Finance Execs Attending Conference Receive Insights Into Meeting Today’s Challenges
NEW YORK – The breadth of topics covered at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch client conference last week was immense: everything from maintaining connectedness during natural disasters to leveraging social media as a talent management tool to information security.
In light of this spectrum of topics, keynote speaker Peter Markell, chief financial officer and treasurer of Boston-based Partners Healthcare Systems, told conference participants that they must cultivate innovative solutions and be willing to take risks.
The conference, titled Treasury in a Connected World, was held in Hollywood, Fla., and attended by financial and treasury executives from some of BofA Merrill’s most strategic middle-market and large corporate clients. Hosted by the BofA Merrill Global Business Solutions team, the conference allowed participants to gain knowledge from industry practitioners and peers alike. Global Business Solutions is comprised of former CFOs, treasurers, global operations and process experts who bring their unique perspective to the bank’s treasury clients, consulting with them on strategy, design and transformations.
“Our clients are living and working in a dynamic, borderless and data-driven world – a world that is experiencing seismic changes,” said Paige Chesser, head of Global Business Solutions. “These changes – from digitization and social media to multi-generational dynamics – can affect every aspect of our clients’ businesses.”
The conference kicked off with a video that speaks to our “data economy” and the staggering onslaught of new technologies available today.
Samuel Dergel, a consultant and executive recruiter with Stanton Chase International, then led a session on socializing technology, speaking to the role of social media as it relates to success. “Success is a choice,” he said, “and you have an opportunity to change and impact your own career and the people around you. To be successful, you need to be visible, branded and networked.”
In his keynote, Markell provided further insights on the world in which we live by leading a lively discussion on human capital and its criticality to a successful organization.
“Don’t be afraid to make a mistake,” he advocated. “Organizations can paralyze themselves by just letting things float versus forcing escalation and change. Also, an organization is only as strong as the mosaic of people it brings in.”
Other topics featured in the conference included:
- Excelling beyond borders
- Staying connected when things go wrong
- Insights regarding the profiles and motivations of today’s data fraudsters
- Multigenerational dynamics
- Steps to stay connected around the globe
In addition to dynamic speakers, the two-day conference also featured interactive roundtable discussions, allowing attendees to voice their thoughts on business transformation, today’s technological phenomenon and the invigorating effect they both have on treasury practices.
For further insight into treasury management topics, conference attendees were given a copy of the reports Transforming Treasury for Growth and Driving Growth in Latin America, produced by the BofA Merrill Global Transaction Services team in conjunction with Treasury Management International magazine.
