Treasury Strategy & Transformation
Published  16 MIN READ

Pandemic Powerhouses

TMI Corporate Recognition Award Winners 2020

In one of the toughest years for treasury in the past decade, treasury teams stepped up their innovation projects and rolled out digital best practices at speed. Here, we celebrate their successes.

What a year 2020 was. As much as the financial crisis of 2007/8 had provided some insight into the management of ‘black swan’ type events, no one was prepared for the impacts of a global pandemic – and managing treasury operations from home. Nevertheless, treasury teams executed their day-to-day responsibilities with aplomb, and continued their efforts to become more efficient, while adapting to the latest technologies.

It seems fitting, then, to start our celebrations of the 2020 TMI Corporate Recognition Award Winners with the Best Treasury Transformation category. The judges awarded two Highly Commended accolades here, the first being Tecnica. New shareholders (in 2017) triggered a digital transformation process designed to upscale and streamline Tecnica’s treasury workflows. The transformation involved partnering with a selection of fintechs – including Piteco, to fully digitise treasury management; SAP, to establish efficient accounting and finance practices; and Anaplan, to implement structured reporting capabilities. At the same time, UniCredit was brought onboard to advise on Tecnica’s transformation and sought to rationalise the company’s numerous subsidiary accounts – establishing a complete, digital payment factory solution, spanning the length and breadth of Tecnica’s large sales and production network. The Covid-19 crisis functioned almost as a stress test for the new treasury infrastructure – and Tecnica passed with flying colours.

The other Highly Commended organisation was The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH). Throughout 2020 HSH has undertaken an ambitious treasury transformation, with the help of HSBC, to achieve better efficiency, tighter internal controls and direct economic benefits for the company. The project covered liquidity management, reporting, systems, treasury policy, strategic cash management, account rationalisation and standardising the company’s cash flow forecasting methodology. The benefits of the transformation are numerous, including significant cost savings and improved process efficiency, freeing up the treasury team for more strategic tasks. The TMI judges were impressed by the scale of the project, its speed, and its successful outcome.