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Lee Marshall: Hunter Campbell Managing Partner on the results of the Mood of the CFO survey · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
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  Speaker 2: Some economic insight into our state of play comes from
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  Speaker 2: the Hunter Campbell Group mood of our CFOs. We have
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  Speaker 2: an uptick and confidence thirty eight percent, expecting modest to
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  Speaker 2: strong growth over the next twelve months. That's up from
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  Speaker 2: thirty one, So thirty one up to thirty eight. Lee Marshall,
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  Speaker 2: managing partner at Hunter Campbell, is with us. Lee, Morning
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  Speaker 2: to you one of Mike. Thanks having on not at
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  Speaker 2: all CFOs versus CEOs versus boards, work versus surveys. The
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  Speaker 2: value of a CFO and their insight is.
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  Speaker 3: What look I think for us CFOs who are at
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  Speaker 3: the very top of the tree and looking after all
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  Speaker 3: of the finances on a day to day basis, they
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  Speaker 3: consider economic and legislative fuctors on a daily basis. So
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  Speaker 3: in reality, and there's no one really a better place
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  Speaker 3: than a CFO to give us a three sixty view
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  Speaker 3: of how businesses are performing and what we can expect
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  Speaker 3: moving forward.
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  Speaker 2: So what are you hearing generally versus their own stories?
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  Speaker 2: There are divergence there.
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  Speaker 3: And yes, what we're actually seeing One of the big
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  Speaker 3: things that came out of the survey was that we're
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  Speaker 3: starting to see a little bit of a I guess
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  Speaker 3: a two speed economy start to take shape in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: Almost exactly fifty percent of the businesses that we surveyed
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  Speaker 3: had either met or exceeded their targets for the last year,
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  Speaker 3: and the other fifty percent how the stagnated or went backwards.
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  Speaker 3: So we're starting to see a little bit of a
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  Speaker 3: two speed economy start to take shape in New Zealand business.
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  Speaker 2: Are you seeing the uptickers real? Because we all thought
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  Speaker 2: twenty five was going to get bitter, It hasn't. We
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  Speaker 2: were wrong collectively. How do we know they're not wrong?
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  Speaker 3: Now? Yeah? Look, I think the longer time goes on,
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  Speaker 3: the clear of the picture will become. You know, we
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  Speaker 3: are facing a pretty big mess economically, right so, and
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  Speaker 3: the world world and a little bit of turmoil, I think. So,
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  Speaker 3: I think it's a really complex environment that we're facing.
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  Speaker 3: And as we work through this though, and what we
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  Speaker 3: did say is that if you had a decent year
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  Speaker 3: in the last twelve months, you are very confident that
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  Speaker 3: us going to get better in the next twelve months.
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  Speaker 3: And so That was heartening to see that and that
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  Speaker 3: there's less uncertainty kicking around with those businesses going pretty well.
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  Speaker 2: What about the old irony that good people are hard
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  Speaker 2: to find? How is it possible with the capacity in
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  Speaker 2: the economy, good people are still hard to find.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look for the accounting sector in particular, we sort
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  Speaker 3: of started this period in pretty bad shape. I think
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  Speaker 3: I read somewhere that the Big four has shrunk their
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  Speaker 3: head count in the last twelve months by five hundred people.
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  Speaker 3: We are producing less accountants from university, and we also
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  Speaker 3: lose people to overseas on a regular basis, particularly to London,
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  Speaker 3: and people go on their orowa. So we start from
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  Speaker 3: a really poor position from a talent perspective, and then
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  Speaker 3: you have all of these factors come into play and
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  Speaker 3: it makes it a little bit more difficult. Succession planning
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  Speaker 3: for businesses came through the survey as one of the
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  Speaker 3: biggest strategic blind spots. Only one in four CFOs are
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  Speaker 3: confident that they have the right talent in place for
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  Speaker 3: succession planning, so we actually have we have a big
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  Speaker 3: issue around future planning, and some gaps started.
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  Speaker 2: To show in a market there that's stuff on compliance
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  Speaker 2: and simplified texts. Every time you ask somebody who deals
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  Speaker 2: with pens and papers and counting, they always say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: we need a bit of compliance and simplifying text Is
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  Speaker 2: that real? I mean, are we really that bad? Have
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  Speaker 2: we done nothing in the decades worth of surveys, ove
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  Speaker 2: and reading about.
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  Speaker 3: This, Well, I think we've done some things, and certainly
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  Speaker 3: there have been some tweaks to tax policy that this
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  Speaker 3: was really a big number. Those seventy nine percent of
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  Speaker 3: CFO surveyed said they want the pot of the government
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  Speaker 3: to move policies so they can help accelerate growth. But interestingly,
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  Speaker 3: for me and Unlock, sixty five percent of them spoke
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  Speaker 3: specifically to tax But interestingly, only thirty eight percent of
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  Speaker 3: the respondents have actually worked with government to remove these roadblocks.
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  Speaker 3: So if you ask me, we actually need to see
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  Speaker 3: more business working with government to try and move this forward.
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  Speaker 3: And look, at the end of the day, we've got
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  Speaker 3: a general election next year. Likelihood of major policy changing
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  Speaker 3: happening anytime soon is probably quite quite unlikely. So I
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  Speaker 3: think business is largely to get off their hands and
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  Speaker 3: start helping themselves out. Really good on you.
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  Speaker 2: I could talk to you for hours in fact we
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  Speaker 2: might get you back on another day, and an interesting
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  Speaker 2: insight Lee Marshall Hunter Campbell, managing partner with us this morning.
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