Over the past 18 months, the ACT has made some huge changes to its brands – both The Treasurer and the ACT itself. On top of this, we have secured our Royal Charter, while record numbers of members, students, delegates and friends have engaged with us through social media and events. The ACT now has members and students in more than 100 countries.
Our change of brand was the result of us looking at ourselves from a new perspective. As a result of the financial crisis and the regulatory responses that followed, the ACT and other professional treasury associations – especially in the EU – have had to argue the case for the real economy in the post-crisis business environment. With that came the realisation that our messages had to be clear, direct and with an appeal that extended beyond our traditional member and student base. In particular, our communications needed to resonate with other constituencies, such as politicians and regulators, both nationally and internationally. In other words, we had to be leading treasury professionals.
What matters, then, is not so much the images and the colours associated with our brand (important though they are), but more our credibility and integrity – our core values and the simple thoughts and ideas that we are trying to communicate. We have reinforced these concepts through in-depth professional research on the role of the treasurer – The Contemporary Treasurer (see www.treasurers.org/contemporarytreasurer) – and by recognising our leading, up-and-coming personalities in treasury in the Ones to Watch publication (see www.treasurers.org/onestowatch).
Our change of brand was the result of us looking at ourselves from a new perspective
All these changes align with the efforts of the ACT (and the European Association of Corporate Treasurers) to promote the importance of corporate treasury management, as well as our ethics and principles, in the widest imaginable range of organisations. To that end, we’re building a Competency Framework that will identify key technical and interpersonal skills that are required by treasury professionals at various stages in their career. This framework will then be used to refine the syllabi of ACT qualifications, develop CPD materials and the ACT training programme, and ensure that all ACT materials are meeting the needs of the treasury profession.
This strategy is not just relevant to large, non-financial corporates or only in relation to financial management. The treasurer’s role in developing corporate strategy takes us into much wider fields of operation. It has become increasingly difficult for bodies like us to be heard due to the huge amount of ‘noise’ generated by all manner of commentators, product specialists and so on. But I am proud of the way we have risen to the challenge.
One area where we have concentrated our efforts is on developing our use of social media – in particular, Twitter and our LinkedIn group, which now boasts more than 6,500 members. It is pleasing to see how many of these members are active on LinkedIn, sharing their knowledge and experiences in the way they do at ACT events.
Turning to The Treasurer for a moment, you will see the results of our recent reader survey in this edition (page 28). They tell us so much about how you feel about the magazine and I am delighted to say you appear to feel very good about it indeed.
For the remainder of 2013 and into 2014, there will be no let-up in the impact of systemic financial regulation on the real economy. The Single Euro Payments Area will be with us by February 2014, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation reporting regime is set to commence in January 2014 (at least at the time of writing) and we have still got the financial transaction tax and bank ‘reform’ to look forward to.
On a positive note, the 2013 Deals of the Year Awards will be announced at the beginning of September. Look out for the launch and nomination information on our website.
Colin Tyler is chief executive of the ACT. Follow him on Twitter @ColinTyl