Introduction and challenges
Historically low-interest rates can give the impression that money has a very low cost, but shareholders have a higher expectation of profitability from capital employed (WACC: weighted average cost of capital) than market rates. In other words, there are two main ways to create shareholder value: increase operating income or decrease capital employed.
Whether it is a question of increasing leeway or financing growth, sustainable optimization of the working capital requirement relies on a combination of quick-wins to accelerate savings and longer-term actions to ratchet benefits.
A selection of pragmatic actions can generate benefits as early as a few weeks into the project and build momentum. For example, setting up a collections unit can drive down payment delays by 30 – 50% in a few weeks.
Reducing inventory by around 10 – 30% or receivables by 5 – 10% demands a profound change in processes and behaviors within the enterprise, which cannot be done without working on all transformation aspects (leadership, know-how, membership and culture).
To achieve sustainable results, it is also necessary to clarify responsibilities and deploy a structure dedicated to managing working capital with quantified objectives (collective and individual), governance and visibility (through dashboards).
How we can help
Argon & Co differs from generalist firms in its ability to mobilize teams specialized in supply chain and finance optimization to address cash flow optimization in an integrated manner.
We favor a pragmatic approach, aimed at fast-tracking benefits and embedding new behaviors to sustain results.
Assessment of the optimization potential and building the trajectory
- Map and benchmark working capital
- Identify working capital optimization levers with guidance from the Argon & Co database
- Prioritize transformation topics
- Define and phase pilots
Transformation launch and activation of the first benefits
- Trigger quick-wins (collections unit, review of slow-moving inventory, and to a lesser extent re-implementation of S&OP)
- Mobilize operational teams to define action plans with their support
- Review roles and responsibilities around cash (in pilot mode)
- Implement operational committees to ensure action plans are carried out according to the roadmap
Earnings industrialization and sustainability
- Build and maintain a database of working capital good practices
- Review operational and administrative processes
- Implement cash governance (objectives, performance incentives, steering bodies)
- Design and develop the cash dashboard
- Analyze and support change