Citi global head of treasury advisory Ron Chakravarti on what separates the highest-performing corporate treasuries.
A recent Citi GPS study, Treasury Leadership: Does It Matter?, reveals that corporations scoring high on measures of treasury sophistication and automation showed the highest earnings-to-revenue ratios. In other words, the answer to the question posed in the study’s title is resoundingly “yes” when financial performance is what matters most.
- In a NeuGroup video you can watch by hitting the play button below, Citi managing director Ron Chakravarti, who co-authored the study, describes some of the building blocks and attributes that are hallmarks of superior treasury leadership.
- Mr. Chakravarti, who has spent over 17 years at Citi and is currently the bank’s global head of treasury advisory, helped analyze the results of a survey of hundreds of clients. Among the conclusions in the 88-page report: “There are fewer excuses for treasury underperformance as we move into 2024 and beyond”—in part because of what companies can learn from the study.
A carefully considered philosophy. In the video, Mr. Chakravarti also discusses the need to establish a philosophy of principles-led decision-making. It’s an approach that requires precisely outlined responses to various scenarios, but also trust in treasury team members to strategically adapt to new situations.
- “You never know if you’re going to be right or wrong,” he says in the video. “You always want to have optionality. You want to think through the downside, and you want to make a decision that gives you optionality as much as possible—then you give people the latitude to be able to do that with good, principles-led thinking.”
Stay tuned. Later this month, the full conversation between Mr. Chakravarti and NeuGroup founder and CEO Joseph Neu will be featured in NeuGroup’s Strategic Finance Lab podcast, available on Apple and Spotify.
- You’ll hear them discuss the full takeaways of the survey, as well as Citi’s methodology behind identifying which treasury teams are performing above average—and the data showing that great treasury leadership leads to exceptional financial performance.
