Ask any treasurer to describe a typical day and their response is emphatic: there is no such thing. From daily cash and liquidity management to issuing debt; nurturing long-term bank relationships on a daily basis, speaking to stakeholders and finding time for the team to staying on top of rapid market moves and shifting geopolitics to integrating new payments technology, a cyber security framework or drawing up KPIs for a sustainable trade finance solution, the varied nature of the job that combines the transactional and strategic keeps treasurers on their toes and attracts many to the profession.
Like Kashaf Jaffer, Head of Treasury at Puma Energy, the multinational downstream energy company based in Mumbai, who spends time every day managing FX and liquidity. The company imports fuel into emerging markets, primarily in Africa and Latin America, where dollar liquidity can suddenly dry up and FX rates sharply move. It means he’s focused on currency exposures and ensuring funds flowing into regional subsidiaries are up streamed to avoid trapped cash whenever possible. Keeping in close contact with multiple banking relationships on the ground is another priority.
“We are inevitably exposed to the risk of dollar illiquidity and try and navigate the challenge by ensuring multiple banking relationships to secure FX when liquidity becomes available,” says Jaffer who thrives on the responsibility of treasury and the multiple roles he holds running global liquidity as well as treasury operations and overseeing the in-house bank.
In contrast, strategic tasks fine tune processes and sharpen the corporate function. Like the treasury team at Tesco which has integrated sustainability into the retailer’s supplier base by offering preferential financing rates to suppliers who meet specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in a muti-year process. Or 2024 Adam Smith Award winner Iron Mountain, the US information management company, where the treasury team overhauled cash management by integrating a ‘follow-the-sun’ structure that unlocked trapped liquidity which they used to pay down debt, reduce interest costs and generate favourable returns from investments. “This has been a truly multi-cross departmental effort, which will benefit the whole organisation,” said Sergio Martin, Assistant Treasurer at Iron Mountain, speaking during the award presentation.
More of a people business than you think
Another essential facet of the job involves working closely with multiple teams. At Aliaxis, the water and energy group, celebrated Global Head of Treasury, Séverine Le Blévennec lists the teams she is in closest contact with. Whether treasury is implementing new financing or cash management structures, running an M&A transaction or capitalisation project; integrating new technology or settling dividend distribution payments, the legal team must be involved. “Their support is absolutely key,” she says. The tax team is another vital partner, ensuring that projects or new strategies don’t add risk to the organisation by tripping transfer pricing, thin cap rules or dividend repatriation capabilities.
Elsewhere, the M&A team provide transaction due diligence and key support in any funding or integration, divestiture or spin offs and here, she warns, treasury needs to be involved early on to avoid being considered a last-minute, back office function. The FP&A team is best placed to give treasury insights into all future cash generation, and treasury can’t achieve anything without motivated and skilled people, making HR another essential partner.
A home for tech lovers
Nor is any treasury able to function without the support of the IT team, responsible for connectivity and increasingly, new software selection. Gone are the days when TMS providers and banks were treasury’s one-stop shop for systems. Today, treasury works with a much wider technology ecosystem populated by fintechs but also Robotic Process Automation and AI solutions. Understanding how treasury can leverage marketplaces, mobile applications and instant payment schemes is key.
So much so treasury is also a home for those who like to work at the cutting edge of finance and technology. Like Felix Meyer, Treasury Technology/IS Head at ABB Capital AG, the treasury arm of ABB Group, tasked with bridging the gap between the company’s treasury function and technology and systems. “My responsibilities include seeking out opportunities to improve the treasury value proposition by integrating technology to allow us to do things more efficiently,” he says. It sounds straightforward, but the challenge (and sometimes frustration) is in trying to determine what technology best solves the problem at hand, in a patient process of trial and error.
Frustrations aside, it’s also fun. Particularly when it comes to applying technology to operational challenges. For example, Meyer is currently using technology to shine a light on the enduring lack of transparency in bank fees. “We started this initiative as a proof of concept and saw that we might be able to scale it,” he says. He also has a front row seat on how technology from APIs to AI and blockchain is changing treasury and last year the team digitised the company’s export trade finance function, a notoriously manual process for all corporates.
Opportunity to grow and autonomy
Treasury offers compelling opportunities for career growth and exposure. Unlike other areas in finance, treasury is a place where people can really use their creativity (within a regulatory framework, of course) because it requires constantly adapting to the development of the business, partners capabilities, or changing technology and regulation.
“My career evolution has come from identifying business opportunities, designing solutions and getting the freedom to implement them,” explains Le Blévennec who gleans ideas about the next opportunity by speak to peers, her team, service providers and consulting firms, amongst others. “The driver could be to increase the productivity and interest of my team or to drastically reduce risk in the organisation. There isn’t really an end to what you can develop or improve.”
Treasury opened the door to career growth for Jaffer when he was assigned to Luxembourg to run the in-house banking operation, joining a different culture and new team. “The experience bought me closer to where I want to be,” he says, going so far as to argue that treasurers are almost expected to challenge the status quo and view all change as an opportunity. “Treasurers should always ask why something is being done in a particular way. It’s a dynamic culture and circumstances may have changed, warranting a change: if something needs to be changed, change it,” he says.
Treasury requires a raft of technical and soft skills. A positive attitude helps. Jaffer recalls how learning from scratch meant he had to accept the more mundane tasks at the beginning of his career. “In my first job, I had to go through the grind. It was about earning trust and showing a positive attitude and then I started to be delegated material tasks that were impactful.”
Treasury involves leadership too. Good ideas and strategies flounder without execution, and a good treasurer will be able to get people to lean-in to the idea of change. Treasury Today interviewees also reflect on the importance of imparting their skills to a younger team eager to learn.
“Today, employees are more mobile between companies and have higher expectations of what their job should bring them: benefits, learning opportunities, but also purpose, social activities and work-life balance like remote working,” says Le Blévennec. “This is a chance for companies to get better at managing people and improve in terms of ESG, but it does bring along some challenges in terms of staff turnover and the ability to promote people in typically small, flat teams.”
Jaffer leads a young and dynamic team of more than 20 people. Most are Gen Z and his leadership requires a mixture of empathy and “reinforcing professionalism” in a bid to train and upskill the next generation. “At the end of the day, if people under me don’t have the right skills, we won’t be effective as a team. I am really focused on hiring the right talent, developing them and helping them prioritise where we can have the most impact for business.”
Getting started
“I fell into it,” is a stock response from treasurers asked how they got into the profession. From which it is also easy to undervalue the importance of a good treasurer, or the rewards of a career that opens the door to global travel, offers a revolving door into banking, and where career opportunities are in lock step with corporate growth. “The office evolved, and so did I,” says Jaffer whose treasury journey began 16 years ago when he joined Mondelēz India, part of the Cadbury’s empire, as a management trainee.
The hours are long. Witness Hobson Chan, Treasurer, CNOOC Shell Petrochemicals Co Ltd who regularly put in 14 to 16 hour days when he was running six cross border acquisitions at the same time as studying for a Masters. But Le Blévennec, like others, insists the rewards are worth it.
“There are a few things I love about this job,” she concludes. “Like the constant learning and opportunity to build relationship with people with diverse background and skills – treasury is a lot less technical than it seems from the outside, it’s almost more of a people business. I also love the ‘ahah’ moment when our internal customers understand how we can help them reach more automation, access better data, improve their day-to-day routines or simply reduce cost and they realise there is actually something in it for them.”
