Financial Wisdom Against Crisis

And when you laugh at your friends on the golf course, you probably won't notice that your golf handgrip is also from Eaton.

In fact, as one of the world's leading manufacturers of diversified industrial products, Eaton Corporation, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, also produces many industrial and commercial products that are closely related to people's daily life, work and entertainment.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, Eaton won two important orders, one for China's public pport vehicle hybrid electric drive system, the other is for Tata Motors's "world truck project" to provide pmission system.

Eaton has successfully solved several crises successfully by continuously optimizing the business mode through capital operation.

In the middle of 1990s, in order to avoid the impact of global slipping on the company's performance at that time, Eaton, from the original manufacturing company based on trucks and spare parts, was successfully developed into a diversified company in the field of aerospace, electrical and hydraulic services.

In order to explore Eaton's "longevity gene" and crisis response after hundreds of years of global economic recession, the chief financial officer has visited Eaton Foster CFO Asia Pacific (David Foster).

You were appointed Eaton CFO in the Asia Pacific region shortly before the outbreak of the crisis. So far, it has been nearly a year now. How do you view the present and future of the Chinese market? (May 2008)

Over the past six months, the economy has been extremely volatile.

Overall, compared with 2008, the growth rate of China's economy will slow down in 2009, but it can still maintain growth and show new opportunities.

The government has taken a series of measures to stimulate the economy, and banks have increased lending.

So the question is how long it will take to plate into real economic growth.

I think this indicates that China will maintain a good economic environment, and there will be many opportunities for infrastructure construction and the automotive industry. However, the export related industries will continue to slump this year before the economic situation of other trading partners has improved.

2009 is considered a good opportunity for global mergers and acquisitions. Good companies will get their favorite companies at relatively low prices, but how to avoid the risks involved in mergers and acquisitions?

In the face of the crisis, Eaton's diversification strategy advantage showed no doubt: it greatly dispersed the business risk and avoided the sharp fluctuation of the economic cycle to the development of the company.

In 2009, Eaton will continue to integrate acquisitions in previous years and continue to follow existing business development processes to find potential market opportunities.

The best way to manage risks in mergers and acquisitions is to continue to follow the process, instead of letting "seemingly" good pactions change the way to follow the process.

Eaton will continue to seek his chance to become a global power management company strategy.

Our principle is still "no deal is better than failure."

In the current economic environment, what skills are the "urgent needs" of enterprise CFO?

I think that as a professional financial person, it is very important to be able to work in different places and experience specific business groups and head offices throughout their career.

These jobs can help financial personnel to train professional skills, learn business knowledge and better understand the company's overall operation requirements and division of labor.

I think every financial officer should try to take turns and take charge of cost accounting for some time, because the experience and skills learned from this post will be used repeatedly throughout his career.

There is no doubt that financial executives need to be successful business partners and continue to succeed. They need to exercise their good business acumen, that is, to understand the market, products, competitors, etc., with excellent written communication skills and effectively influence those who are not within their direct jurisdiction.

We need to treat people in other departments of our company as we treat our customers, understand their needs from a financial point of view, instead of directly pushing financial data to them.

Besides, excellent professional ability is self-evident, but I want to emphasize that working capital management and risk management (using hedging means) are very necessary skills at this stage.

Finally, organizational leadership must be owned. It plays a key role in the promotion of financial staff rather than just within the Department.

It is the responsibility of every financial officer to cultivate financial sensitivity of the whole organization. The more widely the sensitivity is spread within the company, the easier it is to maintain an effective internal control environment.

We need to return to the effective business partnership we mentioned just now.

The financial sector can only win trust in business operations.

The finance department needs to identify the company's problems not only by analyzing the difference, but also having a deep understanding of the business and putting forward suggestions and ideas for substantive improvement of the company's business.

In Eaton, we hope that all employees will understand the business system of Eaton (our unique business integration system), and more importantly, the employees of our financial department will also integrate into the system.

At the same time, when introducing financial information, financial personnel should be able to use the general language of the company so that everyone can have a clear understanding of the company's financial situation and know how they affect it.

One of the most effective advice I got in my career early is to find people who can help him in recruiting people, not just looking for someone who can be an example and should at least get a two pay rise.

Once your team is completed, I think it is very important to give them as many challenging tasks as possible.

You should be willing to accept possible mistakes and spend time guiding your team when mistakes occur.

You must give your employees a fair and timely feedback to ensure that their development plans can achieve balance between professional skills, leadership opportunities and goals.

Otherwise, the skin will not exist and the hair will be attached.