Rajan Gupta talks about his work in treasury management and why facing obstacles matters. He covers financial risk, liquidity management, and the importance of actually enjoying the work you do.
We started with a department of 15 people and there was a head of treasury who was also a Korean guy. Actually it was a quite big treasury team and teamwork or team coordination was key there. Also I think it was quite challenging. As I said earlier, like every day you have something new to explore, something new you are working on some new instrument you're trying. And also later point of time in Devo actually they face with a financial crisis as well. So while you know somebody can say that it was, yeah, why you work for that company. But I think that is also enough challenge for a Treasury professional. How to keep the company alive, you know, how to keep the liquidity, cash management, risk management intact. How to deal with your bankers to keep the company from going through a greater financial crisis. Let's put it like this. I always believe that I should enjoy wherever I am. That's my goal of my life, my career. So if I'm spending like to 10 hours in a job, I should enjoy. I love challenges and where the challenges are, there are obstacles for sure. And we face. You will face a lot of criticism as well. But you know these challenges will give you the feeling of fulfillment, the feeling of satisfaction, will bring you joy after short term difficulties, let's put it like this. They create the right excitement and they also give you opportunity to celebrate, you know, after this. Yeah, you're right. I think this was five to six years in my career. I mean say I had opportunity to just heading the treasury department of Deutsche Post bank, just focus on cash management, just focus on the liquidity management and the company would not say anything. But if you go outside of your role and do something extra, I think there lies the satisfaction and you have done something different and that gives you the feeling of joy. All the treasury related stuff is challenging itself. I mean one of the major challenges which we have at the moment are related to risk management. Let's put it like this. So when we talk about interest rate risk, when we talk about the foreign exchange risk, when you talk about commodity risk, I think these are very important challenges ahead of us and always I think will remain from a funding perspective is also very challenging given the market and especially today's market is very different because people are worried and liquidity is bit lower. So I think that's also a big challenge. But if we talk about other side of the treasury, which is liquidity management, investment, cash management itself is very important. You have to make sure that the right amount of money is at the right moment and the right place. And if you have a surplus, then it should be in a group at a place where you can invest, you know, and then the system side is also important. I would say not a challenge, but I think this challenge from a perspective, from a change management perspective, but I think it makes your life much more simpler. It will give you enough time to focus on the strategic things rather than regular stuff, which is a payment, receivables and reconciliation and all those things.
