Why a Finance professional works in a dark room?

Today the environment in which an organization operates has become so unpredictable, filled with unseen forces that a Business Finance professional is always scampering in a dark room. A finance professional who is in charge of the limited resources an organization possesses, has to do a tight-rope act to satisfy various stake-holders while managing risk vs profitability. With an increase in the number of sophisticated applications available, picking up information from different sources & incorporating it so as to aid the decision-making process, the job calls for a high-level of IT skills so as to have a complete picture of the whole process & for problem-solving in case of downtimes.

With the considerable deregulation & in the post-liberalization era the sheer number & types of financial products in the market have magnified several times. So to find the right product suitable for your organization whether for funding or investing purposes, is like finding a needle in a haystack. So in my opinion we need to pull up our socks & keep educating ourselves, I don’t mean getting multiple degrees but just becoming aware & learning on-the-job as corporate finance with its complexities, nuances & sector-specific challenges is a tough ask. It is tough to gauge the response & final outcome of descions in this dynamic environment.

The recent announcement of our Budget 2011, by the Finance Minister who has the toughest job in our country drew lot of flak. I personally felt it was a spineless budget, when you have such a powerful tool in your hand its necessary to use it effectively instead of just-trying to appease everyone by not drawing swords , nothing definitive & tough : In spite of the rising scams, corruption cases no drastic measure was introduced to tackle these issues – the only measure was forming of a committee & we all know what happens to committees formed in our country, it is free-lunches & perks for its members.Education with the increased allocation as always & reforms to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan program which promotes right to free education, I thought was a step in the right direction. But it is necessary that this education is effective & that the funds reach the right hands. The amendments of the Income tax act were insignificant, just a minor increase & decrease in rates, new exemptions & abolitions of few , nothing major to have any sort of impact, except for the DTC implementation date & one thing I don’t understand is when in all other classes of individuals the basic exemption limits were raised why for women the slabs remained unchanged?The progress on the introduction of GST was a good sign but again the final implementation has still many obstacles in its path, leaving a lot to be desired.

So I guess whether it’s a corporate finance expert or the minister handling such humongous amounts of funds & tools ‘the dark room syndrome’ is applicable to all.