If you’re a senior banker or a senior treasurer having a key meeting and making important decisions, how might the discussion change if you brought different views into the room? People who have their career in front of them; what different answers might they have?
This was one of the questions posed by an inclusion working group convened by the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) for FTSE 20 treasurers and banks, looking at how to encourage more inclusion in banking and corporate treasury teams.
Specifically, it asked how to get a broader range of perspectives in meetings between corporate treasurers and their banking counterparts. Treasurers wanted to see this from banks, as well as to drive it within their own organisations.
One of the outcomes of this ACT Inclusion Initiative is Developing bank/treasurer relationships: a playbook, which sets out practical ways to strengthen the relationships between banks and corporate treasury teams. It is designed to encourage fresh thinking, open dialogue and more inclusive approaches that lead to better outcomes for all. It is set out in four parts: encourage participation; support people; curate the relationship; and working practices.
I think that willingness of us all to work collaboratively was really helpful
Part one of the playbook is about encouraging participation: “Foster engagements at multiple levels between banks and corporates, including junior networking events. Actively encourage broad attendance at, and participation in, bank/treasurer meetings,” it suggests.
“The conversations started because some of us corporate treasurers were observing that the bankers we met day to day were not necessarily reflective of society at large,” says Tim Woodthorpe AffilACT, SVP group treasurer at GSK. “We discussed what we could do to leverage our positions as treasurers of companies to reflect with our banking partners on why that might be. “From a treasury perspective, we were saying, ‘we are your biggest clients and we’re now telling you that this is a commercial imperative’.
“But this wasn’t exclusively for banks. Early on, we decided it was something corporates and banks had to do together, because we, as corporates, have obviously got a lot of work to do in our own shops as well. I think that willingness of us all to work collaboratively was really helpful.” Encouraging participation goes beyond generations, adds Woodthorpe. Senior female bankers have told him of returning from maternity leave and not being able to pick up their client relationships again: “I was horrified – I just assumed that didn’t happen.” The playbook advises: “As a default, established client relationships should be resumed following a period of personal absence, allowing careers to bridge life events.”
It’s very easy as a senior treasurer to think you don’t really need the support of junior staff, but how are they going to learn if you don’t involve them?
The treasury role is all about being able to converse, negotiate, build trust and build relationships. Yet recent societal changes have narrowed the opportunities for junior people to learn the trade, says Bente Salt FCT, group treasurer at Rentokil Initial. That starts with the new work-from-home culture, she says. As Salt looks back on her career, she can identify that being involved in meetings with the company treasurer was a critical learning ground for her.
It’s not just work from home that has reduced these opportunities, but the amount of negotiation that goes on online and in documents shared – rather than in conversations. “My boss was very good at involving me in these big transactions, so I quickly learned the reasons we had to do various things, and what was and was not important. Whenever we were refinancing, we were sitting in a room with lawyers and other parties, and negotiating. That just doesn’t happen any more. “These days, communication is largely undertaken via text and email rather than picking up the phone or meeting in person. I think you’re missing out on something if you’re doing that. You can’t do it all by text and email.”
It does require effort from more experienced colleagues, though, adds Salt: “It’s very easy as a senior treasurer to think you don’t really need the support of junior staff, but how are they going to learn if you don’t involve them? You do have to sit in a room so that you can explain these things. It’s not enough to be on calls any more.” While corporates and banks are on board, it can be harder for smaller treasury teams, she adds. “Taking someone out of work for a day means someone else has to cover.”
It’s about normalising conversations, and a reminder to ask, when putting the team together: Is this the best team for the meeting from all of the perspectives?
Salt says she allows junior treasurers to run key bank meetings and report back afterwards: “You know what happens if I’m in the meeting? They’ll talk to me. It’s important that they establish their own relationships.”
What success looks like There are no targets or KPIs in the playbook, although it offers accountability suggestions, such as making a formal commitment to the team or building the activity into personal objectives. Salt says success will be meetings in which juniors start to ask more questions and request to be part of something.
Woodthorpe adds: “It’s about normalising conversations, and a reminder to ask, when putting the team together: ‘Is this the best team for the meeting from all of the perspectives?’” In Woodthorpe’s case, there has been an unexpected benefit. “What I hadn’t anticipated was that bankers bringing their own juniors helped the junior people in my team engage better. Suddenly, they started asking questions in the meetings. They started following up with their peers on the other side, and it meant that the relationship between me and my banks got much deeper as well.”
The inclusion group meets quarterly and the playbook is just one of its outcomes. There have been junior networking events, as well as the Ones to Watch awards, which celebrate next-generation talent. The ACT has global reach, so the playbook has been designed to work as a launching point for conversations across the different geographies and cultures in which members live and work. In September, the ACT will run the same workshop session it held in January with senior bankers and treasurers, but this time for their junior colleagues, asking them directly what would work for them, rather than deciding on their behalf. It is their careers, after all, that the playbook is designed to serve. As Woodthorpe says: “It’s just the right thing to do, isn’t it?”
Download the playbook here.
Alex Gray is editor of The Treasurer
