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Meeting customer needs is mission-critical for the success of every company. CFOs have different  methods available to gauge customer needs, including direct interaction and intermediary data gathering. CFOs also know it’s important not only to listen, but also to lead. With a “know your customers” mindset, product and service decisions can be made with greater impact. At this year’s MIT Sloan CFO Summit, we look forward to exploring how the customer-centric CFO keeps a focus on identifying and addressing the needs of their end users.

When and how to innovate an existing product and/or extend into a new market?  Time to sunset a current capability? The success of these decisions ultimately lies with the customer.  Whether through direct interaction with customers, evaluating NPS scores, holding focus groups or careful financial analysis, CFOs know the best route to success incorporates customer centricity into strategic planning, financial decision-making and resource allocation.

How to determine customer needs is company-specific, and should include a combination of listening and leading.  For some CFOs, interacting with customers is integrated into the sales cycle, for others they may obtain customer feedback as part of a user conference, advisory council or other meetings.   Indirect customer feedback can include organized surveys, social media monitoring and, of course, analysis of current product financials.

While it is important to listen to customer feedback, it’s also important to lead. As Steve Jobs famously commented, “Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.”

CFOs can bring a unique insight with their connection to both the customer and the financial results of company decisions. Bridging the front- and back-end, with a keen eye on the customer, is an essential component of company success.

Premier one-day conference celebrates 21^st year offering insights and expertise from MIT Faculty and leading financial executives

The MIT Sloan CFO Summit, the premier conference for CFOs, celebrates its 21^st anniversary connecting financial leaders across a broad mix of business structures, stages and sectors. The nation’s preeminent one-day CFO conference, to be held Tuesday, November 14, 2023, attracts 400+ CFOs and senior financial executives.

With its theme of “Delivering Results,” the conference features panel sessions that include Driving Innovation; Cash is Still King; Talent in the Finance Function; The Customer-Centric CFO; Managing M&A Through Transactions and Business Cycles; and Balancing Risks, Rewards and Results.

“Just as CFOs are very deliberate in the steps they take to lead their companies, so too are we very attentive in setting the agenda for the CFO Summit,” said Jeremy Seidman, Chair of the MIT Sloan CFO Summit. “We are delighted to offer another year of best-in-class leaders sharing their experience with setting goals, establishing processes and delivering results.”

Founded in 2002, the event brings together financial executives and leading faculty from MIT to learn and discuss high level strategies, practical insights and the integration of knowledge, experience and creativity. This year’s speaker line-up includes CFOs from Aspen Technology, AppFire, Berkshire Residential Investments, Dynavax, Freight Farms, HubSpot, IntelyCare, Sigilon Therapeutics, SquareSpace and more.

Conference highlights include:

• Morning fireside chat with Simon Johnson, PhD, Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan and Joseph Wolk, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Johnson & Johnson
• Special presentation: How to Work with Almost Anyone, with author Michael Bungay Stanier
• Keynote panel featuring Nina Trentmann, Bloomberg News;  Caroline Dybeck Happe, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, GE (formerly); Dan Janki, Chief Financial Officer, Delta; and Greg Lewis, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Honeywell.
• Closing keynote with Jonathan Fleming, Senior Lecturer, Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship in conversation with David Denton, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Pfizer Inc.

About the MIT Sloan CFO Summit

The MIT Sloan CFO Summit is the nation’s premier CFO event. Started in 2002, the Summit brings together leading faculty from MIT and financial executives from around the world. The annual event offers a day of practical education, peer networking and thought-provoking discourse on the future of finance, accounting, and business. The day includes presentations, panels, keynote speakers and networking.  The Summit is part of the CXO Series produced by the MIT Sloan School of Management, one of the world’s leading academic sources of innovation in management theory and practice, and the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association. The annual events, organized by alumni volunteers, promote the MIT philosophy of “mens et manus,” or “mind and hand,” by bringing together the academic research from MIT Sloan with today’s corporate leaders. For more information and to register, visit www.mitcfo.com.

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The MIT Sloan CFO Summit, the premier conference for Chief Financial Officers, concluded its 20^th anniversary with more than 400 CFOs, senior financial executives and MIT faculty participating in formal presentations and informal networking.  Themed “20 Years of CFO Impact,” the one-day conference featured leadership insights from CFO keynote speakers 3M, AWS, Eli Lilly, Intel and Prudential Financial.

The conference also included CFOs from a range of industries representing public and private companies, and across all stages of development from start-up to established. Panel topics covered ESG, capital raising, cross-functional teams, hard and soft skills, innovation strategies and talent management, with CFO speakers from Akamai, Arcadia, Boston Dynamics, Clean Harbors, Hootsuite, McKinsey & Company, Oxurion, Spindrift Beverage Company, ThoughtSpot, Unity Technologies, Vendr, Veracode, York IE. and more.

“We think carefully each year about the topics and speakers to offer a best-in-class conference,” said Jeremy Seidman, Chair of the MIT Sloan CFO Summit, “I take great pride in the feedback I heard throughout the day on the energy and insights of this year’s event which spotlighted the ways in which CFOs have an impact on their organization’s success.”

Founded in 2002, the event brings together financial executives from around the world and leading faculty from MIT to learn and discuss high level strategies, practical insights and the integration of knowledge and creativity.

Conference highlights included:

• Fireside chat with Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Visiting Associate Professor, Finance, MIT Sloan and David Zinsner, EVP, Chief financial Officer, Intel Corporation
• Rest, Eat, Move: Chris Johnson, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, On Target Living
• Keynote panel featuring Nina Trentmann; Wall Street Journal, CFO Journal, Bureau Chief;  Anat Ashkenzai, EVP & Chief Financial Officer, Eli Lilly and Company; Monish Patolawala, EVP, Chief Financial and Transformation Officer, 3M; and Ken Tanji EVP and Chief Financial Officer, Prudential Financial
• Closing keynote with Charles Kane, Senior Lecturer, Global Economics, Management & technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management with Richard Puccio, Chief Financial Officer, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

About the MIT Sloan CFO Summit
The MIT Sloan CFO Summit is the nation’s premier CFO event. Started in 2002, the Summit brings together leading faculty from MIT and financial executives from around the world. The annual event offers a day of practical education, peer networking and thought-provoking discourse on the future of finance, accounting, and business. The day includes presentations, panels, keynote speakers and networking.  The Summit is part of the CXO Series produced by the MIT Sloan School of Management, one of the world’s leading academic sources of innovation in management theory and practice, and the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association. The annual events, organized by alumni volunteers, promote the MIT philosophy of “mens et manus,” or “mind and hand,” by bringing together the academic research from MIT Sloan with today’s corporate leaders. For more information and to register, visit www.mitcfo.com.

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It’s easy to innovate in an exuberant economy when “risk on” is the dominant catchphrase. But when risk aversion becomes the new mantra, smart leaders need new strategies for innovation.  As we move through a period of tighter funding and general budget austerity, smart business innovators have the opportunity to position offerings that offer clearly defined value to a targeted, addressable market.

“This is an exciting time for innovative companies to demonstrate their worth,” said Jason Quinn, Chief Financial Officer, Vendr.  “Our learnings from having helped companies purchase $2B worth of software tell us that companies are still looking to purchase SaaS, but they’re getting pickier in the process.  More than ever, buyers are valuing fair prices, a fast sales process, and products that drive innovation.”

Data-driven decisions  Diligence is the process of paying proper attention to the “puts and takes” of a given decision, and today’s buyers are increasingly focused on data-driven decisions.  Thus companies selling innovative products or services are paying closer attention to everything from product development to promotion – doing careful in-house research into the competitive landscape, real-world needs, appropriate pricing and target marketing.  Whether a brand new product or an upgrade to an existing one, innovation requires steady attention to the current state of affairs, while also looking ahead to what’s possible.

Decision-making cycles  As the economy cools, buying decisions today can take longer and include more people with an expanded decision team. Where the pandemic forced companies to make decisions in a compressed time frame, today those companies are adding people and cycles to the buying decision. While this can be frustrating, typically for both buyers and sellers, the longer sales cycle can also open a window into product and market fine-tuning.

Capital management  Asset allocation is increasingly important as well with the shift from more fundraising, hiring and building, to careful allocation of resources. Thus rather than developing  a full suite of products and services, a new venture may choose to focus on a core offering.

Market positioning A product that offers better connections or capabilities, be it between or among people, data or processes, is one that is positioned for success regardless of macro factors. With today’s laser focus on making smart economic choices, innovation and efficiency are strong contenders for a buyer’s attention.

Today’s risk averse economy can present a more challenging landscape to innovators and their companies.  However, successful financial leaders know that careful attention to product development, capital deployment and market positioning are the mainstay for buyer acceptance and continued success.