TOMATO CATCH-UP - Newsletter Issue 185 – June 2015
Your monthly resource on working capital, process optimization and issues relating to the world of corporate treasurers, IT professionals and bankers!
This newsletter is multi-lingual, English or German depending on the source.
This newsletter focuses on key treasury and IT issues including working capital optimization, excel and treasury management systems, innovation and risk, Basel III, digital transformation, personnel issues, work stress, and how and when to hire a consultant who can assist with these issues.
As summer approaches, most of us are taking a vacation. If you do, decompress, get the job out of your system for some time and get a fresh perspective on your life/work balance. We’ll take a break too and will be back with the newsletter in the fall.
Enjoy the variety!
Regula Spottl and the Tomato Team
Topics
- Challenges in Your Company? Free Telephone Coaching
- Von Excel zum Treasury Management System
- Optimizing Working Capital: Key Principles
- Treasurer’s Challenge: Balancing Innovation and Risk
- Basel III’s Impact on Treasurers, Steps to Prepare
- CIO-Roundtable: Digitale Transformation
- Four Types of People the IT Team Needs
- Is Working in IT Getting more Stressful, or Is It a Generational Issue?
Challenges in Your Company? Free Telephone Coaching
By Martin Schneider
Based on our 20 years’ experience and on articles in trade publications, companies in general and treasury and IT executives in particular tend to be reluctant to hire a consultant. When we approach them, they often tell us right away that they don’t have a budget for consulting.
After speaking with them for 15 to 30 minutes, I often learn that money is not the main concern. It's more that they have a challenge but don’t know what solutions they can/should expect. Or they are so busy that they’ve decided to live with it for the time being.
If they are not sure what their most pressing problem is, they don’t know what questions to ask or how to approach a consultant.
We understand this dilemma, so in phone calls, our main objective is to clarify what their issue is. That tells us if they are facing a common problem or if their situation is new and unique. Oftentimes, we’ve seen similar issues in other companies and know how they resolved it.
In just 15 to 30 minutes, I can give you clarity about your dilemma and explain what a solution would look like and what it involves.
Call me if you face an issue but you don’t even know if you need help and if you do, what kind! It may save you hours during which you hesitate, search for solutions, or postpone dealing with it. Contact MaCrtin Schneider at 044 814 2001. Check the list of typical services we provide und Lösungen für CFOs und CIOs.
Von Excel zum Treasury Management System
Projekte, die den Schritt von Excel zu einem Treasury System umfassen, sind nach wie vor aktuell. Viele Firmen wenden immer noch Excel an, da man damit schnell einfache Resultate erzielen kann, die wenig kosten. Solche Lösungen wachsen jedoch organisch zu immer komplexeren Tools, mit denen nur der Excel-Ersteller umgehen kann. Was wenn der Designer der Excel Macros die Stelle wechselt?
Seit 2009 haben wir mit mehreren Kunden an der Transformation von Excel zu einem System-Tool wie Treasury Management System gearbeitet. Die bessere Nutzung von Systemen ist die Basis. Das Powerpoint Dokument “Von Excel zum Treasury Management System”, mit dem wir Kunden die ersten Gedanken erklären, illustriert die vier Schritte, für ein solchen Projekt.
1. Vom xls zum TMS: Status quo und Standortbestimmung.
2. Reporting / Daten: Wie sieht die Lösung aus? Produkte/Kanäle.
3. Lösungsansätze: Ressourcen intern/extern? IT-Budget.
4. Time to Market: Umsetzen-Kleine Happen-Den grossen Plan im Auge behalten. Coaching!
Details auf der tomato.ch page Von Excel zum Treasury Management System. Fragen Sie Martin Schneider, wie aktuell so ein Projekt bei Ihnen ist, und welche Punkte Sie für einem Entscheid erwägen müssen. 044 814 2001. martin.schneider@tomato.ch
Optimizing Working Capital: Key Principles
Assisting various clients each year, we at Tomato have found some basic principles for companies who are striving to optimize their working capital. When we read the tips John Mardle, Managing Director and Working Capital Facilitator at CashPerform Limited, discussed in a Treasury Today article, we fine-tuned our principles to a checklist for our clients.
Devise an effective OWC strategy with these thoughts in mind!
- The WCO effort must involve the company’s entire management.
- Specify what you are measuring and use a tool to manage these measurements.
- Any measures to boost quarter- or year-end performance will only backfire. Don’t go there.
- Monitor DSO, DPO and DIO with performance and risk indicators and manage the findings.
- Never stop focusing on working capital even when there seems less need or if there’s a crisis.
- Make sure that not all hopes are on ERP implementation.
- Make sure that suppliers and customers collaborate with your supply chain efforts.
- Offer added value to suppliers via supply chain finance.
- Make credit management a big part of your strategy.
- Make sure forecasting techniques include intelligence from all relevant business segments.
- Include all aspects of the whole financial supply chain.
- To maintain good WC results, make an effort to create a working capital culture in the company so old habits won’t return.
Loosely based on details in treasurytoday.com…
Find more details in Martin Schneider's GTNews article "Financial Flow Management: Gains Through Inter-Departmental Efficiencies" . In Deutsch: Financial Flow Management
Treasurer’s Challenge: Balancing Innovation and Risk
Richard Hartung, gtnewsAsia Bureau Chief, reported insights in key innovations and opportunities to improve treasury’s effectiveness that were discussed at the EuroFinance International Cash, Treasury & Risk Management conference in Singapore.
Mr. Hartung first describes the many ways treasury can learn “from Formula One about data analytics, process improvement, handling regulation and thriving despite risk.”
He then provides results from a panel discussion poll about treasurers’ outlook. Results include:
- Confidence in business prospects were mixed.
- 62% of respondents think cash visibility will improve this year while only 38% believe it will not.
- 84% anticipate spending more time on regulatory compliance than last year.
- Technology is not treasurers’ strength. Only 11 percent described themselves as technology experts. 83% of respondents said they are still learning about technology.
- Only 28% are considering using cloud technology.
Dashboards to enhance treasury management is one technology area that some treasury functions are using. The article provides a case study on a company that conducted such a project.
The final section in the article deals with Cash Flow Forecasting, explaining thefundamental cash flow questions and the process one company used to successfully implement cash forecasting. Full story… (registration required, free)
Basel III’s Impact on Treasurers, Steps to Prepare
Basel I and II didn’t have much impact on corporate treasury. In contrast, Basel III with its changes to banks’ balance sheets will have a significant impact on corporates, explains Andrew Deichler, deputy editor for gtnews.
The questions what can treasurers do to prepare for Basel III was discussed at the EuroFinance Cash & Treasury Management Conference in Miami. Daniel L. Blumen, CTP, partner with Treasury Alliance Group, US, explained that banks don’t even know what impact Basel III will have. All they can do is speculate on three probable scenarios.
Regardless, treasurers can take these steps to prepare for Basel III:
- Impact assessment
- Counterparty review
- Risk-adjusted return on capital (RAROC) analysis
- Banking continuity plan
Each step is explained in great detail. Mr. Blumen concludes that “You should have a plan, because it’s our belief that in the next 18 months you’re going to have the opportunity to deploy it.” Full story…
CIO-Roundtable: Digitale Transformation
Die Digitalisierung verändert fast alle Unternehmensprozesse. Die IT spielt dabei die Schlüsselrolle, da nur mit ihrer Hilfe ein Business innovativ sein kann.
Computerworld und T-Systems haben mit CIOs und IT-Verantwortlichen einen offenen Erfahrungsaustausch mit Berufskollegen durchgeführt, um die Rolle von IT, Herausforderungen und Erfolgsbeispiele zu besprechen. David Lee hat im computerworld.ch Artikel CIO-Roundtable: Herausforderungen der digitalen Transformation den Erfahrungsaustausch zusammengefasst.
Zum selben Thema:
Digitalisierung – im Grunde ein Change Projekt, hslu blog von Prof. Dr. Nils Hafner
ETH, Sanitas, SBB, ZKB: Digitalisierung kein Hype: Bericht vom «Swiss Information Management Forum» in Oerlikon
Four Types of People the IT Team Needs
In general, recruiting and hiring focuses on finding individuals' unique qualities and qualifications that match the needs of an open job. For jobs in IT, the types of candidates needed fall into one of four specific types, Wisegate, an IT research services firm, suggests.
The cio.com article 4 types of geeks you need and how to recruit them explains who they are and how you can recruit them.
The four types include
- The entry-level person with a solid education but little job experience,
- The person whose expertise is very focused and who is content doing what he’s doing as long as he has the right tools,
- The well-rounded person who is looking to make a career and continue to grow and evolve over time,
- The “groomed-for-growth” person whose leadership potential is evident and who will be running the company one day.
Related Our Blog: Skills Analysis Requirements of IT Talents
Is Working in IT getting more stressful, or is it a Generational Issue?
Working in IT has always been stressful. Is it getting worse? And if so, why?
GFI Software commissioned an independent survey on increased stress levels of IT which was conducted over a three year period. It included such questions as “Are IT managers demanding more? Are users increasingly impatient? Are IT workers expecting a better work-life balance and is that need a generational thing?”
The cio.com article Is IT work getting more stressful, or is it the Millennials? reports the findings.
From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, NC
What do you want your legacy to be?
In this column, whenever a business leader that I admire passes away, I point to his legacy. In the last few years it was Peter Drucker, the Father of Management Science, and Warren Bennis, the Father of Leadership.
A few weeks ago, Dave Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey and husband of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, passed away unexpectedly. Adam Grant, Wharton professor and author of GIVE AND TAKE wrote about Dave:
"Dave made a concerted effort to recruit people who cared about others, who loved to learn and have fun. But his team stressed something far more meaningful: Dave built that culture by example. His helpfulness, inquisitiveness, and joy were contagious. His employees wanted to be like him… Dave was quiet about his contributions because he was modest, but also because he genuinely took more joy in the success of others than his own."
That’s true leadership!
More in Remembering Dave Goldberg, the Ultimate Mensch