What a Financial Planning and Treasury Manager at Big 5 Sporting Goods Wishes They Had Known Before Entering the Finance Industry
Kelvin's role as Manager of Financial Planning and Treasury at Big 5 Sporting Goods requires more than just mastering "the fundamental skills" of cash management and forecasting; the biggest unexpected challenge is the responsibility for seeing projects "all the way through" and owning outcomes, even when outside of their initial scope, meaning "the buck stops with" them.
Project Management, Problem-Solving, Leadership, Responsibility, Financial Planning
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Job Title
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Kelvin Sun
Manager of Financial Planning and Treasury
Big 5 Sporting Goods
New York University, 2008
UCLA Anderson School of Management
Business Management & Admin
Apparel, Beauty, Retail & Fashion, Sports & Fitness
Finance
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. The core responsibilities of a Financial Planning and Treasury Manager include cash management, treasury operations, and forecasting. However, to add value and stand out, one must be creative and see projects through to completion.
2. Successfully managing projects and leading initiatives is crucial. This involves navigating various challenges and taking ownership of outcomes, even if unexpected issues arise.
3. As one progresses in their career, they become responsible for problem-solving and delivering results, even if they didn't directly cause the problem. The ability to handle unexpected issues and find solutions is vital.
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone would have told you before you started?
That's a really interesting question. The core of my responsibilities, as I mentioned before, are cash management, treasury, and forecasting on a quarterly and annual basis. These are fundamental skills, the real baseline for getting your job done and securing the role.
But that's not how you add value. You can certainly add value within those specific areas, but how do you make yourself useful and stand out? How do you deliver results to your supervisor, your boss, or upper management?
It's about not only ideation and creativity within your roles but also seeing things through to the end. That's been the real challenge. You have to navigate many different things from a project management standpoint.
How do you take a difficult idea and see it all the way through? It's your job to lead that project, and it might even be your idea. As you move up in a company, people will turn to you.
You become responsible for outcomes, whether intended or not. For example, if something goes wrong with the bank, I have to fix it, regardless of whether I caused it. Sometimes I don't know the answer, and neither does the bank, but I still have to ensure a proper outcome.
It took me a while to absorb that the buck stops with me. If I don't take responsibility, I'm not doing my job. That was the biggest thing I didn't really expect.
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