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Birla School of Management, Birla Global University, Bhubaneswar organized an online workshop on Managing Finance: Now and in Future on December 18, 2020. The workshop started with a beautiful quote - "It is not about having lots of money, it is the knowing how to manage it", by anchor Sonali Nandy, student of MBA. Dr Akshay Kumar Mishra, the convener of this workshop, set the tone by highlighting the relevance of the managing finance now and in future. Dr Parameswar Nayak, Dean Birla School of Management, highlighted various issues from Human Recourse perspective. He pointed out that when there is a problem with cash flow like the one we saw during Covid-19 Pandemic, the first target is made by paying less to the employees or put them to lay-off. Cost of turnover, rehiring and retraining after the pandemic will be costly affairs. He also pointed out that people drive the profits, machine or money do not drive it. Therefore, financial management should be people-driven. Dr B K Das, the registrar of the university, addressed the workshop by highlighting that the world has witnessed many crises in the past. Depression, downtrend and the uptrends are the cyclical movements of the economy. But this time when it was at the peak of industrialization, economic development, development of science and medicine, humanity got surrendered before a small virus. Key sectors of the economy came to a halt; cash flows went down, the banking sector also got a blow as most of the industry, financed by them were hit by pandemic could not repay them. Lots of measures have taken by the government to ensure that money flows to the economy. He also said there is a sign of recovery, but it is a lesson to the world that how we handle such a situation. Dr P P Mathur, Honourable Vice-Chancellor of the University spoke about robustness and fragility of the economic system. The tragedy of pandemic was that the people lost jobs; they do not have money to spend; there were less financial activities. He highlighted the utilization of LTC money, circulation of currency notes concerning improving the spending.
One of the key highlights of the workshop was student perspective on managing finance.Four teams from MBA presented their views based on their research on the using of how COVID-19 pandemic has affected the small scale food sector businesses, insurance sector such as LIC, capital market, andthe consultancy sector. The second highlight was the Business perspective where Mr. Gaurav Arora, Senior Manager at Tata Steel, has shared his experience and expertise in managing finance. He highlighted the economic outlook, impact on the steel industry, impact on profitability, cash flow, liquidity and financials. He also discussed the ways to solve the challenges during and post-pandemic which include reduced business expenses, renegotiate payment terms, reduced CAPEX, prune fixed cost, ramping up exports, and increased liquidity through raising capital.
Nidhish Singh, Vice-President at J P Morgan Chase and Co. also shared his experience and expertise.He discussed the various way to manage the finance in the difficult time such as accelerating payment by the customer, delay expenses, favourable payment terms from the vendors, increase in the margin, sell or lease idle equipment, selling the future revenue, clearing out inventory, offering unpaid leaves and new ways of financing.
The panel discussion was the third highlight of the day. Dr Samson Moharana, Dean School of Commerce; Mr.Krishan Mishra, Head of North and East India at ACCA; CA Ajay Mishra, Founder/CEO, Biocurx India Pvt. Ltd and Dr Pradipta Kumar Sanyal, Area Head, Finance and Accounting, Birla School of Management were the panelists. Dr Akshay Kumar Mishra, Convener of the workshop was the moderator. During the discussion, they pointed out challenges before the financial managers such as financial report and disclosure, cash flow management, cost optimization, governance, the sustainability of the business. They also highlighted the managing finance of MSME sector, startup companies, minimizing losses, relooking into the resources, expansion, etc. The panelists also discussed the new skills, the role of the financial manager in the future. The workshop ended with an announcement by anchor Ms. Ananyaa Shaktirupa after the vote of thanks by Dr Pradip Kundu, Co-convener of the workshop.
