Abraham Geldenhuys on why treasury professionals need qualifications, the courage to challenge how things are done, and the right relationship with technology. He argues backing yourself matters as much as credentials.
Educate yourself and make sure you've got the right set of qualifications, right? And I think that goes without saying because that gets you through the door. If you really want to advance your career, that gets you through the door. But then once you are there, once you are there, you know, then you're part of that group and part of that pool, then you need to show you know what you're worth. So I could not stress this more that you need to challenge the status quo every day. Right. Sometimes it comes with a bit of frustration, and I don't think everybody like that. But I would say challenge the status quo and show the people what you work for. You work with your passion for what you're doing. And then lastly, back yourself, you know, because I think, you know, more often than not, you're sitting in scenarios we think, should I, shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I? You know, and then looking back, you always would think, you know, I should have done that. So, yeah, I would say, you know, back yourself because once you've equipped yourself with the right experience, let's call it in qualifications, it's time to step it up and put yourself out there and make mistakes. Unfortunately, in the treasury world, we are not, I would say, really allowed to make a lot of mistakes because it has real impact. But I'm talking about the opportunity to do stuff and ask the questions and raise your voice. Exactly. Go for it. I think in any level, if, you know, I think for me, one of the biggest challenges is, was running somebody else's race. And I wanted to actually run my own race. And I wanted to show that, listen, I can do this, this, this and that. Sometimes, Mike, is difficult because once you start challenging your leader too much, you know, I think the. It's not always received, you know, very positive. It's. It's in very mature, managed situations where somebody said, listen, this guy's a go getter. Let's bring him up, let's bring him up. But, you know, I. At any level, you need to see, listen, what can I do today? What can I learn today to bring me one step closer to where I want to be? And without a doubt, Mike, I think what I found for myself more often than not is when I start to hear, I write down a couple of goals, what I think I want to achieve in the year and where I want to be in two to three years. And that's almost like a subconscious. I don't want to go into psychology discussion, but it's almost like a subconscious programming where I tell myself, listen, this is where I think I should be and go. And then I take it from detailed levels to, you know, to title, remuneration and all of that, you know, so that, that is part of, I would say, a little bit of the inside of how, how I've done it. Treasurers need to be technology savvy. I mean, I think that's not something new. Right? So you need to be technology savvy, but you need to kind of see where you can cut down. And I would say this sounds like a derogatory term, but cut down, you know, repetitive monkey work. So, so that you can be strategic also in your analyst level. Right. So, you know, free up time for people to be able to look at information that can make a difference. So yes, I think technology is the forefront. Yes, we're going to do see more around API connections, we're going to see more around, you know, robot, you know, RPA's, etc. Etc. But you need to get your house in order before you can even look at these technologies. And a lot of us have been, you know, struggling to get the house in order before you, before you go that direction.
