I joined BAT just under 18 years ago. I am currently the Head of Corporate Treasury, a role I took on in January 2022. Before that, I was driving treasury transformation and centralisation as Head of Global Treasury Operations, setting up the team in Romania; I spent 3 years in Hong Kong as Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for Asia driving the company’s inorganic strategy and; I spent 3 years in Romania as Area Head of Commercial Finance delivering the company’s P&L targets in markets such as Romania, Ukraine, Czech, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova.
I like the strategic nature of treasury. Decisions on funding, risk and infrastructure have far reaching impacts on the business and it’s exciting to be able to add value in many different ways. I also like the challenges that comes with interfacing between the financial markets and the corporate objectives of the company which is sometimes difficult but very rewarding when you deliver value to the organisation.
Having travelled extensively and living in both Asia and Europe, there are many interesting observations. Most people want to deliver a better outcome and have a sense of achievement in what they do, that’s the similarity. The biggest difference is their approach to hierarchy where there is more deference to organisation structure in Asia and Eastern Europe than there is in Western Europe; of course, there are both pros and cons of these different approaches.
I think for more established individuals, hybrid working is great as it allows them to deliver at their full potential and improve their work life balance. For people with fresher careers, it can be difficult to build networks and relationships as you get less social interactions. I believe individual and collective responsibility is the way forward. For hybrid working to be fully effective (at least for those jobs which allow it), we need to accept that we need a required level of social interactions; at the same time, we need to strengthen our skills and discipline to get more out of working from home and be flexible to colleagues that work from home.
This is a difficult question as there are so many. I am torn between two; one is to drive transformation in finance and treasury where I was allowed to really challenge the status quo and think out of the box when designing and implementing our Global Treasury Operations structure and systems. The other is leading an acquisitions project where I developed the strategy, pitched it to senior stakeholders and executed the transaction end to end which gave me great satisfaction. In both these projects, I was given a large level of latitude to operate and face challenges which was both challenging as well as rewarding.
I draw inspiration from so many people at different times. At this point, I would say people like Sam Walton (founder of Walmart) and Vera Wang (fashion designer); both of whom had a varied career before finding mega success in their 40s.
Don’t go trekking without a map and a compass. There are many obstacles in life and sometimes you go in a circle but you can always find the way back if you are equipped with the right tools and mindset!
I always believed the network was the best benefit. Be it meeting at conferences, joining smaller group discussions or even reading about peers, the fact that we are often facing the same challenges and are able to discuss our approaches is immensely helpful.
It’s my mobile phone. It’s got my calendar which records ever thing I want and need to do in my life at this moment.
The Shortest History of India by John Zubrzycki.