By any standards, 2018 promises to be a challenging year for the financial professions in general – and treasury in particular. As such, treasurers will no doubt be wondering which weapons in their skill sets will be of greatest use in the coming months.
Helpfully, the ACT has provided more than a few hints in its research report The Business of Treasury 2017, which highlights numerous thoughts on the tools treasurers will need to sharpen to contend with future challenges.
Here are five assets that will come in handy…
Whether you are a) wrestling with the variables and moving targets at play in the geopolitical realm, b) ensuring that you have met your compliance goals amid regulatory shifts spawned by complex legislation or c) attempting to safeguard your treasury systems from cyberthreats, there are more than enough risk areas to keep track of this year. Plus, among the boards of smaller companies, demand for risk reporting is on the up.
According to the ACT’s research, the time that qualified treasurers are devoting to strategic issues in their firms has risen from 24% in 2013 to 40% now. In tandem, across a broad range of funding and finance proposals, boards are accepting treasurers’ recommendations more than 80% of the time.
For those trends to continue on their upward paths, treasurers will need to hone their strategic acumen and their ability to impart their insights to board members. Which leads us neatly to…
So-called ‘soft skills’ are now hard currency: boards are increasingly recognising and valuing the quality of treasurers’ communications as they present their thoughts to senior leaders.
However, in the ACT’s view, treasurers will be able to boost their strategic capabilities even further by engaging more widely with non-financial teams in their organisations – so stretching communication skills that little bit further and adapting them to different environments will be essential.
Also, cultivating relationships with any service providers able to offer more specialised services will provide your treasury with greater flexibility.
This year looks set to be significant for technological advances, so taking the initiative and expanding personal knowledge around the cutting-edge technologies that are about to come on-stream can only be a benefit. This is an area where individuals can take a lead to the benefit of their treasury function and wider organisations. Fintech and non-bank technology, blockchain and the internet of things as it relates to treasury are just some of the areas to watch in 2018.
While 53% of treasurers are looking to spend more on treasury technology in the year ahead,
the profession is broadly cautious about adopting new tools, according to The Business of Treasury 2017. Perhaps this could be the year where treasurers work closely with their providers to implement safe, controlled experiments to familiarise themselves more with emerging software, and what it can do.
Deeper knowledge of how cybercriminals operate will also be a huge advantage.
Having a firm grasp of what your business needs to do in order to compete effectively and remain commercially viable is crucial for your department to work at its best. Learning as much as possible from other parts of the business and feeding the insights that result into treasury practice will continue to be a core skill for treasurers.