CHIEF VALUE OFFICER – THE IMPORTANT EVOLUTION OF THE CFO | 1. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘VALUE’
1.5 The recipients of value In a traditional view of performance and value, the profit goal was seen as sufficient for organisations. That is no longer the case and, as illustrated in Figure 1.6, an organisation has many recipients of value. This is not to say that investors and other financial stakeholders are not the recipients of value. Indeed, many of the roundtable participants whose organisations are private-equity-based observed that, for them, ‘value’ is considered to be the impact of the multiplier of EBITDA and that their responsibility as CFOs is to maximise the growth in value, as represented by that multiplier, to the end of the investment period for the benefit of the investors. That said, they also acknowledged that in so doing they needed to create an organisation with a positive future, indeed a sustainable future, which would continue to generate profits after a sale or other transaction had taken place. It can be contended that such future sustainability relies upon the interaction between investors and the other recipients of value. A CFO in a private-equity-backed organisation commented, ‘we will eventually exit [at] some stage and the way we are trying to create value is not only obviously, through the valuation of our business based on financial metrics [but also] … we view how our potential acquirers perceive us and the multiple they might put on our business, which is more determined by the value of what they see [as] the potential in our business going forward’. The next group of recipients are represented by the customers . In the customer-centric operating model, the quality of the products and the resulting customer relationships are essential. Several CFOs, for example those working in service industries, commented that factors such as the NPS were fundamental parts of their assessment of the value that their organisation created. Two examples given by CFOs serve to illustrate the interaction between the social and the value agendas. In the first how the growing of a declining crop has led the organisation to
FIGURE 1.6: The recipients of value
Positive cash flow Profit / EBITDA Sustainability
Quality of product Customer relationships
Good jobs Secure employment
Benefit in locations Infrastructure
Compliance Risk management
Investors and other financial stakeholders
Customers
Employees
Community
Regulators
The final recipient of value are the regulators with whom the organisation interacts. Regulators, which may also include governmental organisations other than purely financial regulators, are increasingly requiring disclosures about, and hence involvement in, the non-financial aspects of organisations. This reflects the importance of the actions of organisations in addressing issues such as net zero goals, but also literacy and health-care goals both in organisations and their supply chains. Indeed, frameworks as such the draft European Sustainability Reporting Standards (EFRAG 2022) may be said to reflect this broader view of value. 1.6 Value vs. profit A UK CFO expressed what can be considered to be the classical view, commenting that, ‘the traditional definition is that if you grow financial capital then you have generated value’. A CFO from Australia also noted that, ‘you would hope that…value is reflected in the share market. Often it isn’t, and there is a disconnect[ion] between the value in the market and the intrinsic value [of the organisation]’. A discussion point for many of the roundtable participants was the relationship between value and profit. Many saw the maximisation of profit as remaining the core focus of their organisation, because profit creates the ability to invest in the future. Some amended this view by expressing the view that the pandemic had reinforced the need to focus on liquidity rather than regarding profit as the sole focus.
provide markets for alternative products to sustain the livelihoods of their growers; and secondly how bringing mobile communications to remote communities also acts as a stimulus for economic growth thereby sustaining the investment in renewable energy required. Any balanced scorecard that reflects value needs to include such assessments of the quality of the customer relationships. Employees are also receivers of the value created by organisations. Employees expect to be satisfied in their employment and to benefit from it – the concept of a ‘good job’. 2 Value can also be related to the attraction of potential employees to the organisation. Employees can be considered to be not just those direct employees, but also those contracted to work with the organisation but who are not directly employed, as well as those in the supply chains. As with employees, there is also a social element of value, which lies in the interaction between the organisation and the communities in which it is based. A traditional view of this might once have been just the impact of corporate and social responsibility (CSR) programmes. It has expanded significantly beyond this. By using concepts such as the ‘social licence to operate’ (see ACCA 2023) organisations are appreciating the value that their activities create, or destroy, in the communities in which they are based. In its purest form, this may be how the organisation ensures the future viability of its workforce, through education and environmental programmes.
2 The concept of a ‘good job’ and the broader social implications of value are considered in ACCA 2023.
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