologies really aren't that new, but it's the application and comprehensiveness of these technologies across industry verticals that are new. Now, moving to your other question competing on analytics, it's actually the book, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, by Thomas Davenport and Jean Harris. It's actually a book in 2007 that really laid the groundwork for the transformation to data analytics that as you said, we're seeing today. And when you think about it, imagine it was written in 2007 and when you think about the science of winning in the marketplace, what do you think about? You normally think about cool apps, things that consumers see in front of them. Like I said applications, products and services, things you can touch and feel. You don't think about nerdy things like analytics, but if you fast forward today, analytics is the thing we're talking about. Data scientists, data scientists are the number one sought after job because data analytics is how we get to know our consumers and their needs and their wants. They’re how finance team professionals offer insight and foresight to their CEOs, to their boards of directors. So that is the competency and skillset that we as finance team professionals must really aspire to and really accelerate our competencies.
Margaret: (04:59)
Great. Now you often say the race for relevance to describe the current iteration of digital transformation in accounting and finance as technology evolves faster than the skills of the people who need to use it. What are the skills finance and accounting professionals need to focus on to keep up and what competencies really stand out to employers in a time when skills are increasingly commoditized?
Jeff: (05:28)
Yeah so another great question Margaret you're on a roll today. Yeah, so there's going to be the infamous hard skills and the softer skills, so we ...