Business Wire India AXA Business Services recently held a Finathon in Pune at the 4 edition of its AXA Call to Action event focused on the theme of “Transforming Finance”. This event brought together the finance professionals community in Pune to decode and provide a solution to an industry problem.
The Finathon saw 8 teams participating to solve the following two questions.
- Explain key challenges in accounting and consolidation for companies operating in multiple countries, with disparate accounting systems & platforms, considering the need for timely reporting and compliance? List a few potential solutions to these challenges.
- Centralized or decentralized procurement? What works best? List a few advantages/disadvantages for each. Please present a case for (or against) 100% PO compliance. What should be the right mix (PO/Non-PO)?
Each of the shortlisted teams then presented their approach/solution statement to our eminent jury members consisting of: Ravichandran Venkataraman, CEO, Alive Consulting; Arati Desai, Head Business Excellence – Global Delivery Centre, Tata Motors; Rajeev Bhide, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Indus Business Advisors LLP & Executive Director, Yen Capital Advisors (P) Limited; Ashwani Batra, Director & Head of Finance, India & Malaysia, Tieto.
The jury evaluated the participants on the following criteria: understanding of the problem, feasibility of the solution proposed, assimilation of global finance industry trends, thought process/out of box thinking, impact and added benefits of the solution proposed. Two teams were selected for the first prize and they won a cash prize of INR 15000 each and one second runner-up team that won a cash prize of INR 5000.
All participants also received a certificate of excellence for their contribution to the AXA Finathon. The certificates were handed out by Marie-Louise Elhabre, CEO, AXA Business Services. Speaking on the Finathon, Marie-Louise said, “I am very happy that we were able to bring together the best of the minds in the financial space in our AXA Finathon. Our intent was to provide a platform to this dynamic group and to allow them the opportunity to showcase their unique thought process and contribute towards addressing some of the key challenges faced by the industry. Our Finathon helped achieve these goals.”
Post the Finathon, the evening also saw a very engaging panel discussion on the topic “Transforming Finance”. In addition to the jury members, the panel also had Srikrishna Madhavan, Head Finance Operations, AXA Business Services and Viji Narayan, Vice President and Head of Finance, Vodafone Shared Services.
Nagarajan V, Head HR, AXA Business Services , added, “This Finathon aligns itself to the agile and innovative culture that we support at AXA. We are delighted at the response we got from the industry for our Finathon and for the panel discussion. It was great to see professionals in the finance space come together to collaborate, discuss challenges and best practices.”
Source: Businesswire