Revolutionizing Treasury Practices: From Traditional Roles to Technology Integration

Mike Richards, CEO, The Treasury Recruitment Company: Welcome to this week’s Treasury Career Corner podcast, where I interview treasury professionals about their treasury careers. Each and every week, I talk to treasurers about how they build their careers, where they are now, where they see both themselves and the treasury profession going to next. Let’s get on with the show.

Mike Richards: In this week’s show, delighted to be joined by Dennis Morais, the Global Treasury Director at GameStop. GameStop offers games, entertainment products, and technology. There’s e commerce, properties, and stores. But they’re not just brick and mortar retailers anymore. We’re going to go back to the beginning of his career, how Dennis first ever started in treasury, and obviously it’s taken him right the way around the world.

Mike Richards: And this is one of the things I want to explore, all the way from Brazil and everything else. So, Dennis, if you would take us back to the beginning of your story, how you then discovered finance and then moved into treasury over to you, sir.

Dennis Morais, now Director Finance & Assistant Treasurer at Valvoline Inc: Hi, Mike. Thank you. Been an honor to be part of your show here.

Dennis Morais: Thanks for having me. I started my career. Back in Sao Paulo, Brazil, straight out of college, I joined Whirlpool Corporation. I joined the treasury department team there. I was mainly working with the risk management insurance team there. Immediately got fascinated about risk management, treasury, and I already could picture myself as becoming an executive of the company and working for a multinational organization, which was part of one of my dreams here when I was going to college.

Dennis Morais: I was always very eager to learn and curious and how to learn about different areas of the organization. And obviously I had a great, I think, manager within treasury at that time. And he was really a mentor for life for me. So that helped me a lot.

Mike Richards: And then when you did this, though, you started in Brazil, didn’t you?

Mike Richards: So this is Latin America, because I think that’s where you’re from. But what was it like there and how did it compare to rest of the rest of your career through the U S and stuff? What was, what was that like? How was it structured?

Dennis Morais: Sure. Yeah. So we were, you know, being in Sao Paulo was the kind of the headquarters of the Latin American region for Whirlpool.

Dennis Morais: Obviously everything that we did within treasury and risk management was following some of the global programs that Whirlpool had globally, Brazil. I think was a very important part of the business for Whirlpool, leading market share and within the Latin America region. In treasury, obviously it was more focused on cash management and insurance and more of the operations aspect.

Dennis Morais: Back in 2005, 2006 Whirlpool acquired Maytag. And they were going through this major integration process there. That was when an opportunity came up here in Benton Harbor, Michigan, as part of their global treasury team within risk management still. And they reached out to me if I wanted to be part of, as an expatriate come to the U.

Dennis Morais: S. I didn’t think one bit. I was like, yes, I would love to come and learn. And I knew that, you know, a lot of the exciting things was happening at corporate level. So didn’t think twice. I moved. Back in 2006, that’s when I came as an expatriate to Benton Harbor, Michigan. My first two years, I was helping with the integration about the merger with Maytag.

Dennis Morais: During that process, even though I was doing risk management insurance, I would always offer myself to help with doing the quarterly financial close process. You know, I would be part of helping with their working capital dashboards, metrics. Anything they need help with, I would be around and help them and trying to learn other things within the company.

Dennis Morais: On the third year, they would ask you to rotate and move to a different area as part of your development program. That’s when I went and I moved to an FB& A budgeting and forecasting role within the North American region. It was a very good opportunity for me to learn and expose me to accounting and finance.

Dennis Morais: I had a very good experience of going through the budgeting and forecasting planning exercise. That was especially back in 2008, during the financial crisis, a lot of budget cutting and a lot of things that I think the U. S. was going through and being part of that process. A little bit of stress involved there, obviously, but it was very good experience for me.

Dennis Morais: to learn and be part of that initiative and help the company, you know, right size and go through that financial situation that we all went through. During that whole process, I clearly developed a lot of different ties within the controllers teams and other areas of the organization. I told them that my desire was still to stay in the United States, not necessarily go back to Brazil, where was my home country, because I felt like that’s where the action was.

Dennis Morais: You know, I wanted to be part of that corporate. I still think I still had unfinished business, especially in treasury. I expressed my desire. Fortunately, I was able to stay there, continue to still work within FB& A, budgeting and forecasting. But I also feel that that was a great experience for me to learn that my passion was with treasury.

Dennis Morais: Even though I learned about accounting, finance and treasury was really where my heart was. And. Always kept very close ties with the treasurer at that time, with the treasury team.

Mike Richards: Whirlpool itself, can you just, at that time, I know it’s been through transition with the Maytag, and I was just thinking, for some of the people listening, they’re going, Whirlpool, what was the breadth of the products you guys did or, bring that to life if you would.

Dennis Morais: Yeah, absolutely. So Whirlpool still, I think they’re one of the largest, if not the largest home appliance manufacturer, they do washers, dryers, refrigeration. They have the whole cooking, KitchenAid is one of their premier brands about, you know, stand mixers and countertop appliances. So massive exposure worldwide with manufacturing plants across the globe in U.

Dennis Morais: S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America, Brazil. That was, you know, I think at that time there were very, very large organizations, 18, 19 billion. I think they’re probably even larger now, but, and again, being part of that corporate experience was fascinating to me. I still was in FB& A, but I really learned that my heart was.

Dennis Morais: Saddle in treasury and went out to go back.

Mike Richards: So why was treasury over FPNA? I don’t know why because I do a treasury podcast every single week for 200 plus weeks, because I love it. And the way that you guys focus on the future and all the exciting things you do. But that’s from my, you know, sitting here in this chair.

Mike Richards: Why did you get, yeah, Treasuries to me?

Dennis Morais: I felt like, forgive me all my FP& A and accounting friends, but it’s, uh, treasury is a lot more than transaction and recording things. And I think we from a treasury in sync every day with the markets, really, I think we see at first glance, everything that happens.

Dennis Morais: You know, whether there’s volatility in the currency commodities where inflation, you know, investments are change your balance sheets. So I feel that. Treasury, we have a very good pulse to the business. And I even say this to my team, don’t underestimate any of our roles here because every penny that comes into the door for a balance sheet and goes out touches our hands and we have the opportunity to.

Dennis Morais: Make a difference and interpret that and see what’s happening with the market and help the company make the right decisions. So I felt that way. I feel this way about treasury. That’s why I love it. So again, then I was trying to go back to treasury. I remember like another fun fact when I made the decision to stay in the United States through that mortgage crisis.

Dennis Morais: Brazil, China, they were like skyrocketing and they were booming. It was kind of completely different ship worldwide. And everyone, we have even questioning my friends and family questioning my decision. Like, Oh, you’re sure. I felt in my heart that they were unfinished business here. That’s when an opportunity came within the procurement finance organization within Whirlpool.

Dennis Morais: Again, going back to being a manufacturer of appliances, a lot of exposure to raw materials. They had a very robust commodity hedging program. So I was offered this role to go and help within the organization. To assist with their commodity hedging program. It’s when my guitar that I really learned about financial risk management and that gave me an opportunity to learn about.

Dennis Morais: Hedge accounting and market changes, you know, a lot of things, how even being part of the procurement organization at that time really understand the contracting, the negotiation part, but also how to ensure that we can secure and manage the risk from balance sheet perspective for an organization worldwide, right?

Dennis Morais: So that was also. Very, very interesting. Soon, I was offered a position to kind of formally go back to treasury where I was not only doing the commodity hedging trading program, but also started, I was involved in, I had a team, one person working in my team and we were in response for the cash task for Whirlpool for the North American region.

Dennis Morais: That’s when I got immediately involved with liquidity management, funding the company. Executing on the intercompany loans, bank relationships, management, commercial paper program that Whirlpool headed at that time. And it was great. They opened a lot of different doors for me within treasury. And they also had a treasury workstation at that time, which was a little bit still something very new within, I think, treasury.

Dennis Morais: So I was really happy and learning a lot more about treasury. I was like in heaven. However, and this is, I think, part of being part of that big organization where they promote a lot of growth and whatnot. I was told that I was going to, there were going to be some changes within the track department. And I was going to most likely be moved to a different role other than treasury.

Dennis Morais: And that was, made me a little like, Oh, that’s, I’m really enjoying this. What I’m doing. Taking you away from it. Right, right. So, but those coincidences about life, you know, because my wife, which also worked for Whirlpool in a different department, she doesn’t do finance or treasury, she had a received job offer with relocation.

Dennis Morais: To come to New Jersey. Oh, wow. And that was when we sat down and say, Oh, maybe this is the sign as the opportunity for me to maybe look for different things in treasury. And then I scratched my head and I thought to myself, if we move to the East coast, New York area, and I don’t find a job within treasury, I probably need to change my career.

Dennis Morais: You know, I need to find something. Before we even moved, fortunately I was offered a position to work for a consulting firm, CIT. And now they are owned by First Citizen Bank, I believe. But you know. They were doing a massive re engineering or re planning of the entire treasury team. Then who was CIT

Mike Richards: just again for the audience?

Dennis Morais: CIT, they were at that time, they were had the two arms. One was their banking part, and they also had financial lending business. They pretty much finance, provide financing, accounts receivables, factoring. And

Mike Richards: looking back at that time and looking, you’d been corporate for 13, 14 years. What was it like for you to step into that sort of banking, liquidity type role?

Mike Richards: Quite, quite a shift to you, I would say, would that be

Dennis Morais: right? That was actually, that’s a great point, Mike. It was a quite a shift away. I came through this very traditional manufacturing Midwest company, very strong. Then I was all of a sudden in front of this very different, very fast dynamic financial services company where all different type of products that I didn’t even, and it was a very big change of learning, you know, and putting your best foot forward and addressing any questions.

Dennis Morais: I think it was a great time for me to really learn completely a new industry. Then he made.

Mike Richards: I moved from finance services to then that CIT to Procite, can you explain about them or then the progression? Because was that exactly the same or was it

Dennis Morais: different? What was the key? I then came up for this very fast growing privately held insurance organization to lead their treasury teams.

Dennis Morais: They were growing and then putting the infrastructure together, nowhere to hide, had to roll up my sleeves and really learn, it was also, I think, a fascinating opportunity for me. And I felt like, okay, maybe that’s a place where I can make a huge difference here. Well, tell me about

Mike Richards: insurance. Cause I’ve, I’ve recruited senior people for insurance companies.

Mike Richards: I’ve recruited for both an insurance group where it’s about household policies, about houses and various other bits. And then I’ve also recruited the life insurance companies where. It’s very different. Did you have that or what, what was it Lonnie,

Dennis Morais: particularly ProSign? Absolutely. So I think the CIT experience kind of helped me lead the way.

Dennis Morais: Insurance, very regulated, very like to your point. I mean, there’s a lot of things when you’re dealing with insurance and the risks or the claims that you probably going to face throughout a specific year. They can come up out of the blue, obviously coming to a different balance sheet structure, right?

Dennis Morais: Very cash rich, balance sheet heavy. And this is where I think obviously, and helped me in my career to get exposed more to the capital market investment, right? For every dollar that comes in, how are you going to first put that money to work as soon as possible? That actually was very fascinating. I really also liked the fact that I moved to a large infrastructure organization to a very lean, that’s when I think I became to learn how to.

Dennis Morais: Really multitask and from releasing wires to really speaking with the CFO and CEO about what’s the vision about the department and how are we going to, there’s different projects and products that they’re thinking about launching next year. And how are we going to. support that that’s kind of where I think learning.

Dennis Morais: And again, as I mentioned, the investment part of the capital markets really detail how those interest rate moves affect directly your business and how cashflow forecasting being a little bit challenged, but how you put that money to work and maximize your return as much as possible.

Mike Richards: And Dennis, how do you protect against those bumps in the road in a right way?

Mike Richards: Good thing is because you’ve had that depth of corporate treasury experience and now you’re in. Insurance treasury, how do you see them as differently? Do you see it in a similar way? Or what, how would you contrast it again? This is for the listeners out there, particularly in the junior stages and thinking, Oh, I’ve got been offered.

Mike Richards: We’ve recently recruited a couple of people from corporates into insurance groups, and we’ve had to explain that to them. How would you characterize it?

Dennis Morais: I feel like that’s where, again, and I’ve been fortunate enough earlier in my career when I was there doing hedging and financial risk, and that’s, I think your risk management, I think that needs to be put on and really think about how to really, develop a strategy where first learning the risk appetite from, I think, the stakeholders, the company and the board, and really determining, trying to, okay, I always like to, this lies in two segments, when you’re doing risk management or financial risk management about, okay, what is that chunk of your policy or your program that you want to be very conservative, very like not be very crazy about it.

Dennis Morais: Let’s, you know, make sure that you have some certain protections around. You’re probably not going to get the best out of it, right? You’re not going to get the highest, but then you define that other part of it to really go a little bit crazy and really. Try to be a little bit more sophisticated, but then it could be, or downsides, right?

Dennis Morais: So, and trying to be very pragmatic about it. Conversations and really learning the, about the appetite, especially I think for us, especially when you’re in those type of roles and working for companies that have a huge exposure or even in our personal lives, right, we sometimes say But it doesn’t really transpire to exactly how we perceive risk or our appetite for risk is.

Dennis Morais: So that’s, I think it’s very important for you to spend time and really define your policies and your, you know, strategy and put it in a piece of paper as black and white as possible and share with the company and everyone, because, you know, things change, it will change, right? We know the market change is crazy.

Dennis Morais: So, and to your point. You can be a traditional treasury professional working into very like robust different companies and products. But I think when you go to the financial services, insurance companies regulated and very prone to risk, you know, it could be dramatically by. Interest rate changes, volatility, I think it changed a little bit, the profile, the risk profile of the organization and you need to, I think, to adapt.

Dennis Morais: Then

Mike Richards: you’ve still got a couple more moves. So talk us through.

Dennis Morais: Yeah. Yeah. So then I was at ProSight doing their, I was there for almost five years, four and a half years doing, I think the company. Double in size while I was there, grew the team. But then through my network, came a good friend of mine actually told me about this opportunity at a retail children’s place that they were looking for someone to step in and help with, they were going through Treasure Workstation implementation to changes within the organization.

Dennis Morais: I felt that was a perfect opportunity for me to get back to the public company environment. With exposure to U. S. and Canada at that time for Children’s Place, I felt it was the right move for me and I don’t regret one bit. It was fascinating, changing industry. I loved learning new things. And that’s when I moved to Children’s Place.

Dennis Morais: Children’s Place was retail and Children’s Place was moving, trying to really develop their e com platform, more on the getting rid from the brick and mortar type of infrastructure to move more to the e com. And there was no joke, they were right on. And to this day, it’s like my role at GameStop retail.

Dennis Morais: It’s, I tell everyone, it’s a fascinating world, very dynamic, especially now how. Information flows so quickly now and how changes need to happen for you to win at the marketplace, right? It was a great experience for me. It was there, then COVID hit and we know, right? COVID obviously we had to make some very tough decisions there.

Dennis Morais: It was cashflow forecasting became a very, very critical part of the business there, making sure we pretty much had to change the. whole processing to more survival mode and very tough decisions had to be made. And during COVID, you know, just navigating through revisiting all our, where that capital structure, again, very, very stressful, very looking back now, actually, I don’t regret one bit, but it was very.

Dennis Morais: challenging, but then, you know, throughout this whole kind of coming out of COVID and whatnot, I was presented this opportunity at GameStop. GameStop, it was probably, it is almost three times larger than Children’s Place with, we have a huge presence in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and U. S. And I think learning and meeting with the GameStop folks and understanding what the company was going through and kind of treasury was no different.

Mike Richards: I touched on GameStop, obviously GameStop without, you know, going too much into detail. It’s been through, you know, well, headline press at one stage. And you’ve gone in there and, you know, been part of that or lived through it. What’s it been like for you since you came on a joint? Because, you know, I was going to talk about more about the fact that we’re in a new world where you’ve got stuff like, you know, crypto coming out to you.

Mike Richards: You’ve got NFTs, you’ve got everything. What’s it been like for you getting your head around all this stuff?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, no, it’s been great. I’ve never worked for a company where I say like. I’m with GameStop and everybody’s like, wow, yeah, I know, I know GameStop. I like, it’s been interesting that everywhere I go and once, once people realize I work for GameStop, everybody knows exactly who we are and what we’ve been doing, but you’re right.

Dennis Morais: I think the management team, and we’ve been very thoughtful about it and we don’t let all this momentum or distraction, if you will, impact on our day to day. We have a very specific mission and. We have a strategy we’re going after. I know that sometimes given everything that’s happening, it doesn’t become sometimes very public known that how things are, but I think we’ve been putting our best foot forward and right decisions have been, we’re still continuing making the right decisions.

Dennis Morais: You also mentioned about the crypto NFT, this is also an area that’s, I didn’t even know about it until I joined the company and developing that marketplace and going through all the changes that are happening on a daily basis and managing wallets and understanding the risk aspect of that, you know, what kind of exposure are we going to have?

Dennis Morais: How we, we manage the program that we’re developing and how has that to do with Existing policy, how does that match to our risk profile, as I mentioned earlier. So it’s been really fascinating. And looking, you’ve

Mike Richards: got so much in your background. It’s great. It’s like treasury, treasury, treasury. Where do you see treasury going to next?

Mike Richards: Obviously we’ve been through challenging times, you know, came through COVID and now it came out and then just as we were getting our breath back, obviously global events happened, which have thrown a lot of challenges. We’ve got inflationary risks. We’ve got. You know, salaries taking off. We’re doing that, but just on our latest salary survey, which has really shown that, what do you do as a treasurer looking at, or as a finance leader in some ways more, is it your team development?

Mike Richards: Is it all the other things that are coming at you? What are the key things you’re focusing on?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, I feel that, you know, with technology and the way the pace, the world now evolves, you know, it’s no different in treasury. I think as I try to look back. We would always try to understand from our cash flows and what was happening with our industry or, or cash and whatnot.

Dennis Morais: You always try to look back and it’s. Right now it has to be, we from a treasury perspective, and we need to know right on the spot, like every day, where, where’s our cash, what happened last week and developing that infrastructure around, which I feel like with the advancing technology, with the new treasury workstations around that, the new technology that banks are providing, that I think is key to learn.

Dennis Morais: But also, as you mentioned, a very important part aspect about the people development, right? The young talent that’s coming in, how to have the, not only learn about the technical aspects about treasury, but also how to use technology towards your advantage and is now more technology on the aspects or. I need the support from my, my IT team where I need a special consultant to know you, how do you, you know, oftentimes we’re going through a massive implementation now, but you as a treasury analyst, how can you learn how to program the system, maybe make changes and create that cashflow statement?

Dennis Morais: We need. Now with the balances that came last night, you know, how, how can you roll up your sleeves and really be resourceful from that standpoint? So I see that treasury it’s. The pace is, is very different right now for you to be, I think, very successful as a treasurer. I think you need to have the pulse on your cash flows, your working capital.

Dennis Morais: And that requires you really knows how the business is operating. What’s the technology available to get you to have that information ready for you to analyze. And also obviously having the treasury background or the. Skill set to really help you make the right decisions.

Mike Richards: And how do you encourage that with your junior team members?

Mike Richards: I’m really interested in this piece. How do you. How do you, as a treasurer, you know, you’ve got all these challenges to be you and the team. How do you manage that, coach them? How do you do it?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, I think also trying to obviously challenge this status quo, again, trying to be resourceful, as I’ve mentioned, learning, okay, if we’re supposed to, and I’ll give you examples that we’re, we’re going through right now.

Dennis Morais: Okay. We are feeding all this bank information to our system. And this supposed to create some cash posting entries. And also we’re trying to leverage that to really understand how’s our working capital metrics going. And if there’s issues through that process, instead of you’re like, oh, I need to get IT involved, I need accounting to help me, like, no.

Dennis Morais: How can you be ahead of the curve here, really understand how the programming of that information is working and maybe you, because what you know exactly how the trend has been, Oh, this information used to go this way. And because the bank changed something and now. Causing us to have a different output of the data, step through it, you know, encouraging them to, I think, not only learn the technical aspect of their job, but also from a technology and then from a, even an accounting aspect, you know, really to how to be prepared and really, Have that questioning mindset

Mike Richards: as well.

Mike Richards: We’re going to put your. LinkedIn details in the show notes, Dennis. So I know that there’s lots of people going to want to connect to you. Would you, if you’d like wrap up today’s show for me and just go through, we touched on a little bit there about coaching the team and everything else, but what takeaways would you give for anyone listening today?

Dennis Morais: I feel like for you to be successful, you always have to be curious. Eager to learn, address the elephant in the room, if there’s one, you know, don’t be shy or encourage you to write, ask the right questions at all times. And as I said, you know, I think being part of the treasury. team of our organization.

Dennis Morais: We have the privilege to really understand how the business is doing sooner than a lot of folks in the business. So don’t be afraid of asking the questions and learning and being curious about it. I think Treasury has a great community. There’s a lot of mentors around there and then be involved as

Mike Richards: much as possible.

Mike Richards: Okay. Stay curious. Yeah, that’s so many times, but I really think it resonates every time.

Dennis Morais: Thank you so much, Mike. I really appreciate the time and really, really honored to be here.

Mike Richards: Thanks very much. So I’m rejoined by Dennis Moraes. Dennis, when I last spoke to him, he was with GameStop, but now we’re catching up a year or so later.

Mike Richards: And any of you have just listened to the original podcast. You’ve got some great value there, but actually we’re bringing Dennis’s story up to date. Dennis, what’s happened since we last caught up over to you, sir. Hi, Mike. Thanks

Dennis Morais: again for having me here. This is fantastic podcast that I love to be part of it.

Dennis Morais: So thanks for having me. So yes, a little bit has changed. I’ve now worked for Valvoline. I joined as an assistant treasurer for Valvoline. When we last spoke, I was at GameStop and it’s been a little over a year. It’s been a great transition for me. It’s. Still within retail, Valvoline went through a separation from a global product business to heavily invest on retail.

Dennis Morais: So Valvoline is expanding opening stores almost every day and, and kind of with a lot of more emphasis in retail. And I think that’s where I think my experience within treasury and retail has been. And a great, uh, opportunity for me to, you know, contribute and add some value here for Valvoline. We implemented

Mike Richards: Hannah actually before I’m going to jump in there.

Mike Richards: I’m going to say, so you and I both know Valvoline. Oh, I know it. I knew it more as an oil brand, but as you said, it sort of moved more to retail. Can you explain why or what that’s in this about vehicle maintenance and all the other things explain who the company is now or what they are now? Absolutely.

Dennis Morais: So we are the leader prevented maintenance. I think retail quick loop oil, I think retail, you know, business where the, so Valvoline was the separated. We sold the global product to a rankle, which is what you see, like the oil that you buy at the. Uh, at the Walmart or the stores, and then we are now pretty much opening the retail, the preventive maintenance stores where you can go have a 15 minute oil change and we check your, your wiper blades, everything, cabin air filter, anything that your vehicle may may require.

Dennis Morais: So with that separation, obviously, you know, we had to create a pretty much new standalone business. And that’s kind of the journey what has been. We have about 2000 stores, it’s mainly US and Canada, and they’re half corporate owned and half franchisee. So, so it’s, you know,

Mike Richards: a mixture, a mixture of retail and things like that.

Mike Richards: Yeah. And as you said, you were just touching on there that you came in with this retail background, but they were doing also treasury transformation with SAP and everything else. Talk us through that.

Dennis Morais: Absolutely. So I think with that separation there, and again, creating a pretty much a standalone business.

Dennis Morais: One of the things was we, we had a shared ERP system, which, which was SAP ECC in the past, but we had to go and decided to have our own standalone ERP where we since implemented as S4 HANA, and we’re pretty much kind of creating, redesigning the entire process. The company is going through this massive transformation, obviously from being.

Dennis Morais: A product manufacturing chemical business to a pure retail where, you know, we’re serving our customers, we are providing, you know, services and, and, and also managing stores, a fleet of stores and whatnot. So with that, you know, we, a lot of the processes have been designed, even I would say the mindset of the team and the culture, it’s been changing more from a retail

Mike Richards: focus.

Mike Richards: And what do you mean by that? You say it’s changed in treasury terms, you know, what was it like before that you were a big chemicals company and oil and things like that? And now it’s more retail focused. How has that shifted?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, sure. So I think if you think about even from our cash flow, cash flow cycle, right before, I think it was more like a traditional, you would sell your product, you would invoice, collect within 30, 60 days, and you know, you would be more, that was the majority, how the, Whole revenue generation was coming from now.

Dennis Morais: We’re literally on the day to day stores. We are, you know, like for instance, and this is as a matter of fact, one of the, one of the areas that we’re investing a lot and improving its merchant service processing, right? That’s a key. Now our, our revenue stream, even how we are not direct to consumer, basically we’re a lot more business to business.

Dennis Morais: Now we’re selling direct to consumer. So giving the support to the stores. You know, from a day to day and the whole, again, as I mentioned, the cash flow cycle and, and, and, and how we’re managing our business.

Mike Richards: And obviously you’ve done this separation, Dennis, from, you know, and you’ve carved yourselves out, which has led to lots of, I know.

Mike Richards: We were talking about capital markets. That’s been key to you guys. A lot of treasury professionals go, Oh, I should do something. You’ve really been deep diving that. What’s that been like?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, it’s been a unique opportunity for me because with the separation and the way our debt covenants were, we had to complete a tender offer in, in our bond, which We, again, with the separation, we collected proceeds, which at one point when I first started, where we had an investment pool of cash that I was managing.

Dennis Morais: And then we had to, you know, at one point do a tender offer on the bond, where then we had to pay off the bond and kind of restructure our whole capital strategy. And with that also allow us with the proceeds to, you know, go back in the market. And we have a share repurchase program that also Valvoline took advantage of with the proceeds.

Dennis Morais: That was a very great, you know, experience and opportunity for me as part of this. He’s no, there’s no reshape of the capital structure for following.

Mike Richards: And I know that when I’ve spoken to other treasury professionals, they’re always, Oh, I need to be doing some DC. I need to do debt capital markets. I’ve actually said to them, I think it’s a good, a very good to have very nice to have, but it’s not essential.

Mike Richards: Is it? Cause you can learn it. You, you’ve demonstrated that, you know, what’s it been like for you to learn all that stuff?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, it’s been great. Well, I have a great treasure that I work for. He’s someone that knows a lot about it and it’s been great for me to learn and participate and, and, and, and, and, you know, he’s been a good mentor for, for me, but I agree with you.

Dennis Morais: It’s not like I must have, but it’s a nice to have. And again, having the privilege of having someone that knows what they’re doing and just connecting the dots has been key for me. Yeah, they can roll it out straight away. Yeah.

Mike Richards: And I was just joking with Dennis, you and I were, you know, I actually wrote some questions.

Mike Richards: I said, it’s quite unusual, but you know, I reflected back on the previous episode and now you’ve shifted, as I say, from GameStop to here, obviously, you know, retail, treasury, where do you think treasury can make a real impact. You know, you, you really made an impact with treasury at GameStop. Now you’re a Valvoline.

Mike Richards: Where can it make a difference? Surely it’s just treasury and they say, get the cash. Thanks very much.

Dennis Morais: Yeah. I think when, when you’re a retail, I think retail for you to be successful and profitable. A lot of things come into play, you have to be very nimble, very, you know, dynamic and, and cost your cost structure needs to be managed very well.

Dennis Morais: And I think that’s when treasury comes in, you know, as far as, you know, the areas that treasury managing now, and I’ve managed a GameStop and I’m managing here, uh, again, the banking structure, your bank fees becomes an important part of your bottom line. And how you are managing all your stores or you tend to have a lot more bank account bank relationships to support your thousands of thousands of stores, you know, across the country or even across the globe.

Dennis Morais: I think also. As I touched a little bit merchant services, right? Credit card, if you think about 90 percent of our revenue is collected by our, you know, this day and age, you know, everyone paying via credit card, debit card, so that’s a, an area that has tend to have a lot of opportunities, you know, as far as managing your costs and also providing value to our customers, making sure that the payment, the form of payments and the things that you Which is directly tied to your business strategy, you know, or a line.

Dennis Morais: So again, I think those are the areas that treasury can have a huge impact directly right there at the bottom line directly with the customer. But obviously there’s a lot of other things behind the scene that typically we do.

Mike Richards: And it’s an interesting one. Surely it’s straight through processing, you know, it’s easy, isn’t it?

Mike Richards: You know, you they tap the money and you just collect it goes in the bank account. I’m saying this obviously tongue in cheek, but if someone is listening today, what are the problems or the what’s the word? You know, what are the challenges that you see from this cash processing and the other treasuries might have and how have you approached some of them?

Dennis Morais: Yeah. So I feel we tend to think, and I think as a consumer and especially someone that’s not within treasury or finance, it’s very uniform. You go to any store, you go any business, you swipe your card and a transaction is completed. Yes, but behind the scenes, things can change dramatically and to use again Valvoline as an example, we have a proprietary point of sale system, so when you come to our store, we will scan your VIN number, you’re going to come in, so we can check your vehicle maintenance schedule, what do you need, and we ask our customer, right, what you came to our store for, but then you check, oh, is it due for you to go.

Dennis Morais: you know, do X, Y and Z. So we had, I guess what I’m trying to say that we have this preparatory system is developed to make sure we serve our customer and provide the best quality. But with that, it changes. Completely how we are integrating with, in this case, S4, or even integrating with the payment processor providers, right?

Dennis Morais: Which is very different and unique than how we used to have it at GameStop, which it was very unique from even when we had it at Children’s Place before. So, there’s a lot of Intuit, like, to give you another unique example, for Valvoline, we, we have a lot of fleet management accounts that represent A percentage of our business, we have to accept fleet cards, you know, which is very different than the regular traditional credit card.

Dennis Morais: So those are the things again, that you have to take the time to understand, you know, and make it, you know, what, what’s, what’s to make sure that we’re optimizing and we’re offering again, at the end of the day, to our customers, what they need. And also what will be, you know, make sense to our product structure and our bottom line.

Mike Richards: And I don’t want to deep dive on that too much. I wanted to also get the most from yourself. You, I know that when we spoke, you, you love coaching team members and we were then just talking. So Valvolina actually based in, down in Lexington, Kentucky, I think you said, and then you traveled down, but you’re actually based in New York.

Mike Richards: And then we were talking about you working. Yeah. One in four to six weeks, you’re down there and stuff. What’s it like when you’re, you know, when you are, you know, give us an, if you explain your work schedule, if you would, and then how you get the best out of your team.

Dennis Morais: Sure. So I think since I joined, we’ve grown our traffic team quite a bit.

Dennis Morais: We do where, so right now just to give a very quick rundown, we have capital markets that we do. We manage our bonds or that, you know, revolver. We do our cashflow for casting. But also there’s the cash management component, the merchant processor services and whatnot. But we also have been, I have a team that manages a cash application and some bank account reconciliation and some other things.

Dennis Morais: With that, we’ve been able to, and again, with the, with the transition, we’ll be able to expand the role and hire new folks and make sure that we, we were with the right resources, you know, to absorb and, and, and, and, and continue with the, you know, with, with this growth trajectory here for . So, having said that, having a team that when I joined Doubled in size, I try to be there as much as possible.

Dennis Morais: I do work fully remote. I try to be, but I try to be present as much as possible. So every, I would say every six weeks I travel to Lexington, Kentucky. And when I’m there, we try to, you know, make sure that we spend time with the team, with my internal and external stakeholders, not only treasury, but obviously with the entire finance team, with the business, try to make sure that I align meetings with our financial partners if needed.

Dennis Morais: You know, make sure that, you know, if we have bank meetings, if we have any things that we’re doing projects that we’re working on, try to align and, and, and I think that works very well. We do have a hybrid, Valvoline, I think is being very successful in implementing the hybrid work schedule. And when I’m there, luckily, you know, we, we coordinate that everybody’s in the office as well.

Dennis Morais: So it’s, it’s been working so far, so good. You know, I know that at GameStop, I was also working remote. The whole company was, was remote, especially in the heels of COVID. I have to say that things changed a little bit as people start to naturally go into a hybrid or back to the office. It’s very different if you, if everyone is remote or you are the one being only remote.

Dennis Morais: Well, I think there’s ways that you can, you know, work around. I try to be there when I’m there. I try to be meeting with everyone as much as possible, try to be as present as possible. And, and, and even if I’m remote, I’ll try to participate via camera as much as I can.

Mike Richards: And how do you effectively manage that?

Mike Richards: Because it, it’s great that you are there in person every four to six weeks and seeing people and everything else. You know, if you are remote and you’re managing someone, any tips for other people, things that you’ve seen that have been very effective, you know, is it regular communication or is it, what, is it the cadence of, you know, talking to people or what is it?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, I think

Mike Richards: cadence

Dennis Morais: is key. I try to, you know, with my direct reports. Every week, you know, I tell them we need, we must meet, even if it’s going to be maybe 90 percent work related, 10 percent chitchat, or some weeks we’re going to do 90 percent chitchat, 10 percent work related. I think you need to continue with that, you know, connect, connection.

Dennis Morais: And another thing that I’ve been trying to be a little bit more purposeful with, and I know at first started to be a little, to be on camera, you know, because I think when you’re remote and when you’re doing Teams meeting, it’s very easy to multitask and, you know, email starts to bubble up and messages.

Dennis Morais: So it tried to be at least. Avoid that. Even for my own benefit, not only for my team’s benefit as well to being purposeful and being camera. I think it helps a lot to make sure like a IY as much as we can. But I think you, you, you, you, you said it well, I think that cadence is important and I tried to put it a structure where you know, those cliche things, right?

Dennis Morais: Can you send me a list what you’re working on? I think by that it makes people stop and think, because I try to do that myself, right? Let me create a list. What did I, like Friday is a good example. Let me create a list what things are going on now for the week. What have I done, right? And then oftentimes they go like, Ooh, yeah, I haven’t touched on this.

Dennis Morais: And I am, I was supposed to, or, you know, spending too much time on that versus. So I tried to push it down with the team as well.

Mike Richards: I think you, I think we skipped past a really major point there where you also, which I think you brought up very well, was about being present. You know, as you say, if, and I think this, I know that with some of my colleagues and stuff like that, if you’re just on the phone call and it’s a phone conference, but it’s on zoom, but all of your cameras switched off, you can be, you can be 30 percent present.

Mike Richards: You’re listening in, but you’re not actually doing it the other day. I talked to a client and they were, it’s funny. They said, Oh, I said, yeah, sorry about the background noise. I’m on a team meeting. And I was like, are you actually on? Oh yeah, I’m, I’m mostly leading it. I was like, well, it doesn’t sound like it.

Mike Richards: Cause you’re talking to me, mate. I’m like, it was a bit actually being present. I think also it’s a, I wouldn’t say it’s disrespectful, but I think it’s actually not giving of yourself. Would you say?

Dennis Morais: I, I a hundred percent agree. And again, I think we all of us experience a very chaotic change of flows with COVID and how things turned.

Dennis Morais: And I think we all have to admit that we tended to during those times and learning how to operate in this new environment. We were trying to multitask and do things. And, and I’ve been in situations where even like, I would be listening to your, your podcast, but I’m

Mike Richards: Dennis is the only thing to be listening to, please.

Mike Richards: Exactly. But then I was doing

Dennis Morais: something else, you know, or, or even with, you know, you listen to a bank call about, and then you’re doing three other things. And I’ve been trying to, this is something I’m taking personally, like, okay, no, if I’m doing that, because. I need to take something out of it. If I’m choosing to have that time dedicated to this, how can I really make the best and the most out of it?

Dennis Morais: So, yeah.

Mike Richards: And choose to be there. Yes. Yes.

Dennis Morais: And it’s

Mike Richards: difficult. I’ll tell you. We’re going to, we’re going to wrap up the course. You’ve been very kind to give me this time again, but looking ahead, obviously challenging markets, a lot of the markets all over the place and things. I know that, you know, and again, going through my questions, looking at the future.

Mike Richards: Everyone’s, you know, obviously everyone’s talking about AI automation and stuff like that, but less of that more, what do you see as the next challenges coming up for treasury in the next two to five years or not even that, but yeah, the next two years, what do you see coming along?

Dennis Morais: Yeah, I think again. You mentioned AI, the technology.

Dennis Morais: I think the speed of information keeps just growing, getting faster and faster, right? If you think about, I remember, and I may have, you know, said on the earlier podcast, but before, you know, you would create a cash flow forecast for a cash position. It could take you weeks to give your your your liquidity position to management or or you have a lot of transactional data that you had some time.

Dennis Morais: Now we don’t have the leisure to have. It has to be quick. I mean, you need that information right now for things that are happening now, not what happened last week. And that’s where technology enablement, it’s, it’s key part of this, right? How you can merge technology, AI, whatever the case is. But to something that will be meaningful and purpose for your role.

Dennis Morais: This is, these are the challenges. Again, we we’re implementing as for we have implemented, but we’re, there’s still a lot of work to be done. And as I mentioned, some of the areas that I am managing, which are more transactional driven areas, cash application, cash hosting, how to you, how do you really use leverage that technology, that machine learning?

Dennis Morais: To, but also I think it’s training the new team and the new workforce, right? Now, you need to be focused more on the technical, definitely on the strategic. How do you get all this data that’s available and make a good use out of it? So I think these are the things that it’s a little bit of a change in the mindset.

Dennis Morais: And then you have the new young generation, the new workforce coming in. you know, that learned very differently than how we’ve learned, right, in the past. We used to be learning just by reading books and sitting in the classroom. The new generation learns very, they’re like, it’s a lot more interactive and, and how to adapt that to be a good, that you mentioned like coaching and, and, and helping the growth of the team.

Dennis Morais: So those are the challenges I think, again, how to get all this technology, AI, everything, and put it into work in a meaningful way for us. Yeah.

Mike Richards: So you gave some good takeaways before, but again, once again, we’ll put your LinkedIn details in the show notes, final takeaways for today. If someone’s out there, you know, uh, we get regular listeners, obviously like your good self, which is great.

Mike Richards: And you’ve heard people giving takeaways, any reflections you’ve made this recent move, you know, it’s been a positive thing or, you know, what are the, for the listeners today, what should they be thinking about? I’ve, I’ve

Dennis Morais: learned a lot in the last few years and even like changing. Jobs, I’ve been trying to, again, be more patient about things.

Dennis Morais: I think the world moves in a very fast pace. The industry, it moves in a very fast pace. And we tend to jump on that bandwagon and try to, you know, just move as fast as we can. And, but I’m been trying to take more time to, you know, grow and understand and be patient about it. Like in my role right now at Valvoline, how to really understand the business, the company, the strategy, how to make, really make a difference, not only in treasury, but also overall on the organization.

Dennis Morais: So again, just been trying to be more purposeful as we’re talking about the participation in meetings, the participation in everything, just trying to be more intent with everything that I do. And, and, and, and what I’m going to be doing my career, you know, I think information is out there for everyone. I think you, you, everyone can be as an expert as you are, but I think if you’re in good, if you’re intentional about things and you understand, that’s where I think you’re going to make the difference these days, you know, and the participation and, and.

Dennis Morais: And, and interacting with people. I think that’s still what going to make a difference going forward.

Mike Richards: And that’s the key to treasure, isn’t it? So yes. So Dennis, thank you very much. Looking forward to seeing you in person on there. We’re doing virtually, but actually, you know, shaking your hand, having a beer or two and see you very soon.

Mike Richards: Thank you very much, sir.