Publications
Please find more published magazine articles under the in the media section
Asia Now’s Lean Growth approach reduces working capital in 100 days
“It’s never a bad time to focus on working capital optimization” says Simon Littlewood Asia Now president speaking recently in Singapore in reference to his recent article in Hong Kong business, “Because, no one is immune from market fluctuation, and balance sheets can come under sudden pressure as a result either of changes in demand or regulatory shifts. Our advice to clients is to tighten working capital today...Read more
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Credit Lines
We bring five financial experts around the table to ask how CFOs in Asia
develop and maintain strong banking relationships during the downturn. Read more
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Featured Publication: Lean, Mean Growing Machine
Growing sales in Asia while keeping a tight rein on working capital is never easy, but the CFO’s of BASF and Honeywell are proving that it can be done.
For Arjun Sarker, working as a CFO in Asia today is both the best of times and the worst of times. His firm, Honeywell Specialty Materials, faces enormous growth potential in
the region, a prospect that Sarker is only too keen to exploit. But as finance director for Asia Pacific, Sarker is also guardian of the company’s capital efficiency ... Read more
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Improving Profitability
(Asia Now 2004) The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has committed to the abolition of trade barriers for the industrialized Asian economies by 2010, and for the non-industrialized by 2020.
Already, there is widespread deregulation of hitherto protected domestic industries, such as power and telecommunications, and growing pressure for more rapid
liberalization of other sectors. Asian companies in growing numbers are recognizing the need to undertake significant re-engineering efforts to make the grade.
In a marketplace which no longer has protected backwaters, high service levels and cost-effective processes will become essential attributes of successful businesses. Read more
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Promises Promises
.(Asia Now 2004) With cash at a premium, CFOs in Asia are learning how to get the most out their consultants. During a break in a recent interview with a regional chief financial officer, a quick
glance over the stacks of paper on the CFO's desk revealed just how much the finance manager's job has changed in Asia of late.
While the usual spreadsheet suspects were there - budget forecasts, accounts payable - so too were thick reports on the company's supply chain, corporate intranet,
and environmental liability.
The CFO as numbers cop? Not anymore. "The role of the regional CFO is changing," acknowledges John Norman, CFO of BP Asia ...Read more
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Tomorrow's Cash Today
(Asia Now 2004) Faced with sky-high capital costs, some CFOs in Asia eye asset-backed securitization. These days, raising capital in Asia is about as easy as raising sugar cane in
Saskatchewan.
Bankers, spooked by the specter of wholesale corporate bankruptcies, have simply stopped lending. Skittish foreign investors have retreated from the
region, taking billions in funds with them. And local money managers, hammered by the nosedive on local bourses, have shied away from all but the most stellar of corporate equity issues.
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has committed to the abolition of trade barriers for the industrialized Asian economies by 2010, and
for the non-industrialized by 2020.
Not exactly a rosy scenario for CFOs looking to scare up a little cash. Given that backdrop, some finance managers in Asia have turned
to less traditional methods of raising cash. One of those methods: asset-backed
securitization (ABS). Read more
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