Six Quick Working Capital Wins
At the Working Capital Management Forum 2008 in London, SSON convened a roundtable debate on the impact of the credit crunch, and ways organizations can limit that impact. This extract from the end of the debate includes one suggestion from each of the participants for quick wins – simple steps companies can take to protect themselves from the worst effects of the economic downturn.
Gavin Jones, Ahold Finance Group: Build a good, strong cash-flow forecasting culture and approach, so that you can identify early the periods when you need cash and have that dialogue with either your customer, your own supplier base, or your bankers, to get you through that period of cash-negativity.
Brian Shanahan, REL: Fix basic processes sustainably, so that even though you might be in trouble now and you might have to weather the storm for the next few months, you make sure that you’re in a state of financial health to take advantage when the market comes back up again – because it will, strongly.