Economist: Our pension security will be referred to as salary

David Marek, Chief Economist at Deloitte and economic advisor to the President of the Czech Republic, identified the situation on the labor market as one of the factors that fundamentally contributes to high inflation: "In 2018, the characteristics of the labor market changed, vacancies began to exceed the number of applicants for employees. This also increased the cost of labour force, which established favorable conditions to high inflation rate."

LMC labour market analyst Tomáš Ervín Dombrovský confirmed that we will be dealing with this problem in the long term: "Our market is extremely saturated, we have the smallest number of people in Europe who can be incorporated in the labour market." Česká spořitelna´s Economist and Minister in the project The Minister of Health, David Navrátil, mentioned Japan, where a quarter of the population of retirement age is still employed, as a reference for the future development of the labour market in our country. Raising the retirement age alone will not help if we do not increase the number of years of healthy life expectancy. "Our pension rates will be called salries," he predicted. While the expected number of years lived in health at the moment of birth is 69 in the Czech Republic, it is 74 in Japan. The Minister of Health project aims to extend the years lived in health by 5 years, thanks to a strategy built mainly on prevention and digitization of the health sector.

How do companies react to the difficult situation on the labour market? In the panel discussion, representatives of company´s management agreed that one of the ways is targeted support in the region and the cultivation of the surroundings where they operate. Among other was mentioned support to a hospice, renovation of historically important building in the village or help with administration to kindergartens. With a positive impact, companies can retain current employees and attract new ones. Jan Lát from the Beneš a Lát company notices a higher stress on ethical behavior among the younger generation. At the same time, young people in this foundry company rotate more often in different positions, they like to try new things and also they get involved as volunteers in new projects that move the business forward.

Artificial intelligence - two sides of the coin

Advanced technologies such as AI or machine learning are an integral part of the CFO's tools on the way to efficiency. In a broader context, Štěpán Bouda from Sabris drew attention to the non-transparency associated with artificial intelligence: "We don't see beyond the systems and we don't know the path by which artificial intelligence will reach the result."

Technological progress in the field of financial management is a must. The company Mews, which aspires to be the next Czech unicorn, had to turn its business around due to the negative economic effects of the pandemic and build a new strategy based, among other things, on profitability and the development of internal processes. These are essential for a company that is growing rapidly again today. "Many people view automation in the company as a form of savings, but the most important thing is the data and the fact that the systems make sense. Automation allows us to make quick decisions and see how the business works with the client. Thanks to this, we have a greater overlap of finances into the business, which is key," said Pavla Munzarová, financial director of Mews, in an interview with Jan Moravec from Salesforce.

Regulations that directly affect the CFO

Failure to comply with the obligations related to the Cyber Security Act NIS2 and DORA may result in the exclusion of a member of the statutory body. Adam Škarka from Sedláková Legal therefore appealed to companies to find out if the given obligations are applied on them too, now, after the expansion of the list of subjects. He also pointed out that companies have to define what their “gold” is, because this needs to be protected from cyberattacks.

Radka Mašková and Jaroslav Beneš from Deloitte presented the results of the survey on the development of technological needs and strategies in the area of taxes. CFOs perceive the high number of requests for different formats and data items as the most difficult questions, and they also admit the inability to adapt their technological systems quickly enough. How to get out of it? By identifying the agenda where financial managers spend the most time, such as indirect taxes, where automation is needed.

The conference was prepared by Blue Events in cooperation with the expert guarantor, Deloitte, and other partners.

The event was moderated by Daniel Stach from Czech Television.

For more information see: www.cfocongress.cz

Contact: tereza.ordonez@blueevents.eu

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