Treasury Management

Introduction

Treasury ensures that a company always has sufficient cash available to meet its needs. The objective of this course is to introduce participants to the key factors affecting cash management in a corporation and to understand the interactions with other functional domains within the organization.

The main proposition of the course is that treasury management is evolving from a merely auxiliary function towards a more strategic role. The responsibilities of the treasury department have gone beyond cash management, and include fund raising, bank & investor relations, and risk management advisory.

As a combined result of international activity and exposure to complex regulatory frameworks, multiple cash flows and cash “traps” have elevated the role of cash management and cash forecasting. Moreover, digital transformation and advances in data management have led to rapid changes in cash management instruments, payment methods, and how firms use cash as part of their business models. The 2007 financial crisis and the COVID pandemic have further accelerated this pace of change.

The course is entirely taught online within Insendi and uses primarily digital means for course delivery.

Course content

The course consists of (guest) lectures, group-based casework and practical exercises, and an individual course paper. Lectures introduce the indicated topics conceptually and explore it in terms of managerial implications and the links to other areas of management. Course sessions cover three interrelated topical categories:

• Cash is Queen: How much cash should be held? - #level
- The role of Treasury and treasury centralization stages.
- Statement of Cashflows
- Cash forecasting
- Cash availability, visibility, and usability
• Cash in, Cash out! How to affect the level of cash? - #substitutes
- Cash conversion cycle (CCC)
- Funding alternatives of cash
• Towards a Strategic Role of Treasury - #performance
- Technological progress
- Scenario Planning
- Performance Measurement
- Strategic Implications 

This course is the second course of a triplet called “Money Matters”. Nevertheless, each course can also be taken separately as a standalone course. The relationship with the first course – Financial Management - and the third course – Management Control - is in Cash is Queen (Topic 1) and in Strategic Role of Treasury (Topic 3). Specifically, the Statement of Cashflows is the link with Financial Management while Performance Measurement is the link with Management Control. The Treasury Management course closes with the initiating topic of the subsequent third course on Management Control.