Private Sector
The 2020 Virtual Summit Series For Chief Financial, Operations, And Supply Chain Executives
Leadership for Resilience and Growth
When & Where
May 19-19, 2020
Harvard University | Cambridge, MA

About the Summit

Overview

The Virtual Summit Series will feature Harvard faculty, subject matter experts, and current chief financial officers and chief supply chain officers. Participants will take a leadership view and address how this crisis can become a catalyst to bolstering newfound strengths and fixing gaps that have been identified in finance and supply chain operations. In particular, the Virtual Summit Series will address these critical challenges and opportunities from lenses including:

  • Strategy: How can we experiment, innovate and refine our structures, systems, budgets, processes, and operating models to increase our capacity while managing fiscal constraints?
  • Human Capital: In the midst of uncertainty and change, how can we foster an environment of experimentation to continue to deliver public value, and maintain a sense of purpose, morale, and value for our people?
  • Technology: What innovative digital platforms, technologies, data, and analytics have we been able to capitalize on in this turbulent time, and how can we leverage these advancements in the future?

Together, attendees of the Virtual Summit will explore strategies to optimize current operations, manage evolving risks, and deliver public value.

Building a Future-Fit, Purpose-Driven, and Resilient Supply Chain at Unilever
Wednesday, June 10th at 11:00 am EST

In recent years, the fundamentals of the fast-moving consumer business have already dramatically changed, moving toward greater customization, on-demand products, and brands with purpose. COVID-19 has become an accelerator for these macro trends, further altering how people shop, consume media, and pay for things. In addition, it has dramatically disrupted supply chains around the world. With this dramatic shift, how are the most innovative companies building resilience into their operations and driving massive transformation to prepare for a future that is still under development? In this session, Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Unilever, will discuss his leadership experience guiding the company’s operations and supply chain through the COVID-19 crisis. He will highlight strategies his team has used to remain resilient and agile during this crisis, ranging from identifying alternative data that can shed light on how the pandemic is impacting different components of supply chains, to technologies such as crawlers and artificial intelligence that can offer insights on potential risks and shortages, to approaches to keep employees safe and support critical partners. He will also talk about Unilever’s framework for identifying opportunities for innovation and sustainable growth in the midst of turbulence. In particular, he will describe how the pandemic has strengthened their resolve to develop a purpose-driven, future-fit supply chain. Mr. Engel will describe Unilever’s continued efforts to develop a multi-stakeholder model – caring for employees, customers, suppliers, partners, society, the planet, and shareholders – and to decrease the company’s environmental footprint and increase their social handprint.

Featured Sessions

Positioning for an Evolving Future at Stanley Black & Decker
Thursday, June 11th at 11:00 am EST

In these turbulent times, massive changes in consumer behaviors and global markets are upending past business models. With this rapid and extensive change, surviving and thriving will require addressing short-term operational and financial challenges, identifying innovations and new business models that can shape the future, and building agility for an uncertain future.

In this session, Don Allan, Chief Financial Officer at Stanley Black & Decker, will key describe key steps the company is taking to respond to this turbulence, including decisions and investment around human capital, operations and supply chains, and an innovation ecosystem. Don will also talk about the leadership challenges and opportunities involved in weathering the current crisis and positioning for future value.

Program Agenda

  • Our second session for Chief Supply Chain Officers will take place Wednesday, June 10th at 11:00 am EST with Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Unilever
  • Our second session for CFOs will take place Thursday, June 11th at 11:00 am EST with Don Allan, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Stanley Black & Decker
  • Our third session will take place June 23rd at 11:00 am EST with Harvard Business School professor David Ager
  • Our fourth session for Chief Supply Chain Officers will take place Tuesday, July 14th at 11:00 am EST with John Church, Executive Vice President, Supply Chain and Global Business Solutions and Chief Supply Chain Officer, General Mills
  • Our fourth session for CFOs will take place the week of July 13th
  • Our final session will take place the week of July 27th

Who Should Attend?

The Virtual Summit is an invitation-only program designed to develop the next generation of chief financial officers, and chief supply chain officers. Participants in the program are chief financial officers, chief supply chain officers, and/or a senior-level team member designated by the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, or chief supply chain officer of their respective firms.

Admission & Participation

Participation is limited to chief financial officers, chief supply chain officers, and/or their designee. All other applicants will be reviewed and accepted on a case-by-case basis. This event is supported by the hosting and collaborating organizations, so there is no tuition or fee to participate in these virtual sessions.

The Executive Leadership Group

Don Allan
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Stanley, Black & Decker
Brett Biggs
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Wal-Mart
Nelson Chai
Chief Financial Officer
Uber
John Church
Executive Vice President, Supply Chain and Global Business Solutions; Chief Supply Chain Officer
General Mills
Marc Engel
Chief Supply Chain Officer
Unilever
Paul Jacobson
Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Delta
KC McClure
Chief Financial Officer
Accenture
Edward McGowan
Chief Financial Officer
Akamai Technologies
Zane Rowe
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
VMware
Tracey Travis
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
John Witt
Chief Financial Officer
Jardines Matheson

Previous Reports

The Next Frontier of Value Creation: A Report from 2018 CFO of the Future Summit

Go to Report

For chief financial officers, balancing the spectrum of traditional and ecosystem-based business models will not only be game-changing, but also bring unprecedented challenges and opportunities. As industries and organizations begin to shift to more ecosystem-driven environments, the CFO growth agenda will need to pivot from firm-specific operations to ecosystem-wide operations, as well as from balancing customer value to maximizing ecosystem value. Throughout this evolution, CFOs will continue to reinvent firm-wide capabilities, build new collaborations and revenue models, deploy cutting-edge machine learning and analytics, and cultivate human capital that can thrive in a rapidly evolving digital world.

Fueling the Growth Agenda: A Report from 2017 CFO of the Future Summit

Go to Report

Amidst a backdrop of deepening digital disruption, growing political uncertainty, increasing regulatory complexity, and shifting consumer preferences, one thing is certain – chief financial officers are creating a new agenda for growth.

To effectively lead in this new environment, chief financial officers and finance executives must become “chief growth officers”—the point persons who not only control stability, accountability and risk, but also grow profitability, enterprise-wide agility, sustainability, and customer trust.

This growth-oriented pivot will be valuable, yet difficult. The chief growth officer must redefine the playbook of finance by embracing disruption, spearheading the development of new business models, and building agility into operations. Growth oriented and finance-led organizations often manage two or more different business models under one roof, free up resources to invest in growth initiatives, define and measure new key performance indicators, and create new ecosystems and platforms for rapid value creation. Perhaps most critically, the chief growth officer will spend time recruiting and building new talent to lead these initiatives, creating a team that thrives at the intersection of technology and finance.

At The 2017 CFO of the Future Summit: Fueling the Growth Agenda, convened by the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard and Leadership for a Networked World, in collaboration with Accenture Strategy, current and next-generation CFOs from leading global companies workshopped their successes and learned about the future of business from top researchers in the field.

The Summit focused on critical skills and questions CFOs grapple with today, including: What is transformational change and what does it take to drive transformation in a large organization? How can organizations disrupt themselves and find new business models? What is the future of value creation? What is the new face of the CFO and finance team? Beyond spreadsheets and financial models, what does a finance-led transformation look like?

Creating Value in a Digital Age: A Report from 2016 CFO of the Future Summit

Go to Report

Chief financial officers (CFOs) are facing an era of disruption: a time when forces and factors such as macro-economic shifts, global regulatory flux, digital tools and e-currencies, data and analytics, behavioral economics, and an information-savvy customer base will drive a surge of new service demands and upend outdated corporate financial models. While disruption will bring formidable challenges for finance leaders, it will also create an unprecedented opportunity to not only ensure new levels of compliance but also drive growth and enterprise value.

To help current and next generation CFOs meet the demands of this new era, the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, Accenture Strategy, and Leadership for a Networked World convened The 2016 CFO of the Future Summit: Creating Value in a Digital Age, held from May 18 – 20, 2016, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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