The CFO's role in navigating the downturn

If past is indeed prologue, the current global downturn will give companies with sufficient resources unprecedented opportunities to buy assets or acquire market share on attractive terms. Yet the crisis may well be the most dire and unpredictable one since the Great Depression.

A CFO must understand how volatile prices and demand affect performance—both to manage threats to the survival of the company and to ensure that it has the financial resources needed for countercyclical investments.

Most CFOs will need to replace the traditional budgeting and planning process with a more aggressive approach—one underpinned by a re-examination of current assumptions about earnings and growth and about how deep the downturn will be.