STREAM3 Chaired by: Robert Novaria, Partner, Treasury Alliance Group,US 2:00 WORKINGCAPITALMANAGEMENT:HOWCANYOUDOBETTER? 11.20 MAKINGM&AMAKESENSE–AROLEFORTREASURY? AccordingtoPwC“networkingcapitaldays(NWCD)arehitting theirhighest (worst) Depending on which statistics you choose, more than half of all M&A deals destroy level in the last five years.” Companies face global pressure on capital employed; // DAY 2 shareholder value and another third make no difference at all. Whatever the exact many have significantly increased debt levels and debt to cash ratios but not truth, it is acknowledged that deals oftenfail throughalackof upfront analysisand delivered commensurate returns; and many in the US have increasing amounts of WEDNESDAY MAY16 post-deal lack of discipline in execution. While it is unrealistic to see treasury as a cash tied up in working capital. The key working capital management response has strategicdriver of M&A,isthereanexpandedrolefortreasury inhelpingcompanies been to increase DPOs using new and not-so-new SCF solutions, as well as simply avoid disasters on the one hand, and helping with post-deal delivery? Can treasury not paying on time, but this single variable approach is not sustainable. At many HOW TREASURY identify overvaluation or fraud in advance? Can it apply innovative techniques to firms, particularly outside the very largest, the working capital solutions lie in CAN SUPPORT AND reverse engineerthevalue ofsynergies –wouldtheacquirepaytoaccessthe receivables, inventory, procurement and better tax management. So what are the services of the acquirer in the absence of a deal? And how can treasury not simply continued issues with accounts receivable and are there new solutions? How can PROMOTEBUSINESS enumeratewhatmustbedoneafterthedealissigned,butinfluencewhatactuallyis treasury and procurement work together across their shared portfolios and in terms GROWTH done? of better inventory management? And are the larger issues of ROCE and debt storing upworkingcapitalproblemsforthefuture? 12:00 CHANGINGTHERATIO:HOWTOGETMORESCIENCEANDLESSARTIN BrianSullivan,SVP&Treasurer, Veolia NorthAmerica,US Akey treasury objective is FORECASTING the creation of a scalable People whose day jobs involve arguing with suppliers in Indonesia or understanding 2:40 BUILDINGBRIDGESFROMBUSINESSTOTREASURY treasury organization to Generation Z’s buying habits have little time to focus on cashflow statements – and How much time does treasury spend delivering business insights? About 25% of the support rapid growth in they’re not paid to do so either. Analysts are often stumped by the seemingly low time, according to one recent study. Is that good enough? It depends on whether the underlying business. forecastability of businesses once they start to dig down. So how to bridge the gap? treasurers truly believe in the idea of treasury as a strategic consultant to the One first step is to accept and define the boundaries of forecast accuracy and to business ornot.Centralfinancefunctions toooftenoperateascorporatepolicemen, Technology is important, omit data with no proven value in previous forecasts. A second is to investigate delivering bad news, cost cuts and redundancy programs from on high. The best but so are thebasics. correlations outside the normal MIS data. A third is to focus on probabilistic ranges, ones put staff into the businesses where they operate alongside business unit as much risk management does, rather than point forecasting which is all too management with a shared mission to drive profitability and expansion. Some are commonstill. Atthatstage,automationisanoption.Inaworldoflowpredictability, even incentivised on the bottom line of the business unit. In this way, treasury can data analytics, particularly enhanced by machine learning, is likely to perform at deliver solutions with obvious business benefits, and because they are embedded in least as well (and much faster) than human forecasters, especially when identifying the business and are seen as integral to it, if tough calls have to be made, they are new external correlations. So how can treasurers make practical use of some of the morereadilyaccepted.Thistreasury hastrulydelivered value tothebusiness. new thinking in the forecasting of complex systems? How can business manage the Ronald Villanueva, Deputy Treasurer for Americas, Royal Dutch Shell,US forecasting function? And can better forecasts be used to steer businesses towards morestablestatesandavoidreal-worldproblems? 3:20 REFRESHMENTBREAK VincentDelort,GlobalTreasury Risk&Reporting Manager, JTI, Switzerland 4.00 NEW TECHNOLOGYWORKSHOP 12:40 LUNCH The treasury technology ecosystem offers a bewildering array of potential solutions, across a large number of process areas and delivered on a variety of platforms and cost bases. From ERP and TMS, to payments, SCF and trade finance, cash management and liquidity management, and even automated regulatory and compliancesolutions. Thereareestablished players andinnovative start-ups,many of whom will likely disappear. So who to choose? Where should new technology be adopted and where is it better to wait? One way to identify the solutions that meet your needs is to see how your peers have made these choices and to look at how those choices turned out. So in this session, a series of companies will explain how and why they chose new software in core treasury functionalities. How did the processworkandwhathavebeentheresults? 5:20 ADJOURN TO DAY3 “Excellent conference to come up to speed on what’s happening in the treasury space.” —Vikram Dhiman, ICD Group Holdings Ltd 15