Handelsblatt CFO-Kongress: Melanie Kreis (Deutsche Post DHL Group)

Yes, on one hand we need to keep an eye on the classic topics, the rest of the organization relies on that. But clearly we have to face future topics like digital transformation, and that is a big balancing act for us as a finance organization. But I believe that will also bring exciting new topics in our direction.

Yes, digital transformation is a big topic for us as a company. If you look at our business, on one hand we face challenges when you think about the decline in mail volumes, the substitution affects us negatively. At the same time, we are big beneficiaries when you think about the e-commerce boom and parcel growth. So it is a very fundamental topic for us as a company, which we see as a great opportunity. And when I think about the finance area, we also have great opportunities to make our processes simpler, more efficient, more user-friendly, to make decisions faster and better. But we definitely need to take our colleagues along on this transformation journey.

Yes, I must first say that we as a finance area have already gone through various transformation processes in the past. When you look at how accounting processes are done today, it is fundamentally different from 20 years ago. We have standardized, system-supported processes that are mostly done in shared service centers in other countries – completely different from 20 years ago. So this is not the first transformation process we will go through. I believe the vision I see clearly is that even more repetitive, marginally value-adding tasks will be taken over by machines, so that our colleagues will have more time to engage in value-adding analyses. And I believe that to use this properly, it will be important for us as a finance area to move even closer to the business and use the freed-up time to drive business success.

Things become simpler, faster, more efficient, and we have more time to deal with the truly important topics.

And I clearly need many of the old good activities – we call that in our company ‘Valued Financial Expert’. Our colleagues in other areas rely on us keeping the house in order, knowing how accounting standards work, being secure on the tax side, and so on. So we still need these familiar skills. We must clearly build more knowledge in the area of new technologies, we must become more tech-savvy. And I believe we must become much more cross-functional team players – within the finance team itself, but also with other parts of the organization.

Yes, I believe the biggest transformation trends we just talked about is the topic of digital transformation. That is the biggest trend for us as a company. There are of course related business trends like e-commerce growth, which we naturally have to deal with on the finance side. But I believe that what is generally referred to as digital transformation is the big mega transformation trend we have to face.

I believe what I have seen in recent years – and there are good reasons for that – is that regulation has increased in many areas, be it in compliance, when you think about the General Data Protection Regulation and such things. And I believe it is important that such complex topics are regulated. But what is also very important for us as a company is that pragmatic thought is given to how this can be implemented in everyday reality. So we simply need to find a good balance between necessary regulations on important relevant topics and implementing them in a way that is pragmatically manageable.

Well, I see this here rather as a great opportunity for me to hear from colleagues what topics they are currently dealing with. And one thing – we have various target groups – one thing I find very exciting at the moment is: regardless of which industry you look at, whether it is a large or a small company, there are incredibly many topics that concern all of us. And that is why such exchange forums, where you can talk to colleagues from other areas, are extremely helpful for me.