Adam Boukadida discusses building and managing treasury teams across different cultures and markets. He covers outsourcing decisions, what makes teams effective, and the leadership challenges of scaling finance operations in global companies.
The first role I did at Tesco was similar yet different to what I helped contribute towards in Kimberley Clark. So again it was very project focused, very transformation, change, related ownership if you like. And it was part of the broader middle office and back office function over time and probably establishing trust with the management there at the time. I was then asked to take on the back office function as well as the systems and control elements. There was an opportunity to take on what was called then head of treasury operations. Again, treasury operations can be different depending where you are in each company. Treasury operations at Tesco at that particular point in time meant all front office, cash management, banking, relationship management. So it was a great opportunity for me for something that I had done on the flip side that is in the bank, going back to where we started out and now managing this obviously for Tesco, but one of the largest UK corporates. So it's a great opportunity. Yes, there was team management involved at that time. It was a small function with a part of it obviously being outsourced as I touched upon earlier. But it was probably around 5, 6 people in the UK and a much larger team supporting us out of Bangalore and India, Many businesses now across different sectors and across different locations or parts of the world. Outsourcing and sourcing is a key requirement or question that is asked by many challenging boards or many challenging owners of organizations. So this was very different for me because I hadn't done that before and I'll come back to what we did and how we've done it. But having said that, it's a great opportunity now because every business since Tesco that I've worked for have either largely insourced or outsourced parts of their finance operations. So it's definitely a skill set and an opportunity if that does arise, that I would recommend people to explore and to get involved with at Tesco. Going back to the first part of the question, it was challenging at times. These were again probably similar to myself going back a few years and at this time, especially from a corporate treasury capability in India, there were some limitations. So what we found was the best way to resolve that was to actually hire in some experienced treasury banking professionals with obviously a lot of the banks at that point in time outsourcing a lot of their back office and operational work to India. So we recruited some guys from various different international banks, RBS being included, and we basically brought them over to lovely Chesham in North London to train them up in what is required from a corporate treasury perspective. Always have a can do attitude, times are not always easy, but I think again, lead by example and show that you're there for the good and the not so good times. 2. And I've said this a couple of times already, always challenge the status quo. Just because someone tells you it's A to B may not be the right answer. So therefore always challenge what people are telling you appropriately. Challenge. I'll probably extend that too. 3. It sounds quite strange, but actually put your hand up to get some battle scars, as I called it earlier. They will last a long time and actually if embraced in the right way, we'll leave you with a good standard going forward and it probably. Fourth and finally, take that calculated risk Again, there is good risk to be taken as long as there is the benefits or rewards that you're going to receive if the risk is managed correctly.
