Considerate
Knowledgeable
Thorough
I am a Treasury Manager at Omnicom and my team looks after cash management and investments in EMEA, the Asia Pacific region and Latin America. I also manage foreign exchange activity for the group. Covering such a vast number of countries and currencies means you’re constantly learning something new, whether it’s a change in local regulations or the availability of new financial products. I enjoy it because there’s always a lot going on and no two days are the same!
Before I was promoted to Treasury Manager I worked as a Senior Treasury Projects Analyst. One of the main projects I oversaw was the implementation of virtual account structures around the world. In an ideal world we’d like to have only one physical bank account, but given the current climate I'm not too sure how realistic that is! I enjoyed the whole RFI, RFP and implementation process as I got to interact with so many different internal and external stakeholders. It was an interesting project as banks usually had completely different products available and were often only in the early development stages themselves. This meant we were able to influence how they designed virtual accounts including key requirements such as having real-time visibility of cash, allowing multiple legal entities to participate in the structure and providing users with segregated visibility of their accounts. Ultimately the project improved our visibility of cash and led to the closure of many bank accounts which reduced our bank fees.
In a lot of companies, we often see information hogging which I completely understand as a form of protectionism, but I find it to be unproductive and usually detrimental to the team. My team comprises of graduates at the early stages of their treasury careers and cash management is a great area for them to get a basic understanding of the treasury fundamentals. I love being able to pass knowledge down, helping develop their skills and seeing them progress in their careers. I’ve found that building a team of strong individuals has helped me take a step back from certain tasks and allowed me to focus on value adding activities.
My background is in accounting, but like a lot of people I fell into Treasury without knowing too much about the sector – after all, it’s still a relatively new function that has grown exponentially over the past decade. The more I was exposed to in my first role, the stronger my interest in treasury grew and it made sense to work towards gaining the diploma. There are so many different areas of treasury to explore and the ACT qualifications help you work out which streams you might want to work in.
I regularly check the Knowledge Hub on the ACT website. The ACT have recently issued the ‘ACT International Treasury Peer Review – Best Practice Guide’ which gives great insight into current hot topics such as hedging strategies and implementing TMS systems. It’s interesting to see that other treasury departments are focusing on similar areas.
It’s very easy to assume that with hard work you will be noticed and pushed up the career ladder, but I think we need to be realistic and realise that unless you are the driver of your career you can’t leave things to chance and expect things to fall into place. One of my favourite sayings is ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’ and my inquisitive nature has allowed me to ask questions - no matter how silly they sound - as I want to get a better understanding of how things work from both a theoretical and practical point of view. By showing interest in particular areas of treasury I’ve been given opportunities that wouldn’t normally have been put in my direction.
I think we’ve all learnt a lot from working from home. There are those who never would have done so if we weren’t forced into it and there are those who thought people couldn’t be trusted to work from home. We’ve definitely proven that it can be done and productivity didn’t change too much. It’s definitely taught people to be more considerate. We are very privileged to have been able to work from home as not a lot of people had this option.
‘We won’t know until we try so let’s just start!’ – It’s very easy to get so bogged down in the planning of a project that it takes an age before you even get to the kick-off phase. I’ve been very fortunate to have been surrounded by leadership teams that are happy to try new things and see them as learning opportunities. By having this level of trust instilled in you, you are more determined to make sure a project is a success.
That there aren’t many people that look like me, talk like me and act like me in treasury. This is very apparent when attending corporate events and can often lead to an isolating experience. As an introvert I have had to step out of my comfort zone and force myself into situations to ensure that I am seen and heard. I'm pleased to say that over the past decade things have improved – especially in terms of gender diversity.