Speaker Highlight: Amar Farooq
In today’s volatile economy, treasury plays a crucial role in financial stability. As Group Treasurer at Westcon-Comstor , Amar Farooq, CA, CertITM has steered businesses through complex challenges, from liquidity management to balance sheet restructuring. With deep expertise in banking and corporate treasury, he shares insights on how finance leaders can navigate risk, drive efficiency, and support growth ahead of his appearance at World Finance Forum London.
In this interview, Amar shares his perspectives on the biggest challenges facing finance leaders today, the evolving role of AI and outsourcing, and the importance of business partnering in driving sustainable success. He also offers valuable insights into talent retention in today’s unpredictable job market—emphasising the power of intrinsic motivation and a clear strategic vision. Read on to gain expert advice on building a treasury function that is both resilient and a driving force for business success.
Tell?us?a?bit?about?yourself?and?how?you’ve?ended?up?where?you?are?today.?
I started my career in finance, working my way through several disciplines across various parts of the bank, picking up key skills and concentrating on gaining rounded experience before finding a home in Treasury, eventually wanting to be a bigger cog in a smaller wheel through a Corporate Treasury role. It was here that I developed my Treasury and finance partnering and found my own style of leadership, helping the business navigate through the pandemic, providing comfort around the core cash and liquidity whilst driving towards a stronger capital structure through rounds of refinancing and balance sheet restructuring, with the aim to build that experience and best practice to my current role and develop my leadership and team building further
What’s?the?biggest?challenge?finance?leaders?are?facing?today?
The evolving challenge of balancing between driving organic progression and growth up the 'finance value chain' internally with individuals who know the business well, whilst grappling with the benefits of outsourcing offshore and bringing efficiency savings with AI into the fray.
The pace of change here in recent years is faster than it has been in the last 20, and it is the role of finance leaders to have a well thought out strategy to evolve with the times to not fall behind the curve against industry best practice.
The push to evolve finance from accounting, risk and control to true business partnering is well established, and finance leaders need to be delivering this whilst pushing for cost and efficiency savings at the lower end of the value spectrum
What?are?you?doing?to?attract?and?retain?talent?in?today’s?unprecedented?and?unpredictable?job?market????
I believe that intrinsic motivation can be a significant driver for retention and this comes from a sense of responsibility, challenge and most importantly, a real feel for answering the 'so what' question about what individuals are doing on a day-to-day basis. My teams are, and have been, made aware of the top down strategy, how it translates into our team at a strategic, tactical and then operational level.
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I encourage challenge for the status quo, involve all my team in discussions around a path forward and ensure all voices are heard, and encourage this approach in lower levels of management.
Teams will feel more empowered to challenge, evolve and improve, and have a say in how the business and function moves forward, which plays well into developing that evasive intrinsic motivation that we should be striving for
As?a?finance?leader,?how?important?is?business?partnering?to?a?successful?organisation???
It's essential.
Organisations that are exclusively sales driven can simply miss significant low hanging fruit which will allow them to shift direction marginally to achieve a better bottom line outcome.
Finance at all levels can play a part in this, by way of better information that is relevant to sales and customers, explaining this in a simplified way, effective challenge on new ventures and crucially providing early warning indicators against potential pitfalls in the course of business are a significantly important to drive sustainable success in the long term.
Enjoyed these insights? Don’t miss your chance to dive deeper—secure your pass now and join us at World Finance Forum London for more discussions!
Finance Programme Manager at Travelport
2 周Great job Amar