Treasury Practice

Collective power

Published: Jul 2025

On 20th May, Treasury Today’s Future Treasury & Finance Leaders initiative came to Mumbai. Treasury and financial professionals from across India heard from past winners of the Adam Smith Awards Asia about their experiences, and took part in group discussions about leadership, best practice and career development.

Future Treasury & Finance Leaders Forum Mumbai group photo
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Bringing together industry trailblazers and Adam Smith Awards alumni, Treasury Today’s Future Treasury & Finance Leaders is an initiative that celebrates the successes of our community and promotes best practices and personal development.

Last year, the programme began with a series of forums in Singapore, London and New York. Building on this, on May 20th 2025, a group of treasury professionals and industry experts came together at Soho House Mumbai for our inaugural event in India.

During the event, attendees heard from past winners from Treasury Today’s Adam Smith Awards Asia and Within Awards programmes, and took part in insightful discussions about career progression, best practice and essential leadership skills.

Building on success

Opening the event, Sophie Jackson, CEO of the Treasury Today Group, explained that the Future Treasury & Finance Leaders Forum is intended to harness the power of Adam Smith Awards winners by discussing their experiences and exploring what best practice means to them.

Sugandha Singhal, VP Head Treasury at chemical manufacturing firm SRF Limited, described the impact of gaining recognition in the 2021 Adam Smith Awards Asia, where SRF was named Highly Commended Winner in the Best Working Capital Management Solution category. “It’s a globally recognised award, and it made a huge difference to how people perceived me,” she noted. In 2024, Singhal was recognised again in Treasury Today’s Within Awards as Highly Commended Winner in the Champion of Change – APAC category.

Singhal described the Indian treasury community as one that is highly innovative and agile. “I think small or big best practices are something we have been unconsciously adopting, not even realising that many people across the world are not even thinking about this.”

“The purpose of the community coming together is that there is a power to the collective thinking,” she reflected. “We need to become that collective power.”

A catalyst for success

Amit Baraskar, VP and Head – Treasury at Thomas Cook India Limited, was a Highly Commended Winner in the 2017 Adam Smith Awards Asia in the Best Swift Solution category. He explained how the experience had prompted him and his team to take part in industry publications and other awards programmes, and to co-found the India Corporate Treasury Association.

“I can’t find the right words to thank Treasury Today for getting this started, because without that strong kick start, all of this was not really possible,” he enthused.

Today, Baraskar explained that he has two teams, the group treasury and the foreign exchange dealing room, which have a number of committees including a Learning Development Committee.

“This committee identifies and marries up the team’s training requirements for the next two quarters, typically with whatever is available in the market,” he explained. “We also send people back to school and use games to teach things that are not taught in management school.”

Moving forward

Reflecting on change, Singhal noted that any change management is fundamentally about dealing with people and addressing the resistance they may have to change. “Whenever there’s a change, especially with people who need upskilling and reskilling, mindset is a problem. People become scared that if something happens, their job will go,” she said.

Nevertheless, she explained that what’s important is to gain an awareness that change is needed, and that the basics have to be right. “It can be a slow process because you’re dealing with people, but change is coming,” she added.

Focusing on the evolution of the treasurer’s role, Baraskar observed that treasurers are increasingly embracing the role of business partner and adding value to the business.

“We’ve come a long way from being a conventional treasurer to being a business partner – there are a lot of initiatives where we now work as a partner to the business,” he said. “We may not always be satisfied with the level of recognition that we get, but I think sooner or later we will get there.”

“The Indian mind is always creative and curious – I think that is the key when it comes to learning, unlearning and adapting. I might not be able to learn Power BI in one day and compete with someone from Gen Z who has spent years on it. But I can be creative around it.”

Sugandha Singhal, VP Head Treasury, SRF Limited

Sugandha Singhal, VP Head Treasury, SRF Limited

“The force of routine is so demanding that team members tend to just flow with that force. What I’m always trying to do is align the team with the company’s objectives and the management vision so that we’re working together.”

Amit Baraskar, VP and Head – Treasury, Thomas Cook India Limited

Harnessing best practice

Jackson invited participants to discuss their own views on what best practice and innovation mean to them and share their insights with the group. Some of the ideas to emerge from the discussions included the following:

  • Discussing best practice with other corporates. Banks tend to learn from corporates in order to solve their challenges, while corporates tend to be somewhat dependent on hearing from their banks about what other clients are doing. But corporates are also increasingly reaching out to peers from other companies across different industry sectors to learn about best practices.

  • Building knowledge across the group. One participant explained that their company holds quarterly meetings for treasurers across the group to share best practices and discuss the challenges they were facing.

  • Moving forward with new solutions. When a bank offers an effective solution to a problem, it can be difficult for corporates to gain the confidence needed to take the plunge. Key to this is having confidence that implementation will be well supported and having a longstanding relationship with a trusted bank.

  • Having confidence to experiment. When it comes to embracing innovation, it’s important to have an open-door policy and give the team confidence that “it’s OK to fail.”

  • Taking advantage of AI. Attendees discussed the value of putting AI in the hands of every individual, rather than limiting it to non-transparent committees, in order to remove mundane tasks and free the team up for innovation.

“There is much value in reaching out to multiple other companies to discover what can be done. When it comes to raising funds, I don’t need to look at an oil and gas company – I can look at any company in the world. I had to break that mindset and look for others who are doing the best job in that area.”

Ruchi Mittal, Joint Treasurer, HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited

“When you have a bank with whom you’ve worked for many years, and most of the people in that bank have been associated in some manner with you, I think it does build a lot of trust and familiarity which helps you take the plunge.”

Shilpa Kedia, CFO, Johnson & Johnson India

Portrait of a high-performing team

Sachin Chougule, Treasurer of Infosys, spoke about his experience as Overall Winner of the Top Treasury Team award in the 2022 Adam Smith Awards Asia.

“In building a high-performing team, I always have a debate with people about whether it’s art or science,” he said. “I believe that it’s an art performed by scientists, all of us are artists, and each one will have a different way of curating our team to bring out the best.”

Chougule said that getting the most out of a team is a task that requires certain key ingredients. “One focus is on constant improvement, which is really important in today’s environment,” he said. “Processes that were designed a decade ago may not necessarily give the best outcome in the current uncertain environment, so it’s important to re-look at these processes and redesign.”

“It’s also important to make sure that our internal rate of change is not significantly lower than the external rate of change. We will not be able to exceed that, but the important thing is, are we moving in that direction and catching up with the change? If the answer is no, there’s a risk of becoming obsolete.”

Building a strong culture

Another key ingredient of success is to build a strong culture within the organisation and also make sure that each individual feels connected to the purpose of their department, team and organisation. “People will come and go, but what remains is the culture and DNA of that team. So, it’s important that we as leaders build that culture,” he added.

Chougule also said that when building a high-performing team, “you need everyone to act like a leader. When you tell your team member to do a job, you end up getting a worker. When you trust your team member to get the job done, you get a leader who puts himself into the challenges and finds the solution.”

He reflected that winning industry awards is not a destination but a milestone on a journey. “Once you achieve an Adam Smith Award, what’s next? Success is a journey, and it’s important to ask how you are growing during that journey, and how your team is growing.”

“We need to have a culture in which all individuals feel they are connected to the purpose, the organisation and the department – a culture of empathy, a culture of connecting people, a culture of open-mindedness.”

Sachin Chougule, Treasurer, Infosys

Sachin Chougule, Treasurer, Infosys

Raising the bar

Manoj S Bhatia, Managing Director, Global Head of Subsidiary Banking at MUFG Bank, spoke about his career journey spanning three decades in banking. After beginning his career in operations at Citi, he became the bank’s branch banking head in Chennai. His subsequent roles at Citi included branch head in Mumbai, after which he moved to Singapore to work in the multinational space.

In 2018, Bhatia moved to MUFG – a move that he described as the “best decision that I’ve made in my career.” He explained how the bank’s Global Corporate Investment Banking division has grown since it was first established: “In 2018, GCIB was 7% of MUFG’s net profit globally. This year, we are 25% of MUFG’s net profit.” He added that the bank is the ninth largest bank globally, and the biggest project finance bank in the world.

Bhatia highlighted the importance of India in the current environment, observing that Indian corporates are becoming increasingly global in their approach. “People have always thought of India as latent potential,” he noted, adding that the current trade landscape is setting the scene for significant growth for corporates in India in the coming years.

Agility and community

Turning to the challenges and opportunities corporates should be focusing on, Bhatia spoke about the impact of macro risks and geopolitics.

He said that while the global theme of deglobalisation might not necessarily result in a fully deglobalised world, “I think the south-south corridors are going to become more important. And Asia will probably need to come together in order to counter some of the themes that are playing out globally.”

He predicted that while corporates have much control over global resources, governments will increasingly dictate who corporates can and cannot deal with, “which then forces a new kind of thinking. How do you then ensure you are agile enough to manage the risks that are going to arise?”

Turning to the importance of community, Bhatia said that all the roles he’d taken on in the last 30 years had happened “because I was given that opportunity – because someone believed in me and wanted to challenge me differently.”

He argued that the treasury community needs to collectively lift the bar, “and that can only happen if we really give back and pay forward, because that is where the next generation of great treasurers and bankers is going to come from.”

“If someone’s calling you for help, they probably need it. And if you’re a role model to someone today, you don’t want to disappoint them by being arrogant. The more we can support each other, and the more the community helps each other out, the better we can create that next generation of leaders.”

Manoj S Bhatia, Managing Director, Global Head of Subsidiary Banking, MUFG Bank

Building skills and empowering teams

In the final section of the forum, participants were invited to think about their own career journeys and how their skill sets have evolved.

Notable observations included freeing up the time of younger colleagues in order to take on more value-adding work, as well as the importance of job rotation as a way of helping to upskill team members and enable them to pick up real-life learning.

Jackson asked attendees to think about leaders they admire, and the qualities that make them special, as well as the importance of focusing on personal wellbeing while being a leader within the organisation.

Highlights included the importance of empowering teams to make them feel part of the decision-making process, as well as the clear communication of goals.

Other pieces of advice to arise from the discussion included the following:

  • Embrace vulnerability. Having the confidence to be vulnerable can be a sign of strength, as well as helping to generate creative ideas – but this does involve striking a balance.

  • Focus on wellbeing. Attendees highlighted the importance of supporting wellbeing. This can include making conscious decisions to block out time on the calendar to pursue hobbies and activities, as well as creating support groups both personally and professionally.

  • Provide a roadmap. As well as keeping the team informed about the overall vision, leaders need to provide details about the roadmap needed to achieve that vision.

“We are at a point where our team members are a mix of generations, so a leader needs to be someone who is able to balance the expectations that come from different generational sets of people.”

Sridevi Salvi, Treasury Controller, Technip Energies India

Focusing on the characteristics needed for effective leadership, Chougule spoke about the need to tailor your technique to what the situation demands.

The ability to zoom in and out quickly is very important. If required, a leader needs to work on the ground with their team and solve the issue or if required guide the team and allow them to find a solution.

Likewise, he highlighted the importance of getting out of corporate life for a couple of hours or days when needed and switching between ‘the pen’ and ‘the sword’ as a means of managing stress.

Finally, Jackson reflected on the importance of seeking out support in a leadership role: “Sometimes it’s easy to think that we need to do everything ourselves. But most of the leaders I admire have hired extra people to help them at certain moments – they’ve got an army of support, and a board of advisors. Don’t feel like you have to solve every problem on your own.”

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