Getting to know the rest of the business can help treasury and the company run smoothly.
Forging partnerships with internal business via initiatives like rotational-oriented assignments can be valuable bridge-builders to business functions. This in turn can help treasury and help the business — which can often use treasury’s expertise. It’s also a good way to let top treasury talent “see the world” and try their hand at other aspects of the company.
Treasuries have developed different ways of going about this but one effective way is to set up groups within the department to handle various parts of the broader business. One NeuGroup peer group member describes having set up a “consulting practice” within the company’s treasury specifically tasked with getting involved with the business side. A similar group was tasked with being treasury’s link with credit, regional finance, and customer finance groups.
Tax
Getting to know the tax department is also critical for treasury. This is because tax regimes are not only changing globally but also are beginning to work together. This has been particularly true amid the great recession, where countries are scrambling to make up for lost tax revenue by targeting foreign companies. According to tax consultant Taxand, the US, China, Spain, Austria, India, Thailand, Romania and Turkey are among a host of countries that have introduced new measures designed to apply more scrutiny on multinationals’ tax-driven activities like transfer pricing (see related story here). This is versus just a few that have introduced business-friendly tax measures.
Education and training
Other ways treasury is getting out into the BUs is via training and education to non-finance executives. One member of the Tech20 Treasurers’ Peer Group conducts a two-day training exercise which takes executives through the financial statements and all its components to show them how what they do day-to-day can change them.
But while treasurers may be getting out into the business units to better know the business, it can also be way to give true treasury talent a breather. It has been noted over the year across The NeuGroup peer group universe that talent needs to breathe free. Therefore, one key success factor in developing talented individuals is to be able to let them go for awhile, or even for good.