
Tanuja Pandit and Zarin Patel explain the BBC’s unique method of streamlining the decision-making process within the finance function, which in turn brings greater value to the business whist increasing job role satisfaction.

As turnaround stories go, Asea Brown Boverei’s is up there with the best of them. Back in 2002 the Swedish/Swiss engineering giant – otherwise known as ABB – was a punch-drunk lumbering behemoth, very much on the ropes and almost out for the count. Massive internal wranglings coupled with the huge liabilities that the company owed in the US lead to what its current CFO Michel Demaré refers to as a ‘near-death experience’ for ABB.
Elsewhere in this edition we also talk to the BBCs group finance director Zarin Patel, herself also no stranger to organisational change, and hear the views of Sarah-Jane Chilver-Stainer, senior vice president and group treasurer of GSK on the topic of managing financial risk and maintaining ready access to capital markets – something every company needs to keep at the forefront to avoid any near-death experiences.