Eric H. Nietsch recently had to do something he never has had to do before in his six years as a corporate treasurer: He supervised the sale of a factory in Switzerland. At larger companies, real estate–whether in the U.S. or overseas–is typically outside the scope of a treasurer's direct responsibilities, says Nietsch, treasurer of Greenwich, Conn.-based Blyth Inc., a $1.2 billion manufacturer and marketer of candles, home fragrances and giftware. When his company sold real estate in the past, the job fell most often to either the local business unit or the CFO–when it was a big enough deal.

But Nietsch predicts that this will not be his last foray into real estate. Why? Because CFOs simply no longer have the time to oversee such labor-intensive transactions, and because treasurers these days are increasingly involved in strategic development and execution at the business unit level. "The treasury function moved away from doing pure cash and debt management to more overall risk management," says Nietsch. "It has taken on an international scope to optimize cash flow on a global basis."

Whether it's real estate, structured trade finance, mergers and acquisitions, managing receivables and inventories or even product pricing, treasurers have been finding themselves with a different set of assignments that need to be accommodated in their multi-tasking–and a different set of clients. While previously 70% to 90% of a treasurer's time was spent dealing with capital markets and bankers, today that treasurer is much more likely to be acting as a service center to a company's various business units, helping to determine cash flow and risk management strategies that take into account exposures across the organization.