This is a YouTube video titled "How to Fast-Track your Treasury Career with Topi Jokiranta" containing a monologue or talk from April 23, 2019, where Topi Jokiranta shares insights and advice on building a career in treasury, discussing differences between public and private companies, the value of an MBA, and career development strategies in the treasury field.
Public companies are good. It's a good school to understand how things are done, usually quite well, because you've got rules and regulations of what you can and cannot do. Also, the companies I work for were very, very big. And so, you know, those Treasuries were top notch. That was a particular view. Private companies can be. Obviously they range from A to Z. This particular one, when I joined was probably a little bit stuck in its ways, but the Treasury Department had some pretty good starts with technology and pretty good starts with, you know, the processes. Size wise, this is a big company in the Nordics, but this is not particularly big company if you put it to European or global context. But here we are pretty sizable and I think things can move very, very fast or they can move very, very slowly. It depends really very much what the owners want and what kind of an agenda the owners want to MBA gives you a completely different angle. Is it worth it? I think it is, but if you do it, you have to go really all in. It's no point sitting there for, you know, half of the lectures. And then you really kind of have to use the time and max the time and invest in it, and then it gives you a lovely payback by way of understanding things. And so when I look at people, as I said, we're a pretty small team. We have to have clever people. But it doesn't mean I have to have people who've been doing treasury for 30 years. No, it means I have to have people who can complement each other and also are hungry to learn things and also take ownership. That's one of the big things which needs to happen in a small team is there needs to be rotation, there needs to be ownership. If it doesn't really work, a small team can't function, sometimes be a bit adventurous, somebody offers you things, maybe you have to relocate. That's not. I mean, it's always a bit of a hassle, but it tends to be easier when you're young. And so you should try and do that, you know, before the whole family thing steps into the picture. And another thing is, if you are moving jobs, then the next one should be something which is new. Don't, don't move from one job to another where, you know, you do the same thing. Always try and find another focus and build around it experience in treasury, because then if you're able to work in all of those different areas of treasury, then that after a while gives you a much more rounded experience which you can apply instead of becoming a deep specialist in some area, you're able to approach things in a more holistic way. And I suppose that's what I tried consciously doing because it went pretty well. But I did enjoy the ride around the world, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anybody if there is a chance, then take up those various opportunities.
