By JONAH NWOKPOKU

A professor of Accountancy, Ben Osisioma has charged the financial services sector to develop products and show financial leadership in order to maintain competitive edge in the industry as well as drive productivity and sustainable growth.

He gave the charge while delivering a lecture at the induction of United Bank for Africa, UBA top management into the Nigeria Institute of Management, NIM, in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Financial leadership in dire economic straits: Maintaining a competitive edge,’ Osisioma said it has become imperative that financial leaders show more leadership, adding that the recent economic meltdown was as a result of failure of corporate gate-keepers and that it was a signal for re-evaluation of financial leadership.

According to him, “Finance leaders must leverage the capacities of the finance function to provide insight and commercial support that will drive sustainable decision making and bring a broader market focus to support the strategy of the business. They must accelerate strategic growth across the enterprise, catalysing change, leading the transformation train, and creating enormous competitive advantage for their firms.

The challenge of financial leadership is a deliberate call to transit from mere pedestrianism and rank opportunism, to become a transformation agent in organisation and society.” “This is the quintessential challenge of financial leadership for these dire economic times,” he added. Speaking further, he said:

“Financial leadership demands a stepping up that will enable the executive demonstrate an understanding of the business – involvement in areas such as strategic planning, enterprise risk management and decision support, and ability to influence key internal and external stakeholders via communications, negotiation and collaboration skills.”

Financial leadership, he said, “Requires Chief Finance Officers to meaningfully contribute to the current and future investment profile of their firms, participate in the broader corporate vision, and advocate and produce strategic transformation.”

He added: “Where financial leadership is in practice, finance executives will demonstrate a clear compelling vision of the organisation – clearly aligned with the short- and long-term strategic goals of the firm. Such an organisation will be adept at change management, focussed on improving the use of information, building better partnerships and promoting growth and innovation throughout the company.”

Osisioma noted that times have changed, and very drastically too, and that “Successful organizations in the past, required an internal focus, structured interaction, self-sufficiency, and a top-down approach,” but “today, the rules of the game have changed as organizational structure must reflect an external focus, flexible interaction, interdependency, and a bottom-up approach.”

He said: “Effective organizational forms are driven by three fundamental and closely related factors. First is Globalization – the need for global coordination and innovation which is forcing constant experimentation and adjustment to get the right mix of local initiative, information flow, leadership and corporate culture;

next is Internet – which provides the ability to access a vast array of information instantaneously in nano seconds, providing a seamless connection that brings together far-flung customers, employees and suppliers who can work together in real time. And then, there is Speed – cutting edge technology which allows employees, suppliers and freelancers to access one another online, developing new markets,and new products.