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How to Combat Deterioration in Working Capital Performance

With interest rates at record lows, companies have been meeting funding needs through borrowing. Now's the time to boost working capital performance, before debt becomes more expensive.

By Treasury & Risk Staff | Updated on August 18, 2016
In July, the Hackett Group released its annual “Working Capital Survey,” an analysis of trends in working capital management among large U.S. businesses. The Hackett Group examined the 2015 financial statements of the nation’s 1,000 largest public companies outside the financial services sector and calculated each organization’s days sales outstanding (DSO), days payables outstanding (DPO), and days inventory on hand (DIO).

This year’s report suggests that many companies have been filling their cash coffers by taking advantage of the historically low cost of debt, rather than by launching initiatives designed to improve working capital performance. In fact, at the highest level, working capital performance among the companies included in the analysis is at its lowest point since the 2008 financial crisis.

Treasury & Risk sat down with Craig Bailey, a senior director with the Hackett Group, to get a better sense of what companies have been doing in their working capital management—and what they could and should be doing better.

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