The manifestation of how significant a talented CFO can be for an organization became crystal clear to me when I experienced the CFO Conference this week here in Las Vegas. An amazing event sponsored by CFO.com and CFO Conferences; the conference provided a sobering backdrop to our current financial, social and economic environment.
I was a sponge, listening carefully, taking notes and searching through the information for those moments of wisdom and opportunities for a better tomorrow. I found a bright light in the significantly deep level of talent in the room. From the former Comptroller of the United States, David M. Walker, to the CFO of Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG), Al Drewes, brilliant minds think of ways to create opportunity in good times and more importantly in bad times.

Here are some wonderful, positive outcomes for Corporate America as well as our personal lives. Maybe we can ask our government to learn from some of the best practices of major companies such as PBG, Coke, J&J and GE, just to name a few.

The first lesson is nothing new, but appears to be forgotten: Fundamentals are the key to the success of your companies as well as in our personal lives. What do we mean by fundamentals?

1. Core competences - companies that focus on their core competences can weather any storm. Move away from what "feels" good and do what "is" good. This does not imply that I heard recommendations to stagnate in your ability to move forward in markets aligned within your core competence. In one situation, Levis Strauss did not adjust its core competence to changing market conditions and needed some major shifts in order to adapt its brand to a new way of looking at jeans. It was from an expansion of their core that they recovered from a stall in growth, not from a deviation from their core. Many will take the struggle within their current market and see it as a reason to move away from their core competence, such is what happened to banks, investment houses, insurance companies, all of which mixed and match their companies to step outside their core and try to be all things to all people. We now see that a lack of focus is part of the issues facing the financial markets today.

2. Asset based results. Creating value from non-asset based transitions is a thing of the past. At least we hope THIS TIME, it is. Business fundamentals: sales based on a true value transaction, selling goods and services, not synthetic derivatives or "anything internet" as was in the 90s is at the core of successful companies. True value given for compensation is the sustained business model. This is the life long model that carried America through the industrial age right to the technology age. Every time a non-asset or value backed sale has generated excitement, its short lived and has a great fall. When companies focus on value driven sales and cost efficiencies, the business is successful. Personally, that means living within your means. This is a very old expression taught by our grandfathers, to our fathers. Somewhere along the line we started to believe all the advertising that said you can have it today and pay for it tomorrow. Not true and a rude awakening for every consumer to face right now. Salary today or household revenue can be your only measure of what is available for your home expense and profit budget. What the best of the best will tell you is the way to create results is to expand your ability to create revenue on a business and personal level. This is the true way to expand your means and live enjoying all that the world has to offer.

3. Hoard Cash! Companies that are cash smart will have the most flexibility. This long-standing tradition has served the likes of Warren Buffet and other famous names very well. Companies that have maintained a balance between leverage and cash reserves, maybe have lost some percentage of short term financial reward from their capital, but have succeeded long term. Cash has always been a great measuring tool and now the Financial Accounting Profession is recognizing it to be a measure of the value of a company as important as market capitalization and earnings per share. In your personal life, cash has been replaced with plastic. Sure plastic has a convenience to it but cash spent gives perspective to spending that plastic never can. Think of this the next time you give the grocer $168.12 in cash for your one week's grocery bill!

The second lesson is discipline and performance. Deliver on promises rather than shooting from the hip in the hopes of figuring it out later. Create performance expectations based on realistic goals for all levels of your organization. That measure, as compared to the measure of market expectations, will carry organizational results in a disciplined environment. Had Wall Street, the mortgage market, FANNIE MAE and Freddie Mac and the Congress created performance expectations based on realistic goals and held all accountable at all levels of these organizations, then the likes of greed, campaign contributions and looking the other way would never have succeeded. Today, we are learning some difficult lessons. Today our personal lives must be maintained with discipline and performance, from parents to children, from teachers to business owners, from government officials to charitable organizations, we must hold ourselves accountable to create performance expectations based on realistic goals and discipline ourselves to perform. Only at that point will our America show the world the enduring results I could see in the faces and presentations of major corporate CFOs this last week.

I am so honored to have been in the room with such talent and my respect for who I am honored to call my peers grows stronger every day. Thank you CFO.com.http://EzineArticles.com