This episode features an interview with Benjamin Seal, Vice President of Treasury Services at Cenveo. He is an experienced Treasury Professional with a demonstrated history of process improvement. He’s skilled in Management, Variance Analysis, Financial Analysis, Finance, and Accounting.  

In this episode we delve into how Benjamin uses digital approaches within treasury to become a strategic business partner across an organization at all levels - being able to stay forward focused at ensuring Cenveo has the capital needed to manage day to day operations. Benjamin discusses his digital first vision that embraces technology to cut down on work time and elevate efficiency, reliability and flexibility. We learn how Cenevo’s innovative approach has optimized enterprise liquidity through a digital transformation of their treasury solutions and practices, allowing them to make small and meaningful adjustments on a regular basis and gather input from teams more quickly, effectively, and with cost savings.

Quotes

*“Mike Tyson always said everybody had a plan until they get punched in the face. And the same concept applies to business as well. Every business has a plan until something goes awry, which is exactly what COVID has shown us as treasuries. This is why treasury is a key strategic business partner. We partner with individuals throughout the company, from the operations, to the purchasing department, to shared services, to even then down that lower level plant level, to stay forward focusing, ensuring that the company has the capital it needs to manage the day-to-day operations. You know, the thing I like to say is without treasury? It would be similar to walking in the woods at night without a flashlight. You might get there, but it's going to take a lot more.”

*“We're constantly looking. We're looking at the past. We're looking at the future. I mean, you know, during the pandemic, everything changed for us. We didn't know if some of our customers were going to continue their sales or when those sales were actually going to come back into the company. So we were kind of consistently reforecast and forecasting. So, one of the big things we had done was we embraced technology as a whole, which allows us to continually adapt. We have anywhere from three to four models at any point in time going in, which we're going to continue to do, because you just don't know if another COVID-19 is going to hit or if some other impact of the business is going to be right around the corner.”

*“What I would recommend to the next generation of finance leaders is to just stay up to date on the technology because it's ever changing and you need to embrace that. And not only becoming innovators, you know, always challenge the norm and you can do that now. Constantly look into your company and avoid the phrases of “it's always been done that way,” or “don't fix something that's not broken.” Constantly question, constantly look for those solutions for the question that no one has asked yet, because eventually they're going to. And, if you have that solution already, that's going to put you one step above.”

Time Stamps

*[4:37] Opportunities and Flexibility in Treasury

*[5 :27] Treasury is a Key Strategic Business Partner

*[7:25] Wide Focus on Past, Present, and Future to Learn and Grow 

*[9:00] Kyriba is a lot More than Just Cash Forecasting

*[15:22] Time Saving Means More Money

*[19:15] Risk Management

*[21:30] Recognizing and Addressing Fraud

*[22:40] Focusing on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

*[27:36] Recommendations for Next Generation of Finance Leaders

*[28:56] AI as a Partner to Treasury and Finance Leaders

Sponsor

The Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.com

Links

Benjamin Seal LinkedIn

Cenveo on LinkedIn

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