Every week, I receive emails that all sound something like this:

“Mike, could I borrow 15 or 20 minutes of your time?”

Sometimes it’s someone wanting career advice.

Sometimes it’s someone trying to move from banking into corporate treasury.

Sometimes they’re hoping I’ve got a job for them.

And almost every email finishes with:

“I’d just really value your advice.”

I’m very thankful for the position I’m in, and that people look to me for help in their careers.

I feel privileged about that.

And I genuinely would love to help everyone, but the truth is…

I get so many of these requests that if I answered them all, I would run out of hours in the day.

So while I love talking treasury. I love hearing people’s stories. And I love helping people think through their careers.

There’s also a practical reality.

I run a small business. I don’t work inside a large corporate with a team of people around me whose job is to manage requests, calls and diaries.

The team and I pay the bills by recruiting treasury professionals for our clients. That has to be where most of our time goes, because that is what keeps the business moving and allows us to keep creating free content, events, podcasts and resources for the wider treasury community.

And yes, speaking to new people is part of what we do. I love that side of it.

But there simply aren’t enough hours in the week to have a one-to-one career chat with everyone who asks.

That’s not me being dismissive.

It’s just the honest reality of trying to help as many people as possible while also running the business properly.

However, that doesn’t mean I can’t help you.

This is exactly why I started this newsletter.

People sometimes assume it’s just marketing. Whilst that is a part of it. It’s also my way of answering the questions I get asked over and over again.

In fact, I’d wager that almost every email I receive has already been answered somewhere – in a newsletter, our podcast, or at one of our events.

• Am I underpaid?
• How do I build my network?
• What qualifications should I study?
• How do I move into corporate treasury?

And if we haven’t covered it yet, you can bet we will in the future.

Because if one person is asking, chances are another hundred treasury professionals are wondering exactly the same thing.

Now, if you really do want to have a conversation with me, here’s what I’d suggest…

Don’t send me a cold email and hope for the best. Instead, come to one of our events. I’ll happily chat before the event, during the networking, or over a drink afterwards.

Why?

Because you’ve invested your own time too.

You’ve shown up.

You’ve joined the treasury community.

And that’s exactly why we created those events in the first place.

So please don’t take it personally if I can’t jump on a call. It’s never because I don’t want to help.

It’s because the best way I can help the greatest number of treasury professionals is by creating resources that everyone can access.

And fortunately…

They’re ALL free.

Best regards,

Mike

P.S. If there’s a treasury topic you’d like me to cover in a future newsletter or podcast, drop a comment and let me know. I can’t promise a phone call, but there’s a good chance it’ll become something that helps the whole treasury community.

 

Every week, I sit down to write this newsletter with one question in mind:

What’s the conversation treasury professionals need to be having right now?

It could be about careers. Sometimes it’s about hiring. Or usually it’s something from a conversation I’ve had with a candidate, a treasurer, or a hiring manager that I think deserves a wider audience.

Either way, over the past year, thousands of treasury professionals have read, shared and commented on these newsletters…

Some sparked debate, some might’ve even struck a nerve. And a few of them have generated more messages in my inbox than almost anything else I’ve written.

So I thought I’d do something a little different this week…

Rather than writing something completely new, I wanted to look back at the newsletters that resonated most with you.

If you missed any of these the first time around, they’re well worth a read.

And if you’ve already read them… perhaps they’re worth another look.

The treasury profession is moving quickly, and many of these lessons are just as relevant today as when they were first published.

So, let’s start…

5. After 25 Years in Treasury Recruitment… One Thing Is Clear

After more than two decades of recruiting treasury professionals, I reflected on one lesson that has become impossible to ignore.

The people who build exceptional treasury careers rarely leave everything to chance. 

They make deliberate decisions about their development, their network and the opportunities they pursue.

Inside this newsletter, you’ll discover:

• Why the best treasury careers are built intentionally rather than accidentally.
• The habits that consistently separate high-performing treasury professionals from everyone else.

Read it here.

4. My Event Didn’t Go the Way I Expected

Sometimes the best lessons come from the moments that don’t go according to plan.

In this newsletter, I talked about an event in a new place that really challenged my expectations and reinforced an important truth about what treasury professionals really value when they come together.

Inside you’ll discover:

• Why authentic conversations matter far more than polished presentations.
• What successful treasury networking really looks like in practice.

Read it here.

3. Are You Missing This?

Many treasury professionals work incredibly hard, build strong technical expertise and deliver excellent results… yet still wonder why someone else gets promoted first.

Often, it’s because they’re overlooking something hiding in plain sight.

Inside you’ll discover:

• The career advantage many treasury professionals underestimate.
• Practical ways to become more visible without becoming more self-promotional.
• And what really gets you hired.

Read it here.

2. The Treasury Talent You’ll Never See on LinkedIn

One of the biggest misconceptions in recruitment is that the best candidates are the easiest to find.

They’re not.

Many of the strongest treasury professionals aren’t actively posting, updating their profiles or applying for jobs. They’re doing their job, and doing it well.

This newsletter explains why that’s important, whether you’re hiring talent or thinking about your own career.

Inside you’ll discover:

• Why the strongest treasury candidates are often invisible online.
• What hiring managers need to do differently if they want to reach them.

Read it here.

1. Why I Only Do Corporate Treasury Recruitment (NOT Banking Treasury Recruitment)

This was comfortably the most popular newsletter of the year.

People often ask me why I’ve spent my entire career specialising in corporate treasury rather than broadening into banking, finance or accountancy recruitment.

The answer isn’t because those markets aren’t interesting to me…

It’s because I believe specialists create better outcomes for clients and candidates alike.

When you spend decades immersed in one profession, you build deeper relationships, understand the market more intimately and can offer advice that generalists simply can’t.

If you read just one of these newsletters, read this one.

Inside you’ll discover:

• Why deep specialisation has shaped every part of my business.
• How treasury professionals benefit when their recruiter genuinely understands their world.

Read it here.

That’s a wrap!

Thank you to everyone who has read, commented on, and shared the Treasury Career Corner Newsletter over the past year…

Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or only subscribed recently, I genuinely appreciate you spending a few minutes of your week with me.

Now I’m curious…

Which newsletter has been your favourite, and what would you like me to write about next?

Best regards,

Mike

 

Whenever I look back at the careers of the most successful treasury professionals I’ve spoken to, there’s usually one thing they have in common…

Things rarely went smoothly.

At some point in everyone’s career, something sprang out at them and changed things in a way they never expected.

It might be an acquisition, a restructure, a new CFO, a new integration, or something like AI comes along and completely changes everything.

You can’t plan for those moments.

They just happen to you.

But what really matters is how you respond to them…

Take one deputy treasurer I know, for example. She was in a fantastic role. Close to the CFO, involved in strategic decisions, getting exposure across the whole business. She’d just been promoted and couldn’t have been happier.

Then the company was acquired.

Almost overnight, everything changed.

Treasury moved into a much larger organisation with a completely different structure.

Instead of seeing the CFO every week, she’d be lucky to see them once a quarter.

Instead of being involved across treasury, she became responsible for one small area.

Her job title may have remained the same, but she was doing a very different job.

She’s now looking for her next move.

I’ve seen the opposite happen as well…

Another treasurer found himself thrown into a major integration project after his business was acquired.

Initially, he wasn’t even sure he’d have a job six months later.

Instead, he embraced it.

He stepped into projects he’d never expected to lead. He proved himself. And he’s since been promoted twice.

That’s the thing about change – it doesn’t automatically make your career better, but it usually creates opportunities that simply don’t exist when everything is ticking along nicely.

The mistake I see people make is assuming the project is the destination.

It isn’t.

They all have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The smart treasury professionals enjoy the project, but they also keep one eye on what comes afterwards.

Because eventually the project finishes, or the company changes again, or the role you’ve loved simply isn’t the same role anymore.

That’s why I often say:

When’s the best time to look for your next job? Yesterday.

When’s the second-best time? Today.

I’m not saying you should be actively applying for jobs every week…

But you should know what’s happening in the market.

So, keep your LinkedIn profile up to date.

Have a coffee with someone in your network.

Understand what opportunities are out there.

And answer the occasional call from a recruiter (especially if it’s me ).

This is an extract from one of our recent Treasury Career Corner LIVE Events where Louise Woodroffe, Head of Treasury at Hastings Direct, gave some great advice about keeping in contact with recruiters…

Mike: “Who were the people who helped you progress and helped you believe that you could be more, and what impact did it have on you?”

Louise: “Mike Richards.”

(Whilst I was blushing, Louise carried on to say…)

“To a certain extent, recruiters. I think in hindsight, there’s a couple of bosses that have been incredibly kind to me and said how much they liked working with me, how much they could see potential. 

“But that’s not something I felt in the moment while working with them. So it’s been a real development in our relationship. 

“Therefore, it has been the recruiters. Getting to talk to them about my experience, what it is that people are looking for. They are the ones who have really pushed me, and pushed me to consider taking roles that I might not have necessarily thought I was going to be right for.”

Now, to close, I’ll just finish with this…

When change arrives (and at some point, it WILL!), if you take all this advice on board, you’ll be able to make your decisions from a position of strength, not reacting because you have no choice.

The biggest career moves I’ve seen in treasury haven’t happened because someone sat still.

They happened because someone recognised that change creates opportunity…

And they were ready when it arrived.

Best regards,

Mike

P.S. Some of the best examples of treasury professionals navigating change have come from guests on the Treasury Career Corner podcast.

If you haven’t listened recently, it’s a great place to hear how others have handled the unexpected. Click here to get the latest episode.

A few months ago, we held one of our Treasury Leaders Roundtables in New York.

We had senior treasury professionals from a range of businesses sharing what was working, what wasn’t, and the challenges they were all facing.

The conversations were brilliant. Everyone at the event walked away with some amazing insights.

But I made a mistake.

I had pages of notes, recordings, and ideas… but apart from sharing a few snippets afterwards, most of those insights never left the room.

My business coach asked me the question:

“What follow-up did you do?”

And the answer was not enough.

So, when we held our London Treasury Leaders Roundtables recently, I was determined not to make the same mistake again.

This time we captured everything.

Originally, we’d organised the afternoon around four topics that had been chosen by the participants themselves rather than by me or any of our sponsors.

1. AI & Automation
2. Risk & Regulation
3. People & Leadership
4. Cash, Liquidity & Capital Management

But when I reviewed all the notes afterwards, there was something I didn’t expect…

The conversations weren’t really about those topics.

They kept coming back to the same practical challenges…

Questions like:

• Where are treasury teams spending time that adds little value?
• Are we trying to solve technology problems or data problems?
• How do you actually make AI useful today, rather than just talking about it?
• What risks are treasury teams worrying about that weren’t even on the radar a few years ago?

In the end, we realised we’d uncovered eight themes that almost every treasury team seemed to be wrestling with.

So rather than filing my notes away (again), I’ve turned them into something practical.

A Treasury Leaders Playbook

It’s a practical guide built from real conversations with treasury professionals about what’s actually happening inside treasury teams today.

Each section finishes with a handful of reflective questions you can use to help your own team, whether you’re reviewing technology, improving cash forecasting, thinking about AI, or simply trying to decide where your priorities should be over the coming months.

If you’d like a free copy, you can download it here.

I always say the magic of our live events doesn’t happen on the stage – it’s from being in the room.

But with our events being all across the globe, I know not everyone can make it to them all. So I hope this Playbook will bring that magic to you.

Best regards,

Mike

I still receive about 5-10 emails every single week from people working in banking who want my help to move into corporate treasury.

So if you’ve emailed me recently, please don’t take this personally, but my answer is often the same.

And it’s not always the one you’re hoping for.

I was challenged on this recently by someone from banking treasury, and to be fair, he made a very good point…

Some bank treasury professionals have deep experience across funding, liquidity, risk, regulation, systems and stakeholder management.

In smaller banks or broader financial services treasury teams, they may have covered a huge amount.

I don’t disagree with that.

My point has never been that bank treasury people can’t move into corporate treasury.

Some absolutely can…

But the real issue is competition.

If a banking treasury person applies for a corporate treasury role, they are not being judged in isolation.

They are entering a very crowded market.

And at the moment, that market is incredibly competitive.

It is not unusual for them to be sitting alongside 49 or 99 other candidates, many of whom are already working in corporate treasury.

Katie and I recruited two Group Treasurer roles earlier this year, and we had over 150 corporate treasury professionals apply for each position before I even looked at anyone from banking treasury.

In one sense, I was delighted.

A tremendous response is never a bad thing.

But I was also disappointed…

Because it says something about the current state of the corporate treasury market.

There is not enough movement.

And a healthy market needs movement.

It needs people progressing, changing roles, stepping up, moving sideways and creating opportunities for others.

At the moment, too many strong corporate treasury professionals are looking at the same limited number of opportunities.

That is the reality people from banking treasury are stepping into.

It does not mean they are not good enough.

It does not mean their experience has no value.

It means the competition is fierce.

And if a client says to me, “Find me the strongest corporate treasury person,” I will often ask whether they would consider someone from banking or financial services.

Sometimes they will.

But often the answer is:

“Do we need to?”

And in the current market, if there are strong corporate treasury candidates available, the honest answer is often no.

That might sound harsh, but it is not meant to be.

I am not the judge.

I am the facilitator.

My job is to help the client find the best fit for the role they are hiring for.

The emails I receive are often very similar.

• “I’ve worked with corporate treasurers for years.”
• “My role overlaps with treasury.”
• “I’ve got transferable skills.”

All of which may be true.

But transferable skills still have to compete with direct experience.

That is the bit people sometimes underestimate…

I often point people back to Keith Gaub’s story on the Treasury Career Corner podcast.

He successfully made the move from banking into corporate treasury, but he did something most people are not prepared to do…

He took a step backwards first.

Less money, a different title, but a chance to build broader corporate treasury experience.

That was his own decision, not one I helped him with, but it paid off for him in the long run.

So if you are sitting in banking or financial services treasury wondering whether corporate treasury is the right move, here’s my advice:

Be realistic about the competition.

Do not assume transferable skills will be enough on their own.

Be ready to explain exactly how your experience translates into a corporate environment.

Speak to people who have actually made the move.

Build relationships with corporate treasurers.

And be prepared to take a sideways step before you move forwards.

It might still be the right move.

But don’t underestimate what that move actually involves.

Best regards,

Mike

P.S. If you are already working in corporate treasury and looking for your next move, that is where we can really help. It has been our specialist focus for more than 25 years.

People often ask me why we put so much effort into our treasury events.

After all, they’re free to attend, so what’s in it for me?

And the answer is pretty simple.

Because when I looked around the treasury profession a few years ago, I realised something was missing.

There were conferences, industry events, and networking evenings.

But too often there was an agenda attached.

A service would want to sell something, or a sponsor would want stage time (I know because I’ve had to turn down plenty of them myself!).

I wanted something different…

My goal was to create a space where treasury professionals could simply learn from and meet each other without the sales pitch.

That vision came to life once again at what has now become our biggest-ever Treasury Career Corner LIVE event in London last month.

We had 32  senior treasury practitioners sitting around the room from 3pm to 6pm discussing the challenges they’re facing right NOW!

What’s working.

What’s not working.

Career development.

How they’re approaching treasury systems. New technology.

It was amazing, but to me, it wasn’t the best bit.

You see, I’m often at events filled with people at the start of their treasury careers… but how often do those people actually get the chance to sit down with an experienced Group Treasurer and ask whatever they want?

For most people, probably never.

But we gave people the chance to change that; to learn from people who’d already walked the path ahead of them.

We had 24 treasury professionals from Treasury Assistant to Senior Treasury Manager sitting with Stuart Case the Treasurer at Sky, Louise Woodroffe, Head of Treasury at Hastings Direct and Tanja Holden the International Treasurer from Acrisure sit with each group and answer the questions they wanted to ask about their treasury careers.

• How did they get into treasury?
• What mistakes did they make?
• What would they do differently?
• What advice would they give their younger selves?

Those are the sorts of questions that can genuinely change someone’s career trajectory.

And afterwards, I got the same feedback from everyone…

“That was incredible.”

People often think networking means awkward conversations, business cards and LinkedIn requests. But that couldn’t be more wrong.

The best networking happens when people are learning together, sharing experiences, and building relationships BEFORE they actually need them.

That’s what this event was designed to do.

And this event itself was a great reminder of why networking matters.

Because throughout the questions, conversations, and stories, one theme kept coming up:

The strongest careers are rarely built alone.

So, a huge thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to making our London event such a success.

Whether you joined the roundtables, the panel discussion, the networking afterwards, or all three – you helped create exactly the sort of conversations we wanted these events to encourage.

And if you missed this one…

Don’t make the mistake of saying “Maybe next time.” Instead, make sure you’re there!

I’ll see you at the next one.

Best regards,

Mike

Katie came to me recently with an interesting candidate situation…

A treasury professional was approached about a role from a good company, and it looked like a great fit for them personally.

It was well worth exploring, and the candidate was told that.

Their response was:

“Yes, I’m interested. But they’ll need to move quickly because I’m looking at a couple of other offers.”

Now, to me, that sounds a bit like going to look at a house and saying;

“I might put an offer in, but I’m looking at other houses first.”

Then you come back later, and guess what… the house is sold.

That’s exactly what happened here.

And worse off, the candidate wasn’t actually sitting on multiple offers.

They seemed to have forgotten something fundamental:

Yes, you’re assessing the company. But they’re also assessing you.

Neither side gets to dictate all the terms.

I see this mistake surprisingly often…

Someone assumes the market is waiting for them, that opportunities will still be there whenever they decide they’re ready.

They think recruiters, hiring managers and companies will pause everything until they’ve made up their mind.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

A few weeks pass…

The interviews happen…

The shortlist moves forward…

An offer gets made, and someone accepts.

Then suddenly I get the call:

“Actually Mike, I’ve had a think, and I’d like to go forward for that role.”

Too little, too late. And they’re often genuinely surprised.

“What do you mean it’s gone!?”

Well, while you were deciding whether you were interested, somebody else decided they were.

Now, before anyone misunderstands me, I’m not saying you should rush into every opportunity.

Far from it.

You should absolutely ask questions, challenge assumptions, and have a genuine think about the role to make sure it’s right.

But there’s a difference between making a considered decision and assuming the market revolves around your timeline.

About a year ago, I wrote a newsletter about a candidate who had left a £60,000 role and immediately decided their next position had to pay £80,000.

Not because the market said so.

Not because employers agreed.

Simply because that’s what they wanted.

A month later, they came back ready to discuss roles they’d previously dismissed. And by then, those opportunities had already gone.

The lesson hasn’t changed.

The market doesn’t care what salary you think you deserve or how frustrated you are with your last employer.

And it certainly doesn’t wait indefinitely while you decide whether you’re interested.

What matters is the value you bring right now.

So one of the most valuable traits a treasury professional can have is self-awareness, not technical ability.

If you understand your strengths and market value, and are ambitious without being unrealistic, then you should be able to spot a good opportunity when it appears.

But remember that opportunities, like most things in life, have a shelf life…

And sometimes the biggest career mistake isn’t taking the wrong job, it’s missing the right one because you thought it would wait.

Best regards,

Mike

I got called a treasury influencer last week…

It made my skin crawl.

Now I know they meant it as a compliment, but I still hate it.

Maybe it’s because when I hear the word influencer, I immediately think of people trying to get attention for attention’s sake.

• Look at me!
• Look what I’m doing!
• Look where I am!

But that’s never been what I’ve been trying to do.

In fact, if you go right back to why I started most of the things we do today, none of them began as some grand marketing plan.

I simply wanted to help treasury professionals.

17 years ago, when my daughter was eight.

She asked me;

“Dad, what do you do for a job?”

I started to try to explain about treasury, what corporate treasury was and how it fitted into the finance team, etc…

In response, I got a very blank-faced look from Emma, and another question: “So what do you do?”

After a bit more thought on how to help, it makes sense, I vividly remember saying;

“I get people jobs.”

And that’s still probably the best description.

Everything else has grown around that.

The podcast came from wanting treasury professionals to share their stories…

The salary survey came from wanting to help people understand what they were worth….

The live events came from wanting to help treasury professionals network in a constructive, education-filled environment…

This very newsletter you’re reading came from wanting to share the advice I found myself sharing each week.

None of it was designed to make me the centre of attention. Quite the opposite.

That’s why in our podcast, I’m never the star. The guest is.

I’ve spent over 25+  years talking to treasury professionals, and I find their careers and the stories of their careers fascinating.

• How did they get into corporate treasury?
• What mistakes did they make?
• How did they build their careers?

Those are the stories worth hearing. Not mine.

What happened over time was something I never really planned…

Our salary survey gained traction. Our events expanded. The newsletters were shared.

The Treasury Career Corner podcast has grown to over 430 episodes and over 280,000 downloads.

Eventually, they all started connecting together.

And it all helps me to help other people in different ways.

Some people come to us because they’re looking for a role, others want hiring advice.

Some people want networking opportunities, others want to benchmark their salary.

The funny thing is that recruitment itself comes down to two things:

1. Are you looking for a new role? Or…
2. Do you need to recruit someone for a treasury role?

That’s it.

Because for some recruiters, that’s where the relationship begins and ends.

A quick conversation. A transaction. Then silence until the next vacancy appears.

I’ve never wanted to work that way.

Treasury professionals deserve more than a recruiter who only appears every six months asking, “Got any jobs?” or “Ready to move yet?”

Sometimes they need advice about a career decision.

Sometimes they want to understand what the market is doing.

And sometimes they just want to connect with other treasury professionals facing the same challenges.

That’s why I’ve always believed the relationship should be bigger than the transaction itself.

Sometimes all you need is a conversation to help you avoid making a mistake.

So am I a treasury influencer?

I still don’t think so. I’d much rather be known as someone who helps treasury professionals.

The podcast, events, salary survey, newsletter, and the videos are all just different ways of doing that.

And if that occasionally influences people along the way…

Well, I can live with that.

Best regards,

Mike

You would think the hardest part of my job is matching the perfect candidate to the ideal role.

That is the case sometimes.

But there’s actually another challenge which is often much harder to overcome…

Deciding on the job title.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but believe it or not, it’s true.

Here’s why.

Recently, a client came to me looking for a Senior Treasury Analyst.

But when they explained the responsibilities, it sounded much closer to a Treasury Manager role.

So I asked the obvious question:

“If it’s a Treasury Manager role, why not call it Treasury Manager?”

Their answer was simple.

In their organisation, anyone with a Manager title manages people. This role didn’t. It was an individual contributor position, so they preferred Senior Treasury Analyst.

Fair enough.

But here’s the problem…

Imagine you’re already a Senior Treasury Analyst, and I call you with a new opportunity.

“Great company. More money. Bigger responsibilities. Exciting development plans…

“But you’ll be a Senior Treasury Analyst again.”

The challenge starts immediately.

Because no matter how good the opportunity is, most people compare the title first.

I’ve seen this countless times.

I once recruited for a global multinational where job titles were standardised worldwide.

On paper, that sounds sensible.

In reality, it created confusion.

One role was broadly equivalent to what many companies would describe as an Assistant Treasurer position. Internally, however, the title was Treasury Manager.

One candidate in particular struggled with the decision.

Not because of the work or the compensation…

His concern was how the title would look on LinkedIn.

Eventually, he decided to focus on the role rather than the label attached to it.

We agreed he would join, learn the business, establish himself and then gradually update his profile so it better reflected the reality of what he was doing rather than simply the internal title on his contract.

That proved to be the right decision.

His responsibilities grew, his remit expanded, and his profile evolved to reflect that growth.

Had he focused solely on the title, he would have walked away from a career-defining opportunity.

And that’s the danger with job titles.

They influence perception, but they rarely tell the whole story.

Treasury titles don’t mean the same thing everywhere.

Take a Treasury Director.

In the UK, that often means Head of Treasury or second-in-command.

In the US, it can be a mid-level individual contributor with no direct reports.

That’s why, as recruiters, we look beyond titles.

We ask:

• How many people do you manage?
• What are your responsibilities?
• What decisions do you make?
• Where do you sit within the organisation?

That’s how you understand someone’s true level.

So do job titles matter?

Unfortunately, yes.

People are influenced by them.

But a better question than “What’s the title?” is:

“Where could this role take me next?”

Because sometimes the best career move doesn’t come with the most impressive title.

It comes with the biggest opportunity.

And those two things aren’t always the same.

Best regards,

Mike

A lot of companies get this the wrong way around.

When they need to hire someone, they reach into the bottom drawer, pull out the treasury job description from five years ago, change the date at the top, freshen up a few words and post it.

But businesses change.

Treasury challenges change.

And the person you needed 3 years ago is unlikely to be the EXACT same person you need now.

I was working with a client who’d already interviewed several candidates. Some had brilliant CVs, big company names, and excellent credentials on paper…

But I kept asking them one thing:

“What problem are you actually trying to solve over the next two years?”

That’s the real question.

This particular company has a huge treasury funding and capital markets program coming up. Billions to raise and a massive focus on debt capital markets activity over the next couple of years.

That’s the business-critical issue sitting on the table right NOW!

Interestingly, one of the strongest candidates didn’t necessarily tick every traditional treasury box.

They were fantastic on funding strategy and capital markets, and had brilliant relationship skills.

But…

They had less exposure to cash management, NO treasury systems implementation, and limited experience across some operational treasury areas.

Most businesses would immediately reject that profile.

Too narrow

Too specialist

Not broad enough

But with a bit of nudging, the CFO realised the candidate would have the exact skills they’d need for the next two years.

THAT is the key

Because hiring the “best” treasurer on paper and hiring the right treasurer for your business right now are not always the same thing.

Sometimes businesses hire for completeness.

The fully rounded treasury leader who’s done, seen and managed everything.

And that can absolutely be the correct decision.

But sometimes the smarter decision is hiring someone who solves the biggest current problem exceptionally well.

The other areas of treasury can often be supported by the wider team.

And I think this is where treasury hiring is evolving.

I’m having more conversations now where clients are stepping back and asking:

“What does success actually look like in this role over the next 12 to 24 months?”

Not:

“What did the previous person do?”

That’s a completely different question.

One of the best questions Katie asks our clients is:

“What would success look like from this person in the first 90 days?”

I’ve talked about that in newsletters before. It’s such a simple question, but it changes the entire conversation.

Because suddenly you stop hiring around a job title and start hiring around outcomes.

And I’ve seen the reverse happen as well.

I’ve seen treasury professionals take jobs that looked fantastic on paper but were completely wrong for them culturally, strategically or operationally.

Sometimes you can just tell.

The role sounds impressive. The title sounds bigger. The money looks good.

But the environment, expectations or actual business challenges are wrong for that individual.

Then six months later, they’re back on the phone saying:

“Yeah… you were right.”

The best treasury hiring decisions usually happen when both sides properly understand the challenge sitting underneath the role. Not just the job description.

Especially right now, when treasury is rarely static.

• Some businesses need stability.
• Some need transformation.
• Some need funding expertise.
• Some need commercial influence across the wider business.

So when it comes to hiring, the question shouldn’t be:

“Who’s the best treasurer?”

What you should REALLY be asking is:

“Who is best equipped to solve the problem we actually have right NOW?”

Best regards,

Mike

P.S. Hiring a treasurer starts with understanding the problem you actually need solved. If you want help figuring that out, let’s talk.