With limited resources, treasury needs to be smart and selective about where it lends a hand.
When it comes to helping out the rest of the organization, treasury has to resist the temptation of stepping to far into an issue. This was one observation at a recent NeuGroup Treasurers’ Group of Thirty meeting (T30), where members discussed a few of the ways treasury interacts with key groups across companies and how shared synergies are maximized for the good of the organization.
But it can be a slippery slope, some members noted. That’s because treasury is a common resource across many areas of the business and many times it ends up being pulled in multiple directions. With limited resources and likely competing timelines, treasurers must learn to identify time-sucking, conflict-creating projects. Further, as treasury continues to do more with less, there isn’t bandwidth to help with all projects, so treasurers must find a fair and equitable way to prioritize. Here sometimes the time-honored suggestion of “Just Say No” comes in handy.
Being more proactive and finding a common group can help avoid problems was another take-away from the T30 meeting. Proven treasury value-add, shared objectives, open communication, co-location and org structure all help to encourage synergies between key groups. Based on the T30’s pre-meeting survey results, the overall treasury reputation as an innovative business partner is equally split between moderate and strong. Therefore, improved communication with forums like “Lunch ‘n’ Learns” help to bring better awareness of how treasury can be engaged to bring significant value across the organization.
There is more work to be done to bring greater awareness of potential certain treasury capabilities as they relate to various aspects of the business. This includes tax, business development and FP&A. But in many companies, these programs already exist. For instance, company-wide initiatives like working capital management and cash-flow forecasting – which treasury presumably proselytizing about for many years – can help treasury strengthen internal synergies by bringing key owners to the same table.