·         Participants at the Cost Congress 2013 here today concurred that given the current economic slowdown, Indian companies need to identify value drivers to increase competitiveness and push growth.

·         This view was highlighted by Anjum Parvez, Managing Director, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, who said that Total Cost Management (TCM) did not apply only to individual companies but had a bearing on the entire country, affecting survival and sustainability at the macro level.

·         The theme for the two-day international conference organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was aptly chosen as “De-risking value creation through innovation in Total Cost Management”.

·         He said, contrary to common perception, the public sector was facing the same challenges as the private sector in the market and “one has to manage costs innovatively while creating value at the same time.” He stressed on the need to not only collect data but analyse the same and undertake forecast planning.

·         Fiona Harvey, Regional Director (Performance and Emerging Markets), CIMA London, said they had entered into a partnership with CII to engage with industry to develop the domain of cost accounting and management accounting. “The idea is to play a proactive role to create leadership and share best practices,” she said.

·         Koushik Chatterjee, Chairman, Cost Congress 2013 and Group ED (Corporate & Finance), Tata Steel, expressed optimism at the growing acceptance of TCM by Indian industry. The scope of cost management has come far way from its earlier role of statutory cost accounting function to holistic approach aimed at enhancing value, he said, adding that the pressure in India and the world over was to utilize capital effectively.

·         The CII has developed the TCM Maturity Model as an enterprise-wide benchmark to assess cost management levels. The concept behind the Model was elucidated by A N Raman, Member CII TCM Working Group, Former President SAFA & Member IFAC, who said that more and more companies are coming forward even though it is a purely voluntary assessment.

·         The occasion also saw the distribution of the Maturity Model Plaque to exemplary companies and the release of the TCM Maturity Model Case Study Booklet.

·         Delivering the vote of thanks, Umesh R Shastry, Co-Chair, Cost Congress 2013 & VP & Head (Corp Finance & Accounts), Kirloskar Brothers Ltd, said that organisations are hard pressed to focus on cost management levers to create value, and the effort is to provide excellence in the pursuit of cost management.

·         Participants at the CII Cost Congress 2013 comprised a wide spectrum of professionals in both management and accounting from various fields and sectors along with representatives of public sector organisations, academia and media.

CII organized Cost Congress 2013 on 27-28 November, 2013 at New Delhi.

CII - Total Cost Management Division is actively involved in providing Cost Management services to the Indian industry and the prime objective of the TCM division is to facilitate the National Movement on TCM in order to make Indian Industry cost-competitive.

Towards this initiative, we have institutionalized an annual flagship event Cost Congress.
The previous events have evoked tremendous interest amongst various stakeholders and were addressed by eminent personalities across the globe.