The treasury function is rapidly transforming. Treasury Masterminds recently surveyed treasury professionals to uncover how their roles have evolved over the past five years. With over 100 respondents, the results highlight significant shifts in treasury priorities:
- Increased Tech & Automation (40%): By far the most significant change noted, treasurers today are leveraging technology more than ever. Automation and technological advancements have streamlined processes, improved accuracy, and freed treasurers to focus more extensively on strategic initiatives rather than routine operational tasks.
- Enhanced Strategic Decision-Making (32%): Treasury is no longer merely transactional. The role now frequently involves direct input into strategic business decisions, reflecting treasurers’ increasing value as key strategic partners to senior management. This evolution means treasurers must now cultivate stronger business acumen and a deeper understanding of strategic implications beyond purely financial considerations.
- Heightened Risk Management Focus (15%): Respondents emphasized a growing emphasis on risk management, driven by global economic volatility, market unpredictability, geopolitical developments, and heightened regulatory scrutiny. Treasurers must now proactively navigate and mitigate an expanding spectrum of risks.
- Global Cash Management (12%): While critical, global cash management received comparatively less emphasis in recent evolution, perhaps indicating that cash management fundamentals remain stable and established, even as other treasury areas undergo more dynamic transformations.
Connecting the Dots: Identifying Broader Trends
These findings complement last week’s poll, which highlighted financial strategy and forecasting as critical skills, closely followed by cash management and risk management proficiency. Interestingly, technology was viewed as a crucial but supportive enabler rather than a primary skill. Taken together, the results from both polls clearly illustrate an ongoing shift in the treasury landscape: technology and automation are rapidly becoming indispensable, enabling treasurers to dedicate greater focus to strategic and analytical tasks.
A significant trend emerges: as technology handles routine transactional activities, treasury professionals have more capacity to engage strategically within their organizations. This reinforces the strategic significance of treasury and underscores the importance for treasury professionals to maintain robust risk management skills, financial forecasting abilities, and strong leadership and communication skills.
Tech Skills of Treasurers: Essential but Enabling
Although technology was identified primarily as an enabling tool rather than the primary skill set, proficiency in technology remains essential. Treasurers today must be comfortable using treasury management systems (TMS), ERP integrations, data analytics tools, and increasingly sophisticated automation technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These skills allow treasurers to leverage data effectively, ensure accuracy in forecasting, manage risks proactively, and support strategic decision-making. Therefore, while not the highest-ranked individual skill, technology competency is integral to the modern treasurer’s effectiveness and efficiency.
Overall, both polls underscore that treasury professionals today require a balanced, multifaceted skill set. Treasurers are becoming increasingly integral strategic advisors within their organizations, supported by powerful technological tools that enhance operational efficiency.
Does this resonate with your own experience in treasury? We invite you to join the discussion and share your perspective!
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