Mike Richards from a treasury recruitment company argues that automation won't replace treasurers, just their routine tasks. Treasury roles need practical, adaptable professionals, not IT experts. The jobs are secure despite fintech advances.
Foreign hello, it's Mike Richards from the treasury recruitment company here. So technology, are treasury professionals going to be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence anytime soon? No, you're not. Your jobs are safe. It's okay. There is increased automation in treasury today and it's removing routine mundane tasks. These tasks are slowly have been systematized and reduced anyway. Treasury is actually about the non routine focusing on future financing. And whilst you can't predict the future, you can plan for it. The only thing you know that is going to be a constant is change. And treasury professionals, by your very nature, you're adapting to a constantly changing environment. We've seen that in the past year. You've got an agility of mind and thought. Day to day tasks are always going to be there and technology reduces the time that you spend on them. So for instance, if you give treasurers more time from the use of tech, then they can provide a greater return for their companies. Not bad, eh? However, I would also add that I have seen many companies use the money saved not to reinvest, but they simply use it saving towards the bottom line without any further reinvestment. And it can be very frustrating when you've gone through all these projects and demotivating that you've given this extra bit and you want to get reinvested in and then hits the bottom line. That's it. But anyway, I get asked. So do I think treasurers will also need to be more technically able, more like IT programmers as well? And again, no. I think that treasurers will continue to embrace new technology, but they've been doing that anyway for many years. And one of the last treasurers conferences, the real ones, where we actually met people in one of the sessions I was told technology and fintech is key above all else. All treasury professionals will have to embrace this if they can have any career in Treasury. I do agree they need to be technically proficient and and embrace advances. But at the same time treasurers are realists, they're practical people. The return on investment needs to be proven before just rushing ahead with new ideas. Often you'll find they haven't got time to be early adopters. They have so many other areas they need to deliver upon. And again, if you think about it, I've never had a CFO call me and say Mike, I need a blockchain expert who can implement straight through processing end to end tomorrow. What I do get is Mike, we've got a very poor team here, they need motivation or would they need to be re recruited? We might need to implement a new treasury system as we're currently on Excel, say, and we need more controls or treasury team, new lease of life. Can you bring in a strong treasurer who might be technically very strong? That might work as well, and that's what we recruit a lot of. So we wouldn't worry about the rise of fintech. It's going to happen. And yes, you're going to get treasurers that are more technically aware. But do they need to be IT gurus? No, they don't. I think the key thing to being a strong treasurer is knowing what you're doing, spinning all those plates. You do a lot of them and make sure you identify where you can make an impact and add value. If you want to speak to us more, then give us a call.
