Selecting winners from across hundreds of companies is never easy. The job becomes even more difficult when the external environment is as tough as at present. But the distinguished six-member jury for the fifth edition of the FE CFO Awards made the job look relatively easy through the rigour they put in while assessing the shortlisted candidates.

The jury was chaired by Paresh Sukthankar, former deputy managing director, HDFC Bank, and the other members were: Amit Chandra, chairman, Bain Capital; Pradip Shah, chairman, IndAsia Fund Advisors; Ashu Suyash, former managing director, Crisil; Ajay Srinivasan, chief executive, Aditya Birla Capital; and Amit Tandon, managing director, IiAS.

The number crunching was done by knowledge partner Deloitte which sifted through hundreds of companies to arrive at a manageable shortlist. Among the key parameters considered included profit after tax (PAT), current ratio, return on capital employed (ROCE) and the debt-equity ratio. The scores given by rating agencies were checked as were the comments of the auditors.

The candidates were assessed not merely on financials but also on corporate governance standards. The jury took into consideration several factors such as judicious use of capital at a time when supply chains were disrupted due to the pandemic and cash flows impacted. Those CFOs who did reasonably well, despite troubled times for the sectors, scored brownie points. So did those who had ensured the company was not over-leveraged or those who steered a mergers & acquisitions transaction.

Despite operating in a very a difficult environment, quite a few CFOs performed well under pressure and it was tough to pick the stand-out performances. More often than not, the contest was a keen one and only in a very few were there clear winners. The winners, whose names will be announced later this week, can be sure they’ve done a good job because their performances have been judged by a very experienced and highly competent team of professionals.