Future Treasury Leaders

The final session of the EACT Summit featured younger treasury professionals who are already making a major impact on their respective organisations in senior roles, and are amongst those who will shape the treasury function of the future. 

Which of the issues we’ve discussed over the past couple of days have resonated most with you?

Maerle Wasmann

Maerle Wasmann, AkzoNobel
There have been many interesting takeaways from this event, and one in particular for me is the issue of cybercrime and the critical need for protection. What is clear is that it will need continuous effort from all of us, across the entire organisation, to protect the company's cash and to remain vigilant against cyberfraud.

Michael Lipinski, EOS
What strikes me is the diversity and breadth of topics that treasury deals with. While treasury is well-established as a business function in most large multinationals, it is now becoming more important to mid-size companies. This is a trend that seems likely to continue as it does not make sense to deal with complex treasury issues across multiple departments and business units, both operationally and strategically.

 
Nicolas Tusseau, A. Schulman
Digitisation and the implications for treasury was something I found interesting. With robot technology and machine learning becoming more prevalent, a large proportion of the treasury tasks we do today could be automated. As a result, we need to consider the quality and value of the role we perform as treasurers, not simply the quantity of tasks and data that we perform.

Having now worked in treasury for a few years, and established senior roles, what are your perception of treasury as a profession?

Michael Lipinski

Michael Lipinski, EOS
Treasury has become very IT and data-driven, so issues such as automation and standardisation are high priorities. As a result, someone entering the treasury profession today needs to deal with systems and software to a far greater degree than even a few years ago. In some respects, we take this for granted: after all, we were the first generation to have grown up with a Nintendo entertainment system and PlayStation, we worked with the first personal computers with Windows 95 at home. Then the first smartphones came along, and we were amongst the early adopters. We therefore welcome the opportunity that technology provides to avoid spending time on routine, day-to-day activities and spend more time on more interesting, value-added activities. At the same time, however, the regulatory burden is increasing, and there are more and more questions over treasury compliance and ethics. There is a great deal of paperwork and reporting associated with these growing demands, which creates an imbalance: a treasury transaction may take seconds to conclude, but the benefit of this is limited if the related documentation then takes 15 minutes to complete.

 
Pascaline Caron, CNIM
What has struck me is how little people from outside the treasury profession are either aware of or understand treasury. This contrasts with audit, accounting, controlling etc. with which people are familiar. There doesn’t seem to be much dedicated treasury training or education from universities or business schools, so there is also little direct graduate recruitment into treasury. 

 
Maerle Wasmann, AkzoNobel
What we are seeing in our organisation is a move from a transactional centre into a centre of expertise. Senior management are asking us more and more for information to drive decision-making and shape risk management strategies. This requires a different set of skills: less operational and more strategic, able to become a partner to senior management and the wider business. One of the difficulties in taking on this role within the organisation, however, is the point that Pascaline raised, namely treasury’s lack of visibility and familiarity.

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One of the challenges related to treasury’s relative invisibility is how difficult it is to attract new talent. How can we do this more successfully, and make treasury an exciting career choice?

Nicolas Tusseau

Nicolas Tusseau, A. Schulman
I think there needs to be more coverage of treasury at universities and business schools as we’ve mentioned already. Treasury is very exciting: you never do the same thing two days in a row, you work in fascinating markets, the activities we conduct: dealing, investment, ethics etc., are all characteristics that can be very attractive to finance students, so long as they know about it.

Pascaline Caron, CNIM
In addition to building awareness and interest externally, as Nicolas has described, this also needs to take place internally with the HR department. By letting them know what we do, and the competences we need, there may be more opportunities to rotate people from controlling to treasury, for example, and vice versa. We’ve also talked about treasury being a business partner to the business. We can only do this if people know who we are, where our expertise lies and what value we bring. 

Audience Question: To what extent is treasury part of a finance training rotation in your companies? This is something we haven’t been good at enabling in our business. 

Maerle Wasmann, AkzoNobel
I haven't seen it and when I speak to former university friends who also joined finance as trainees, their experience seems to be the same. So treasury needs to lobby HR more and make treasury part of these programmes. 

Pascaline Caron, CNIM
It’s more difficult, however, in companies that have small treasury functions, as there aren’t always the roles or projects available.

Audience Question: In your view, do you really see a difference between Generation Y and Generation X, or baby boomers in the way that they approach business?

Pascaline Caron

Pascaline Caron, CNIM
I don’t think it's a question of age but more of mind set. I’ve seen some people who have worked in treasury for 30 or even 40 years who want to carry on doing the same as they’ve always done. Others who have worked in treasury for a similar period have had three or four different jobs, across a variety of organisations, and have a broader base of competencies and appreciation of different ways of doing things. These differences of approach are just as apparent amongst younger people, so I think it's more mind set than age that makes the difference.
 

Nicolas Tusseau, A. Schulman
I don’t think the gap between generations X and Y is particularly significant, but the gap between these generations and the Millennials who will join the workforce in the next five years is likely to be far greater. This generation, born in or after 2000, who have had a smartphone in their hands since birth, are unlikely to accept many of the things that we do. Will they be willing to start work at 

8 a.m. when the treasury business begins? Will they be satisfied with a three-second time lag to load or refresh the system? At the same time, however, this generation will also face many of the same challenges that we do, not least the balance, and at times conflict, between digital technology and regulation.

Michael Lipinski, EOS
I also think we need to consider the issue of experience. New entrants to treasury really need to draw on the expertise of those who have worked in treasury for longer. When I joined treasury ten years ago, a colleague told me about negative interest rates, but I couldn’t envisage this ever happening. It’s really important that we continue to learn, and share on-the-ground experience. As a result, a balance of experience with new ideas is essential, and makes treasury an exciting and engaging place to work.