The Annual Conference session run by the Future Leaders in Treasury group looked at lessons learned as a result of the pandemic and future priorities in 2021. We asked a treasurer, Sam Robinson, Deputy Treasurer, Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC; a banker, Ollie Stobbs, Head of Transaction Management & Advisory, Real Estate Portfolio Management, Natwest group; and a treasury consultant, Camila Montagni, Manager, PwC to share their insights.
The last 16 months have been anything but normal. We’ve had to adapt our routines, juggle numerous home and work issues, and develop new ways of working. At the start of the pandemic the focus was on getting through the crisis, with major projects being put on hold.
Liquidity and cash management become the focus within organisations. Prior to the pandemic many organisations had monthly cash flow reporting – during the pandemic this changed to weekly reporting. Some also experienced a significant reduction in transactions, so there was less cash coming in, and cash visibility became key. Many companies put in steps to enhance their forecasting and update their risk management assumptions.
An important aspect of ensuring the company remained in a ‘business as usual’ state was bank support and key to this was good bank relationship management.
Understanding what funding sources were available become a key concern. For example, the bond markets retrenched during the pandemic but pricing and availability have now improved and banks are back to pre-pandemic levels.
A significant change in the way we worked during the last year has come about due to technology - how we communicate with others has changed and video calls, online discussions and virtual events have become the norm. Looking forward we envisage that this will remain although we are likely to adopt a hybrid way of working with people working both in the office and at home throughout the week. Another change has been that many people have worked in a paperless environment – with electronic sign offs and far less printed documentation.
Governance has changed in many organisations with a swifter decision-making process. Decisions needed to be made quickly during the pandemic and many processes became more efficient as a result of this. These quicker processes will hopefully remain now that many businesses are now longer working in crisis mode.
Alongside the changes in governance there was a need to ensure that the same controls were in place – and that these were as rigorous as pre-pandemic controls. A huge factor in this was cyber risk – and as everyone was working remotely there was an increased risk. Organisations needed to factor in not only their own systems but those of their whole supply chain – even if your company had good controls, those within your supply chain may have been weaker.
Many organisations looked at the systems they had in place and sought to find add-ons to increase efficiencies, controls and reporting. The key to any changes was to increase the cash and payment functionality – and these benefits will continue throughout 2021 and beyond.
Given the pressure many treasury teams were put under it was difficult to balance work and life activities. Many organisations recognised the need to support employees wellbeing through social activities and encouraging people to think about what could break up their day e.g. going for a walk to clear your head and get you out of your work space. Many teams had regular catch-ups that didn’t focus on work, or team building activities – such as quizzes – to bring a sense of comradeship. These initiatives, and the relationships that were built through them, will continue in the coming months.
These informal conversations often stimulated an idea or informed you about what another department in the company was working on/thinking about. Many organisations now advocate ‘check in’ sessions to enable you to build relationships with others remotely. Just by booking 10-15 minutes in the other persons diary you ensure you have the opportunity to get to know them, and once established the relationship will continue post-pandemic.
The key to ensuring you looked at your own development was to book time in your diary to catch up on this, and to plan what you needed to do. Ensuring that you factored in time for networking, or to read something that you thought was relevant, and once you established this routine of thinking about your development this would continue into the future.
One of the positives of the pandemic was that, with remote meetings, there was no travel time needed to meet with external stakeholders. This has meant that you could be more efficient with your relationship building as you could potentially ‘meet’ with more people in your working day. The added advantage was that more junior members of the team could also join in with these meetings, as attending to an online meeting was more time and cost effective than if you were meeting in person. Online events also have a bigger geographical reach and you can build in breakout sessions so that you can still take advantage of effective relationship building. Going forward online events and meetings will remain a key communication tool and the benefits of this form of relationship building with continue.
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The Future Leaders session was one of 62 sessions available at the Annual Conference 2021. If you signed up for the event the event platform is open until 17 July 2021 and you can log in by clicking here. If you were not able to make the event but would like to access the content find out more here.
