An Interview with Award-Winning VP Treasurer, Srikanth Dasari

If there was one incident that got me thinking about getting into finance, this might be it. When I was in engineering, we were starting up a contract manufacturing operation in Singapore. The finance manager on the team was a little behind and asked me for some help with formatting and building some logic into a large Excel model he had for costing and pricing. So I looked at it and took care of what was necessary and spent some extra time studying what the model was trying to accomplish. In the end, I remember thinking, you know, if this is what they refer to as finance, then that's what I want to do. The idea of, you know, working with a large set of numbers and the modeling was very appealing to me. I enjoy treasury for all the reasons I already mentioned. Right. The numbers side of it, the analytics that goes into it, the financial market. I just like to, you know, keep up with that kind of stuff. You know, if I didn't have to work for money, I think I will still be engaged in some of the things I do as a part of my job today. So Treasury I think is, is the right area for me or other areas that have the same ingredients. Right. You know, what's what, you know, M and A could be one of those certain areas, you know, maybe proper FP and a role might offer the same things. Terms of future for Treasury, I think, you know, treasury has come a long way still. Remember there was a time and I think when was it 2003 or 4, there were a lot more spreadsheets in Treasury. You know, there are compared to, you know, what, what I see today, treasury was more into reporting, you know, as opposed to analyzing and, you know, forward looking today, you know, there's a whole gamut of, you know, treasury workstations, you know, that are, you know, available, you know, if deployed properly. Today we have access to real time data much more so than in the past. There are numerous, you know, dashboards that are available. I think treasurers have come a long way in terms of collaborating with the businesses in the past. I think, you know, it didn't exist as much. I think it's fair to say the businesses also looked at treasury as somebody looking at sitting in an ivory tower someplace and speaking some language they didn't quite comprehend. So there's a lot more collaboration today. Treasury is more real time, more forward looking. I think it's important to, you know, sign up for what might seem like in a difficult and risky projects, you know, early, especially early in their careers. They'll certainly, you know, teach them a lot. Don't be afraid to venture into the unknown and the unfamiliar, Be uncomfortable within a status quo, Embrace change. I touched on, you know, networking. You know, networking with peers in the industry is always a good idea. And last but not least, you know, choose your boss's wisely. Your first boss might have more impact on your career than anybody else. Even later in the career, you know, make sure you work for somebody who's a visionary and who has the backbone and the ability to do the right thing and lets you do the right thing. Not, you know, cut your losses and, you know, walk away from your job. You know, they cost more than you might think.