It’s the questions stupid

Peter Drucker, the leading management thinker of the last century, had six key questions for any company. He advised asking:

1. What business are you in, e.g. not rail but transportation 
2. What is your mission?
3. Who is your customer?
4. What do your the customer value?
5. What are your results?
6. What is your plan?

Drucker felt these were the starting point of any analysis of a business, any new veture.

We can use these questions to show what the strategic role of the corporate treasury department should be.

What is your mission?

Is it to:

• provide business support and growth?
• service provider for the group?
• enable the business to do what it wants to do?
• enable the business to do what it wants to do?
• increasing visibility and control over cash balances, funding and risk management?
• increasing adoption of centralization structures?
• increasing involvement in working capital management?
• mobilizing cash reserves to gain a competitive advantage?
• provide proactive business support worldwide?

Who is your customer?

Is it:

• just one: The CFO or several?
• accounts department?
• business units?
• the regulators?
• any others?

What do they value?

Is it:

• the CFO - strategic suggestions as to how to open up new markets?
• accuracy and speed of response?
• new efficiencies in e-commerce?

What are your results?

Questions include:

• How do you define value/results in corporate treasury department?
  • free cash flow?
  • how to generate liquidity?
  • quality of the planning?
• Are we successful?
• What must we strengthen or abandon?

What is your plan to deliver strategic treasury?

Key elements of effective plans include:

• What stop doing?
• What focus on?
• What new innovations are you going to undertake?
• Where are you going to take a risk?

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CTMfile take: All important initiatives start with questions………..

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This item appears in the following sections:

Best Practices & Benchmarking

Operational Risk Management

Outsourcing Cash & Treasury Management