From Budgeting Nightmares to One-Click Forecasting: Automation Benefits for CFOs -- Manish Gupta, CFO at HTOO Hospitality

The CFO Corner

Manish Gupta is a highly experienced hotel manager with over 15 years in the industry. He is a strong leader known for making tough decisions while considering human emotions and fairness. He has successfully navigated hotels through challenging times by managing cash flow, implementing innovative sales and marketing strategies, and maintaining customer satisfaction and employee morale. Manish has expertise in implementing systems such as ERP, management reporting, and financial planning and analysis. He is dedicated to learning and development, innovation, and creating business growth opportunities through partnerships. He is also an advocate of lean management.
Manish has seen a significant change in the role of a CFO in the past 5-10 years. With the advent of automation tools such as SAP and ERP, the finance role has shifted from collecting and verifying data to using and analyzing the data presented by these systems. He mentions that earlier the budgeting process was done in Excel, which was a nightmare to manage and required a large team, but now it is done through platforms that automate the entire process, reducing the need for manpower. He also mentions that finance professionals now need to focus on analyzing data and making decisions, rather than just collecting it, as automation has made routine tasks like collecting data redundant.
In this clip, Manish talks about the impact of technology and automation on accounting jobs. He believes that robots may not completely take away all accounting jobs, but they may take over the day-to-day mundane tasks, which is already happening. He mentions how robots are already being used for tasks such as scanning invoices and categorizing them. Manish thinks that the robots will take over the junior roles in accounting but may also create new jobs. He advises the audience to be ready for change and focus on soft skills, which AI may not learn in the future. He also suggests that people should be ready to learn new skills as technology continues to evolve.