IA’s journey to change the perceived image of internal audit from ‘critic’ to trusted business partner as well as IA’s internal transformation to become more agile & digital by embracing new technologies and quickly adapting to changes in business.

New scope & follow-up audits, IA report template re-design, and capex & inventory management audit program re-design.

Leveraging audit engagements and global & regional initiatives to enhance business acumen and build relationships with various functions.

My key experience has been positioning ourselves as trusted business partners and aligning with key stakeholders both within the IA team and the business units to deliver the value of great governance and control.

Being part of a specialized services like Treasury can sometimes make it challenging to stay connected to the day to day activities that impact the Business Units.  This could be due to our Treasury team being too focused on delivering our core objectives and with few touch points back with the business.  In order to overcome this challenge, one has to make the extra effort to connect and learn from the business units what are their pain points and see if Treasury can support in addressing them.

Another challenge is that in many of the Treasury projects or activities, I had to understand macroeconomics, local regulations,  business methods, and risk avoidance in addition to the technical skills of my specialized services. All of this brings a challenge to the associates in specialized areas like Treasury to continue to sharpen our skills constantly because industry or regulatory changes take place almost daily.

I work in Treasury projects that partner with the Business Units and Commercial and Sales teams in optimizing their working capital such as Supplier Financing Programs as well as others like payment optimizations by partnering with Mars’ strategic banks.

A key learning for me has been to appreciate and maintain relationships with associates in every function of the organization. There have been countless instances where Treasury projects have been very successful thanks to the prior connections and good relationships established with colleagues in Commercial, Sales or Finance.

Treasury management is a rewarding, exciting and varied career that helps shape the future of an organization’s financial strategy. Associates in Treasury ensure that there is enough cash to pay the company’s obligations or to invest in new ventures, and they manage the financial risks in an organization. A key experience for me in Treasury has been that there are so many areas in which we are able to add value to Mars, Incorporated and being able to be open to variety and challenge is part of the normal day in the life of a Treasury associate. 

The work may be challenging but it is really enjoyable. I feel privileged to work with leaders across our businesses on priorities to make Mars more valuable and stronger. What makes work challenging is that often we are chewing on some ambiguous and thorny issues that don’t have an easy solution, much less a clear roadmap. What makes work enjoyable is partnering with associates to enable the best choices for Mars. Personally, I’m proud of the work to date to embed a value creation mindset and capability at Mars through clarifying portfolio roles and value creation algorithms, differentiating strategic resource allocation and developing integrated value creation planning. It’s a marathon and we are well on our way.

The strategy team works on a range of projects. We are data-driven and work extensively with our financials and competitive intelligence to generate insights. We partner with initiative teams to make critical choices and deliver results. We work with our leaders to shape Mars enterprise and portfolio priorities, challenging and reshaping our existing priorities to be more ambitious in moving faster to create long-term value.

Keep an eye on the external world and adapt to the times. As a private company, we don’t have the quarterly drumbeat of analysts issuing perspectives on our performance which can accelerate bold action. It’s important to continually pressure test and challenge our conventional thinking by looking externally at our competitors, consumers and customers, and push ourselves to think outside our four walls.

Particularly this year with COVID, I’ve learned how resilient our businesses (and associates) are. We have worked on sharpening our strategic choices, to protect our business today and accelerate into the “next normal.”

The biggest challenge I faced in controllership was to change from the typical classical version of controllers who would rightfully say no and slow down the process, into the person who helps & accelerate the business growth through helping and providing solutions to reach the final goal through better path.

Governance projects, transformational projects, ERP implementations. But the ones I would really like to mention here are Project “PAGES” which put the first stone in building a shared service center in MEA, Project “Go Green” which transformed the governance mindset in East Africa & our factory in Kenya and made it to the reginal finals for MTD, and finally project “CODE” which transformed the financial control processes in MWUK.

Beside the normal experiences and skills you would gain in financial control, I would like to call out 3 skills that are really important to get from working in controllership. Efficiency mindset: Every saved minute count, and efficiency is an endless target that you could always keep running after and you know that it will never be the end, because simply there is always more. Predictability: defining your challenges today will not be complete unless you can predict what may happen tomorrow and work on it. Drive: there is always something extra that you can get when you put your drive into the equation.

The biggest challenge I encountered was navigating the learning curve in the early days of joining the team. I stepped into this role with no prior banking/M&A or corporate experience, having worked in the segments prior to jumping to quite an expansive role. The opportunity to develop was exciting, yet overwhelming at times when I stopped to think about the knowledge I needed to acquire and skills I needed to develop in order to successfully lead the day-to-day leadership of a live transaction. The reality was I was well supported to develop the skills I needed and enjoyed the process of learning and developing new skills.

During my time in Corporate Development I have been fortunate to spend time partnering with the Edge, Food and International Vet Health (IVH) teams supporting them in the creation and execution of their respective inorganic growth strategies. My main area of focus has been on the IVH agenda, supporting the team on the successful acquisitions of AniCura and Linnaeus in Europe, VSH Hong Kong, VES Singapore and our minority investment in Ringpai China. I’ve also had the opportunity to work alongside the Mars Corporate team on some exciting Enterprise projects that hold the Mars Compass and Purpose at their core.

While working with an incredibly talented group of experts was intimidating at first, I quickly realized and accepted that I would never have all the answers and that my strength lay in approaching things differently and asking the right questions to listen, learn, understand and connect dots that others may not see. The net outcome for me in this function is that I am constantly learning from smart, sharp people, which is a gift. This experience has thought me to think differently, approach problems and decision-making from different perspectives and equally, has forced me to embrace and celebrate the perspectives that make me unique and bring those to the table.

There are probably two. The first is that diverse teams are more powerful, productive and innovative. Seek diverse teams and leaders who promote true diversity, and watch as your professional and personal learnings grow exponentially. Secondly, pursuing roles that fuel your curiosity will enable you to stretch and grow in new directions – take the risk, back yourself and enjoy the successes and failures that come with embarking on a new path.