Embracing Uncertainty

The Making of a Resilient Treasurer

Honing the essential treasury skills in Zimbabwe and then moving to UAE to further develop her approach, has seen Meticulous Dube build a rock-solid understanding of her chosen profession. Here, she explains why her flexibility, curiosity, resilience, and strategic judgment are fundamental to her success.

The role of treasury has been transformed in the past decade or so, and this is in no small way due to the unerring professionalism of its practitioners. While cash, liquidity, and risk management remain the timeless, transferable skills, Dube, fully alert to the fact that treasury continues to evolve, understands precisely the effects of this change. Treasury, she states, “is now also about enabling growth, shaping strategy, and creating flexibility and resilience within the organisation”.

The difference-maker

As part of this ‘new deal’, advancing technology – both in terms of innovation and accessibility – has been a particular “game-changer” for treasury functions, notes Dube. In risk management terms, she sees the role having expanded from covering assets and interest rates, to dealing more recently with digital assets, tokenisation, and crypto-related exposures. “And now we need to embed these into our frameworks and keep our controls as part of our day-to-day treasury duties.”

The wider notion of treasury transformation has, she says, become “a real difference-maker” for many companies. “When we’re talking of AI, automation, and advanced analytics within the organisation, these conversations are dramatically reshaping the focus and decision-making capabilities of treasury teams.”

But alongside the emergence of high-tech disciplines in treasury such as data analytics, Dube acknowledges the continuing need to nurture human relationships. “They’ve always been there within treasury, with internal and external stakeholders,” she says. “But now we need to be more adaptable. We are moving from a back-office function, towards a position at the intersection of finance teams, operational functions, auditors, senior leadership, banks, and regulators.”

This means staying agile, building trust and influence with different stakeholders, and, crucially, recognising and understanding all of their perspectives, as that transformation is what builds momentum. As Dube states: “At the core of a great treasurer is a combination of sharp analytical skills with unwavering integrity and credibility, earning the trust that turns strategy into real results.”

Brief detour on long career path

The level of skill characteristically required to become a professional treasurer comes from exposure to many different aspects of organisational life. Starting out in accounting before moving to treasury is a well-trodden path across this field. But for Dube, it wasn’t something that was consciously planned, her progress instead arising through what she refers to as “a natural progression”.

“I was in operations, and an opportunity opened up in the treasury function so I just stepped into it,” she recalls. Initially, she saw it as a short-term move, affording her a feel for how head office operates before returning to the accounting world. Although that role was on the treasury accounting side, she valued it for instilling in her a sense of discipline and a deep respect for detail, which, with the benefit of hindsight, she cites as “essential foundations” for any successful treasury career.

However, having seized the opportunity, senior management soon started entrusting Dube with more focused treasury responsibilities, including liquidity management, hedging, and money market placements. “This was the career-defining moment for me. I remember sitting with the group treasurer and the finance director and being involved in decisions that directly influenced cash, risk, and value creation. It was more exciting than being in accounting. At that point, I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

Grace under pressure

Dube’s first position as a fully-fledged treasurer arrived with Delta Beverages, the largest beer and beverages maker in Zimbabwe. It was a baptism of fire. “I arrived at quite an intense period for the Zimbabwean economy. Inflation was high and we faced multiple liquidity crunches,” she reflects.

Delta Beverages operated in a somewhat complicated environment, with treasury necessarily at the centre of the action, and navigating complexity on a day-to-day basis. One of its major challenges was accessing FX. With the majority of its suppliers based overseas, this required constant engagement with banks and regulators, and building strong financial relationships wherever possible beyond traditional banking channels.

“Our priority was always to make sure that our supplier obligations were met without disrupting operations,” recalls Dube. “That required me to constantly explain to the finance, operations and supply chain teams that even if a requisition was approved, it did not mean the cash was available immediately. Frequent liquidity crunches meant the FX was not always available to pay the suppliers. It was a major challenge to source FX on a day-to-day basis.”

At the same time, treasury had to contend with rapidly shifting exchange rates and high inflation. “Liquidity mismatches and multiple pricing realities made cash flow planning particularly challenging across the group,” says Dube. Consolidating cash flows required close collaboration with finance, procurement, and operations, and an acceptance that by the time everything finally tied together, the assumptions behind it had often already changed.

Frequent policy changes added another layer of complexity. Measures introduced to manage inflation in a multicurrency environment often had immediate implications for forecasting, customer pricing and FX inflows. “There were moments when a policy announcement meant reopening a cash flow model that had just been finalised. On those days, I learnt the value of perspective,” says Dube. “I would close my laptop, take a walk around the greenery at head office, and come back knowing the numbers would still be there, but my judgment would be better for the pause.”

The process demanded a strong technical treasury ability and, in equal measures, robust communication skills and the ability to remain calm under almost constant pressure. “When an operations manager calls to tell you the plant is about to shut down because it is running low on raw materials, you have to be able to prioritise the minimal FX you’ve acquired from the bank to somehow make sure operations are not disrupted,” notes Dube.

That work highlighted for her how treasury had been shifting from an operational function to one that had valuable strategic input. “As treasurer, I was increasingly called upon to be a stabilising force for the business,” she says. “It was quite a learning curve, coming from the introverted accounting side, quickly having to raise my game and be able to communicate with all stakeholders within the organisation.”

Working directly with senior management in particular was taken by Dube as a learning opportunity. Indeed, she describes that nurturing experience as “standing on the shoulders of those that went before us”. It was, she added, an occasion “to observe how they approached high-stake discussions with the banks, how they balanced risk with opportunity, and then applied judgment in moments that shaped corporate outcomes”.

Playing treasury detective

That exposure also armed Dube with the tools to be able to move into a more senior role. Following almost 12 years with Delta, culminating in the Group Treasury Associate role, she accepted the Group Treasurer position with Surface Wilmar, the largest cooking oil manufacturer in Southern Africa. This enabled her to use her accumulated knowledge to oversee the development and implementation of a broad sweep of enhancements around policies, governance, reporting, systems, and strategies.

With the firm operating in a volatile market, the short gap between the previous treasurer departing and Dube’s arrival showed up as a balance sheet mismatch. This was resolved with a significant debt restructuring programme. “With most of the facilities in high-rate local currency, moving to USD denomination helped me to realign the balance sheet,” she explains. The debt restructuring programme saw funding costs being cut down from 48% to 15%.

Facilities pricing and negotiation became another area of focus. “The company had grown and the banks were now getting more business,” Dube recalls. “Establishing a multi-banking system gave us real bargaining power, allowing for better terms with banks in a win-win manner. It was a lesson in the power of preparation and relationships: with the right credibility and strategy, treasury could shape the conversation rather than just respond to it.”

Sourcing FX for major plant refurbishment was also on the agenda for the company. “That came with its own challenges because now I also had to look for FX from international banks,” Dube says. The task required her to work closely with many other stakeholders, including procurement teams and suppliers, exploring both local and international markets for the most appropriate deals, undertaking what she says felt like “treasury detective work”.

The upgrade of the treasury function naturally required the streamlining of existing processes and upgrading of systems, as well as reinforcing financial controls across the group. This saw Dube overseeing the treasury and banking elements of a roll-out of SAP S/4HANA as the business strived for the modern goals of real-time data processing, analytics, and automation. At a more structural level, she also led the development of treasury policy and governance, implementing clearer guidelines, controls, and reporting mechanisms as she sought to align treasury with both corporate strategy and regulatory expectations.

Moving moments

The mountain of work undertaken with Surface Wilmar acted as a preparatory stage for Dube’s next move. This featured a location shift from Zimbabwe to UAE. “My work up until that point had strengthened my resilience and adaptability,” she acknowledges. “I had to navigate volatile markets, remain calm under pressure, and be able to think creatively if I were to make informed decisions, especially when conditions were uncertain.”

But with a raft of foundational treasury experience, Dube saw the move from Zimbabwe to UAE as one that would offer her even more opportunity to progress. “I had worked in Zimbabwe for a long time, and I understood its necessarily reactive market. But I wanted to find a more stable environment that would permit a proactive and tech-enabled approach,” she says of her choice to head to UAE in July 2024. Her first role upon arrival was as temporary Regional Treasury Manager for TotalEnergies’ Renewables Distributed Generation MENA.

Of course, while the systems and context had changed, Dube knew that the fundamentals of treasury would remain the same. Nonetheless, moving overseas will always raise some professional challenges. This requires the right approach from the outset, she advises.

“As treasurers, we need to embrace adaptability and resilience in any environment because each region brings its own issues, its own volatility, market dynamics, and operational concerns. We need to be able to quickly assess that environment, anticipate any challenges, and, from that assessment, be ready to pivot our strategies.”

The network effect

While there was an obvious and immediate need to learn how the UAE market works in a treasury context, Dube also faced a cultural challenge, for which she felt less prepared. “In Zimbabwe, we operate with the spirit of ‘Ubuntu’. It’s the idea that a person becomes what they are through their interactions with other people.”

In the Zimbabwean corporate, it translates as relationships, community and mutual respect taking priority. The difference moving to the Middle East was keenly felt by Dube. Here, she notes professionalism and efficiency is paramount. “It’s very much work first, people second. Everyone is focused on results, and personal connections often take a back seat.”

Understanding this cultural difference, and adapting her attitude, was essential to progress. “It took me some time, if I’m honest. The difference was really quite striking because I felt that if you’re just focused on results, the spirit of unity within the organisation is taken away, and then you wonder how results are achieved.”

Ultimately, the relocation reinforced a key lesson for Dube: treasury is about understanding people as much as numbers. “Some days, I thought the only way I’d survive UAE banking was with a strong coffee IV drip. But patience, learning from the experts, and maybe a few espresso shots later, I was finally winning the game.”

As part of the relocation, the scale and complexity of operations increased for Dube. This saw her quickly coming to terms with managing larger, more diverse teams, and navigating multiple banking relationships across a dynamic financial ecosystem within the UAE, and across MENA. Engaging with a new regulatory environment, and different corporate governance standards, further increased her already steep learning curve.

To be able to manage these changes, Dube says she was fortunate to be able to lean heavily on networking and relationship building within the treasury community, especially through events organised by the Association of Corporate Treasurers’ (ACT) Treasury Network Middle East. She made a conscious effort to learn from colleagues and other local professionals who had been in the region for years, asking them questions, observing their practices, and grasping the nuances of local banking, funding, and business culture.

Not only has this helped Dube to more closely align her thinking and decisions with local requirements at a professional level, but it has also enabled her to integrate faster socially. And having made the move to the Middle East, Dube is now keen to study for the ACT’s Certificate in Treasury (CertT) to boost her standing. “Back in Zimbabwe, I think I became a little too comfortable. I needed to be in a new environment to push myself, and studying for the right credentials is, I feel, part of that process.”

Learning to fly

Being exposed to treasury transformation and scaling discussions in the Middle East, even at an early stage of her time in the region, reinforced a few fundamental lessons for Dube. “First, clarity beats complexity,” she states. “As organisations scale, it’s tempting to add layers, more systems, more reports, more controls. But what consistently stands out is the power of simplification: clear process ownership, well-defined decision rights, and data that is consistent and trusted. Without clean visibility, even the most sophisticated treasury structures struggle to deliver real value.”

Dube’s second lesson relates to the need for standardisation and flexibility to coexist. “Across the Middle East, treasury operates within diverse jurisdictions, banking frameworks, and levels of market maturity,” she observes. “The key lesson for me was the importance of anchoring treasury around strong core principles, liquidity, risk, governance, and controls while allowing enough flexibility to respond to local market realities. One-size-fits-all rarely works; principles-first usually does.”

The third lesson taken from Dube’s experience to date was that transformation is as much about people as it is about systems. “Treasury cannot transform in isolation, it has to earn trust, bring the business along, and clearly demonstrate how it enables growth rather than simply enforcing control.

Dube now sees her involvement in treasury evolving further towards strategic leadership. “Beyond operational excellence, my focus is increasingly on shaping treasury as a value-creating partner, supporting capital allocation decisions, strengthening balance sheet resilience, embedding smarter risk management, and leveraging technology and data to improve decision-making.” She also speaks of her keenness to continue contributing to the profession more broadly, through mentoring, knowledge-sharing, “and helping elevate the profile of treasury as a forward-looking, strategic function”.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

If Dube’s early career in treasury taught her how to survive volatility, the Middle East chapter is now teaching her how to design for it, “so the business doesn’t just cope, it scales calmly while everyone else is panicking”.

So what would she say to her younger self if given the opportunity? “If I could go back in time and offer myself some advice, it would be, ‘Don’t rush to appear impressive too soon, but instead focus on being useful and learning deeply.’”

Of course, she understands why early on in a career it may be tempting to push hard for the high-status titles and the most visible projects. “But treasury is not a function anyone can master quickly. The professional edge comes only from understanding the fundamentals exceptionally well. It’s a grounding that you will later realise is invaluable, especially when you’re faced with volatile environments.”

It is important, too, for young treasurers to invest early in building relationships, not just the technical skills, advises Dube. As a treasurer gains experience and, with seniority, takes up their seat at the intersection of multiple internal and external business disciplines, she says it will become readily apparent why the ability to communicate clearly, build trust, and stay calm under pressure, matters just as much as, if not more than, pure technical knowledge.

“When I was in Zimbabwe, I also learnt to embrace uncertainty, rather than fear it,” Dube reveals. “Some of the best learning happens in imperfect, high-pressure situations where there’s no textbook answer, and treasury is required to make judgment calls with incomplete information. But that’s all good experience. We learn most by doing, asking questions, occasionally making a mistake but then putting it right. This is how we grow.”

As a career-long pursuit, seeking out those from whom she can learn has proven invaluable for Dube. “Observe how more experienced professionals behave. Don’t be afraid to stand on their shoulders. I still do that now,” she admits. “I examine how they think, I ask questions, and I always stay curious, because in the end, treasury rewards those who are patient, disciplined, and genuinely interested.”