The World Economic Forum meeting at Davos kicks off today. Some 1200 CEOs from the world's largest companies are in attendance along with their various entourages. The official theme of the conference is "Shared Norms for the New Reality."

But a fundamental disconnect is emerging from what the conference wants to address and what business leaders are actually feeling. And this disconnect affects CFOs directly.

The head of a government commission looking into the future of British banking has given a strong hint that he will eventually call for a break up of the banks. Sir John Vickers is the Chairman of the Independent Commission on Banks, which has been set up to examine how British banks are owned, run and regulated.

Li Ka-Shing's Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa (known locally as Hutch) always tops the list of the best managed companies in Asia. This is less to do with its operational management and always to do with its financial management. Its success also flies in the face of conventional wisdom that conglomerates dilute shareholder value through a lack of focus.

Monday was a good day to be an Indonesian CFO.

Moody's upgraded the Republic of Indonesia from Ba2 to Ba1, one level short of investment grade. With the sovereign ceiling raised, a whole raft of upgrades followed for 10 of the country's banks, and for the national gas, electric and cements companies. Financing costs have come down and the country edges closer to the deep well of money available to those deemed investment grade.

In the run up to the visit of Chinese president Hu Jintao to the US next week, government officials have been indulging in the usual round of rhetoric about the undervalued Chinese currency and how it seriously harms US business.

Today at a speech to be given at John's Hopkins University, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will again say that the Chinese currency is "substantially undervalued." He goes on to say that if China continues to undervalue its currency, then asset prices and inflation will rise, "which will threaten future growth."

 One of the staple questions reporters ask corporate executives is what is their China strategy? The answers usually focus on ways that company is trying to either sell into China, or compete with Chinese low cost producers. The onus is on operations, never on finances.

But there is now a stark similarity between the ways that companies are accumulating cash and the way the Chinese and other Asian governments have been accumulating cash.

In April this year the UK will bring into force the new Anti-Bribery act. It is modeled on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the US and makes the UK one of the harshest jurisdictions when it comes to dealing with corporate corruption.

The Act is intended to stop companies bribing foreign officials to win business. And any UK-based company or indeed any company that has any commercial dealing in the UK will be subject to the new sanctions.

It looks like 2011 is shaping up to be a very different year from 2010. Many companies will have got through the immediate effects of the global financial crisis through the largesse of their national governments. This will be the year when that largesse will stop and the huge debts will need to be recovered.

In contrast, 2010 was a strange year. Fiscal and budgetary crises erupted around the world, and yet business sailed on blithely. Indeed with the stock markets around the world registering double digit growth, corporate executives could be forgiven for thinking they had come out of the woods.

 
New research from the UK shows how the rapid swings in currency valuations are having a negative effect on exports.
 
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) recently released a report on the prospects for export growth in the SME sector. It surveyed nearly 2000 small businesses in the UK and found that almost half - some 48 percent - were put off exporting by fluctuating exchange rates.
 
The report also found that a third of respondents were put off exporting due to excessive red tape and bureaucracy, and a quarter were deterred by worries that they might not get paid.
 
In the UK, like in the US, export promotion is a large part of the government's plan for regaining growth. Of the respondents to the survey some 87 percent were targeting Europe with 45 percent looking to sell to the US.
 
The European angle is important, especially because a new Banking Services Directive was launched by the EU in 2009, under which local banks are supposed to offer SMEs advice and services that will enable them to export more. However, not one respondent of the survey admitted that they had used their local bank for this.
 
"The Services Directive offers huge potential in breaking down barriers to the single market, yet no small businesses surveyed were aware of it," says Mike Cherry, policy director of the FSB.
 
Given the response to the survey, banks should be focusing on offering ways for small businesses to hedge out their currency concerns, as well as helping to cut red tape and bureaucracy.