Originally published at NeuGroup.com.

In an impromptu meeting of NeuGroup for Life Sciences Treasurers, members hashed out treasury organization structures. 

“Connected by NeuGroup” is a phrase we use to describe one of the key benefits of being a NeuGroup member: the opportunity to reach out to peers on a topic of concern, whether directly or through our expert matchmaking peer group leaders. 

• Just recently, when one NeuGroup for Life Sciences Treasurers member reached out to a peer group leader with a question about treasury organizational structures, it led to a turbocharged, peer group-wide Connected by NeuGroup experience. 

A super session. The session originated with a request by one member who asked NeuGroup to connect him with a few members to some benchmarking on a one-on-one basis. Mindful of the high level of requests we periodically receive on this topic, the peer group leader reached out to the group to gauge interest on the topic—which received a strong reception and quickly escalated into a high-demand session. 

• The unplanned Zoom call, which had over 10 other treasurers in attendance, began with the member providing background on a recent development within his organization that led him to be responsible for almost four times as many full-time employees across far more locations overnight. 
• With this as a short background, the member asked the group for their input on what the treasury structure should look like for a company with a globally significant footprint. 
• Members spent the better part of an hour sharing not only their organizational structure, but their rationale for the human resources dedicated to each vertical.  

Quick takeaways. Just a few of the insights gleaned by members in attendance: 

• US-based companies like the member’s look to provide organizational support in three main geographic areas: Europe, Asia, and Latin America. 
• “Allow treasury to focus on treasury,” meaning that single, fully integrated global technology solutions create a simpler environment than if each region had its own choice of platforms. 
• Additionally, organizational structures with clear lanes and responsibilities were reported back as useful to prevent teams from getting bogged down in the process or multiple duplicative workloads with little value add. 
• As treasury processes change, members were keen to highlight finding the pain points before changing a process, with heavy warnings on codifying inefficient or broken processes.  

In all, it was a great session for the Life Sciences group, and plenty of member connections were made during and after the call. Learn more now about how you can be Connected by NeuGroup. 

Originally published at NeuGroup.com.

Well over a year into virtual meetings, our peer group leaders share the knowledge they’ve gained along the way.

In the last 18 months, NeuGroup has evolved from a company that only facilitates semiannual, in-person meetings to a network for corporate treasury and finance professionals to regularly connect, share and learn, online as well as (hopefully soon) in-person.

• Earlier this year, we looked back at how NeuGroup’s events planning staff expertly pivoted to virtual meetings. Now, Peer Group Leaders Anne Friberg, Scott Flieger, Julie Zawacki-Lucci, Ted Howard and Andy Podolsky share their side on the challenges of the transition, and tips for others to facilitate positive, engaging virtual meetings.
• NeuGroup is so grateful for our incredible team and its ability to think on its feet over the last year and a half, as well as the members that continue making these meetings possible.

What was one of the more difficult obstacles to overcome about the virtual transition?

Julie Zawacki-Lucci: “Virtual meeting participants being reluctant to put themselves on video! Granted, there was a period of the quarantine when we all desperately needed salons/barbers to reopen, but that aside, the best meetings have included active video participation.

• “As a moderator, in-person and online, I rely constantly on ‘reading the room,’ and engage members/sponsors appropriately.
• “I typically observe facial expressions for pending questions, comments as well as an indication of how well a session is going and if I need to amplify the energy somehow. Without full video participation, this can be more challenging.”

Scott Flieger: “Not having the ability to have short, spontaneous and informal conversations with colleagues.”

Andy Podolsky: “Getting people to turn on and engage as opposed to being passive listeners. One of the things NeuGroup members seem to value the most is building trusting relationships with each other, which leads to more open discussions that don’t happen elsewhere.

• “In-person interaction is something we have all done our entire lives – you can’t help but make friends from time to time and make a connection. It’s been much harder virtually.”

Anne Friberg: “The meetings being shorter due to the circumstances. The initial feeling was it’s going to be an awful long time to be on camera, and because if we’re meeting at 9 a.m., the west coast would start at 6 a.m.. So the length of some meetings had to be shortened.”

• “The other thing is, as a peer group, you can’t always see what everybody’s doing, it can be hard to read the room.”

What’s one thing you wish you could have told yourself to help you be better prepared?

Julie Zawacki-Lucci: “Virtual me: Don’t wait to buy a Peloton. Virtual work: don’t try to fit square pegs into round holes, the virtual transition requires new ways of looking at and doing things!”

Scott Flieger: “Better understand how to use (and not overuse) technology with members.”

Ted Howard: “Don’t worry, members will be receptive (it turns out very receptive) to meet via Zoom.”

Anne Friberg: “Don’t just save the fun stuff for the end of the day. When you’re in an ‘in real life’ session, you get feel of working mode first, then fun mode later. But it doesn’t work that way online.”

• “Break it up with breakouts and get people into sidebars. We’re better and more mindful with that now.
• “Now, people are used to virtual meetings, so you can trust the members at the meetings—they’re there for a reason. You have to give some leeway and not just be nervous that there’s going to be dead air.”

What advice do you have for a meeting facilitator dealing with dead air?

Julie Zawacki-Lucci: “Know your participants so you can tap someone who you know has experience (good or bad) with the topic on hand.”

Ted Howard: “Follow the Boy Scout motto: be prepared… and also have questions for the group or particular members (usually one who you can depend on for an answer, etc.).”

Andy Podolsky: “It’s often helpful to have key ‘plants’ in the crowd that know they are going to be asked. Few decline.

• “It’s also helpful to be structured in your agendas but also leave room for improvisation. I try to have in-session polls ready with key questions, and also prepare enough that I have a full list of open-ended questions on the topic that I know members will engage with.
• “At the end of the day, it’s on us as facilitators to know our audience and make sure we are hitting on the topics they want talk about. You can’t just lock on a topic and bulldoze through if it’s not resonating.”

Anne Friberg: “To prevent dead air in the first place, plan out the agenda so it feels less like a consecutive series of the same things. Have something that makes each session feel a little different.

• “Have different speakers, or have different formats of the sessions, so some are some broader overviews, and some are condensed conversation, and when they’re longer sessions they include breakouts.”

Originally published at NeuGroup.com.

In pilot meeting for our newest group, leaders of financial planning and analysis teams shared and learned in the NeuGroup Process. 

Last week’s pilot meeting of NeuGroup for FP&A Heads was a first in two ways: in addition to being first meeting of the group, it was one of our first ever meetings with two sponsors, OneStream on the first day and Jedox for the second.  

• Though many NeuGroups focus on separate aspects of corporate treasury, NeuGroup for FP&A Heads joins those like our ERM and internal audit groups, expanding the reach of those who can benefit from the NeuGroup Process. 
• NeuGroup’s Brian Kalish, one of the peer group leaders who led the meeting, described it as “the greatest FP&A group in the history of the world.” Over 25 FP&A heads from companies across industries had the opportunity to meet, share their strategies and learn from others. 

Full stream ahead. The first day of meetings, sponsored by OneStream, saw members discuss the use of AI and automation, and how the pandemic has changed cash flow forecasting in a number of ways. 

• But for most of the morning, members got to know each other in an extended introduction session, with attendees sharing their roles, their background and answering a key question: What would YOU do if you had unlimited resources? 
• One of the more memorable answers: retire. 
• John O’Rourke, VP of product marketing and communications at OneStream, had the opportunity to walked through how its unified platform can streamline the process of turning pure data into useful information. 
• The meeting was also unique in its use of Zoom’s chat function, which saw nearly 50 messages sent—just in the first day. 

The Jedox is on the runway. On the second day, Jedox got a chance to share how FP&A’s mindset can spread across a company’s business function with its unique data analytic tools. 

• In the session, entitled “Digital Transformation- The Key to a Journey from FP&A to xP&A,” Dr. Liran Edelist, the president of Jedox Americas, discussed the new term xP&A. Dr. Edelist sparked a conversation among members about the link between xP&A and digital transformation. 
• Speed Networking, now a trademark NeuGroup session building on the member-favorite project and priorities, followed the session. For 30 minutes, members got to take part in rapid-fire, free-format one-on-one conversations. 
• Even the lunchbreak was content-packed, with member-requested breakout topics on rolling forecasts, critical skills and automation. 

Contact us to learn more about joining NeuGroup’s new group for FP&A heads—or any other.

• Keep up with any upcoming NeuGroup meeting or VIS by visiting our events page, and stay tuned to NeuGroup Insights to read about their key takeaways.