12 May 1998

Chief Financial Officers and the Year 2000 Problem

With just 600 days to go, a new survey finds many Chief Financial Officers (CFO's) in a variety of industries seemingly unconcerned that the century rollover may flatten their financial futures. Conducted by RHI Management Resources, the survey polled responses from 1,400 CFO's in companies with more than 20 employees. Overall, 49 per cent of respondents said they are either "not too concerned" or "not concerned at all" about the financial implications of the world's Y2K conversion not being completed on time. While 70 per cent of CFO's at firms with over 1,000 employees said they are "somewhat" or "very" concerned, this number dropped back down to 51 per cent of respondents in the overall survey. Those industry CFO's least inclined to break a sweat over a calendar crash work in business services (54 per cent), construction (53 per cent), retail and professional services (51 per cent), and manufacturing (50 per cent). Finance and transportation industry CFO's appear to have the most century-related concerns. Sixty-two per cent of those polled in both industries said they are somewhat or very concerned.