American writer and cartoonist Allen Saunders once observed that life is what happens when you’re making other plans. Ironically, the same can often be said for a career in treasury. Given the commercial significance of treasury, the high level of aptitude that you need to succeed in the function and the financial rewards that come with it, it is surprising how few treasurers embarked on their careers by making a positive choice to move into treasury. "I fell into it," is a common, slightly apologetic refrain.
Still, once someone has discovered treasury, it does tend to be love at first sight – and or a very good reason. Without doubt, treasury is one of the most exciting jobs in finance and treasurers are passionate about their work. As one accountant-turned- reasurer recently commented to me:
"I don’t know why I wasted my time with debits and credits for all those years."
If many people are effectively ‘accidental treasurers’, it goes without saying that there will be some who are ‘accidental interim treasurers’. In other words, they ended up taking on interim work because redundancy or other circumstances forced them down that route. Of course, that’s not to say that they have not embraced interim treasury as a career path, or that they do not bring great value and expertise to the companies that they work with.
Meanwhile, there are others who are ‘intentional interims’, treasurers who have reached a point in their career when they are ready for a change and willing to take the risk of going it alone. In our feature starting on page 18, we take an in-depth look at interim treasury as a career option and weigh up the pros and cons that come with being your own boss. Also in this issue, we meet the treasury team of industrial gas producer Linde, winner of the European treasury team of the year category in our 2012 Deals of the Year Awards. They talk about the role they played in funding Linde’s high-profile $4.6bn acquisition of US healthcare company Lincare, on page 24. We take a trip to the developing market of Russia, on page 22, and find out what the future holds for the world’s largest country. On page 38, we consider how you can get the most out of your FX hedging and, on page 40, we learn how to apply a coaching strategy to the treasury team.
I hope you enjoy this issue of The Treasurer. As always, I would be delighted to hear your feedback.
