Embracing Treasury Technology with Felix Meyer

You look at, for example, this whole shareholder holder value concept, there is pressure on the treasury organization, like it or not even I'm sure these guys are holders of the cash. But there's even pressure on these guys, you know, to reduce costs, to increase efficiency, to be compliant with socks or whichever area of compliance there that's applicable. There's pressure that says, oh guys, we need to deliver with less people. That's kind of a general theme. I know very few companies that are saying, oh, we need to deliver with, let's hire a lot more people so we can deliver the same amount. You never hear that. And so because there's a pressure from above that the automation and the technology piece is for me really just an integrated piece in so much of what we do, but also particular in Treasury. So this is then, if you look then at a big part of what I'm doing now is taking a look at the different systems we have at local level, at regional level, country level and at group level in figuring out how can we put these pieces together, what pieces can we get rid of, which pieces can we integrate into existing solutions? Cost saving also a big part of this and just to drive a more efficient Treasury. And I remember distinctly in a room full of treasures that last year was for example, that there was only one person that raised their hand that said their company is actually doing investment in AI and robotics. And the rest are kind of more cautious, more waiting. They're waiting for a certain level of maturity, they're waiting for others to take the first lead, which I have nothing against, which is quite okay. And it's also, it's feeding to their, it's feeding a little bit to this risk aversion. So I don't feel that treasures are missing the show by not investing in this emerging technology. I would say they're missing the show if they're not investing. I mean in what I'd call just basis technology, automation pieces, things that make, you know, things that are the norm, the standard. And if they're not on that level, then I'd say they're behind the wave. If they're already on the next, on the next generation, I'd say they're a little, they're definitely ahead of the waves. I don't know how much value add it's going to bring those because a lot of those projects are also, they're laced with a bit of risk. We're stuck in a lot of day to day tasks. I mean I as well, I look in the priorities of what ABB is working on. I mean, we're carving out a quarter of the business. You can only imagine that is a big exercise. And Treasury ULTA plays a big role in that. And so a large part of the resources are focused on that. They're not focused on these, these really fun, sexy things. They're. They're focused really on these day to day activities. And another parallel topic that we're very much focused on where, where it's a reality. We're focused on internal control stuff, resolving it related internal control issues. We're almost working day and night and we don't even have time to like enjoy, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel that some of this technology might offer us. So I'm not sure if I answered your question on that one. Think that's very much a reality that we see also within the treasures that we don't have time to explore to make that big leap we're trying to get through day to day and we hope then at the eighth hour, the ninth hour of the day that we have just a little bit of time to think about what could help us out more tomorrow.