The Bottom Line: Party Time - Intellectually, Financial Professionals Need to Join the Party Earlier
January 3, 2007
Elizabeth Johns

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'The Bottom Line' column appears on the last page of Exchange magazine. This excerpt is from the Dec. 2006 edition.

These days, financial professionals are following non-traditional paths, with every expectation of reaching the office of treasurer one day. The story of Ernest Humphrey, treasury operations manager at Franklin Electric, shows the value of volunteering.

The first time I saw Ernest Humphrey, he was standing in front of a map of the World.

Ernie, as I've since come to know him, had just spoken at AFP's first Global Corporate Treasurer's Forum about the role his treasury department had played in the expansion of his company, Franklin Electric, based in Bluffton, IN. Little did I know that over the next few years his name would come up at AFP dozens of times.

Since then, he has been an active AFP volunteer, writing extensively about centralizing global cash management, speaking at the AFP Annual Conference on benefit plan mergers and presenting a webinar on bank relationship management, among other topics.

Now the manager of treasury operations, he was inspired to get into finance by the character that Michael J. Fox played in the television show Family Ties. Like the character, Ernie was intellectually curious, had high personal ideals ... and did not own jeans in high school!

He began in economics, but eventually secured a marketing position with Franklin Electric, and was from there able to move into treasury. His boss, treasurer Mike Butchko, instilled in him the understanding that the treasury team would have to understand the inner workings of the corporation, and he worked alongside Butchko to build a global operation from zero. This included integrating six acquisitions over seven years.

Lack of acquisition experience didn't slow Ernie down as he managed many aspects of acquisition integration. "My goal is to think like the CEO, motivate like a salesman, and mentor my employees throughout their careers to meet their full potential," he says, with an eye toward a position as a corporate treasurer one day.

Communication is especially important, he says, as treasury continues to get invited to the party more often at senior level strategic sessions. "We need to be ready to join the party intellectually, which means understanding our companies on all levels, and we need to be able to champion the involvement of treasury in matters that affect the future of our company." More than simply evaluating the financial merits of the ideas of other senior executives, treasury is expected to originate ideas of its own.

As with any successful party, the tasks associated with planning and executing a good treasury operation are varied. In recent years, Ernie has had to figure out how to process tax and payroll for a Mexican subsidiary using a Spanish language-based system, negotiate with a senior executive to convince him to lease part of a building related to an acquisition that he didn't want, and return cars and coordinate title transfers for employees relocating overseas––responsibilities that were not necessarily part of his job description.

"In general I would say no areas have been out of bounds. If I see that something needs to be managed or if a colleague is spinning his wheels and I have a relationship with the person, then I will jump in."

And jump in he does. He describes the financial professional of the future as one with a thirst for knowledge across a wide range of disciplines––as he himself has––and then lists every discipline you can think of, all at remarkable speed. In an interview in the AFP Studio this fall, his feet never stopped "running," despite the fact that we sat in chairs.

That enthusiasm and curiosity bode well for the future of the profession. Talk to Ernie Humphrey for five minutes and you will believe in the power of a single individual to influence the direction of an entire company.

––Elizabeth Johns

Elizabeth Johns is AFP's managing director of communications. Send comments to exchange@afponline.org.

For another profile, see Forest for the Trees

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