This is a YouTube video titled "Guidance, Teamwork, and Making Treasury Meaningful with Amol Dhargalkar" containing a monologue or talk by Amol Dhargalkar recorded in May 2023. The content focuses on Amol's passion for capital markets, the importance of meaningful work in treasury teams, challenges in streamlining processes, and the value of mentorship and tough conversations for personal growth. There is no indication of multiple speakers or a conversation involving Mike Richards.
What's kept me here is a few things. One, I really love the subject matter. This is a field I did not know existed when I was in university. And I love capital markets. I love the ability to work with our clients to help them solve some of their challenging derivative capital markets and financial risk management needs. It's really fascinating to be able to learn just in the last day. I've been on calls with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to automakers, pharmaceutical company startup out on the west coast, or maybe not startup, but a technology company out on the west coast. That's a normal day. It's really a phenomenal perch from which you get to learn about different businesses. So of course the subject matter expertise and then the subject matter itself has been really fun. The ability to learn so much about different people in different businesses. And I suspect, Mike, you've had a similar experience in your role. And then the third piece which is really critical is I really love the people I work with, right? I mean, it's a phenomenal team. These are people that we're friends with. I'll admit that I was probably one of the people most excited to come back to the office as Covid has started to recede because I really love being around the people I work with every day. So I think it's those three things. Beyond talent, it's actually how do you design a Treasury team that is going to be able to attract and retain talent? And one of the consistent areas of feedback we've received from our clients actually has been how do you make people's jobs meaningful? How do you have people moved out of button clicking and process? Particularly for those rising stars for mid to senior level professionals, how do you put them in more of a strategic role rather than a role where they're just copying data from one tool to another and doing a bunch of processes in tms, another bunch of processes in the risk platform, another bunch of processes in the bank platform, another bunch of processes in Excel. It's one of the most common refrains that we've heard, not just from treasurers but also, and I'm sure you've heard this too from treasury managers and directors, that they're really looking to streamline their processes so that they can spend more time working with the businesses or the business units to be more of a partner when it comes to commodities, risk management or FX or how to redesign things. And that's before all of the spin off, carve out, divestiture type of activity, which I know you know a lot about. Is happening globally. Those are quote unquote, special projects that are expected to be added on to people's day jobs. So that's the other big challenge that we've seen, and it's related to talent, is just how do you implement and put in place processes and technology that really can add meaning and value to your team members lives on a day to day basis. It's really important to have people in your life that can give you guidance and advice and remind you of what's important to you and who you are. It sometimes can be hard for each of us to do that for ourselves and so whoever that is for you. I've gotten a ton of value from having my wife, my best friend, a coach, mentor. It is so valuable to have someone that's willing to hold the mirror to you. And much as you had said before our podcast, sometimes be willing to have the tough conversation with you that you might be avoiding yourself, because that is really the only way we grow. Being willing to confront those difficult conversations and those difficult challenges.
