2022 Alexander Hamilton Awards: Working Capital & Payments

The Covid-19 pandemic made working capital management uniquely challenging. Companies of all sizes were facing revenue uncertainties and a liquidity squeeze, as customers and lenders simultaneously reacted to shifting market conditions. At the same time, many companies found that their suppliers had little flexibility to absorb the liquidity problems by extending payment terms.

Those that pressured suppliers to take a working capital hit risked damaging crucial relationships or perhaps even driving some suppliers out of business. This year’s Alexander Hamilton Award winners in the category Working Capital & Payments explored less antagonistic, more innovative, and mutually beneficial approaches to improving working capital even as the pandemic disrupted supply chains around the world.

“We look at every supplier relationship as a partnership,” says Matt Brigham, vice president and assistant treasurer of automotive and industrial parts supplier Genuine Parts Company (GPC). “We want people to be proud they’re working with us.”

That attitude reflects why Treasury & Risk is proud to present three Working Capital & Payments awards this year:

• Bronze Award:  Medical device maker Boston Scientific sells more than 13,000 products in 100-plus countries. The treasury team is responsible for ensuring that cash flows are adequate to fund the business’s annual $1 billion research and development budget. Early in the pandemic, they explored options for improving performance at both ends of the working capital spectrum, ultimately settling on an initiative to optimize accounts payable (A/P) that freed up close to $230 million in cash flows.
• Silver Award:  Throughout the global supply chain of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Covid put suppliers’ very survival at risk. Treasury and finance decision-makers launched a supply-chain finance program that simultaneously provides capital to suppliers around the world, at a lower cost than they could secure elsewhere, and increases the returns HPE can earn on excess cash.
• Gold Award:  Worried about liquidity as the pandemic suppressed auto sales, the treasury group at Genuine Parts Company pursued a multifaceted approach to improving working capital. The company amended some existing credit facilities and tapped the public debt market for the first time, to pay off term loans. Treasury developed an accounts receivable (A/R) sales program. And they launched a bank-agnostic supply-chain finance program.

Congratulations to GPC, HPE, and Boston Scientific for completing outstanding projects that deserve our recognition! And thank you to the judges of our 2022 awards program: Jean-Francois Heitz, former deputy CFO and treasurer of Microsoft; Erik Smolders, former treasurer of Ingram Micro and a vice president in Deloitte’s Global Treasury Advisory Services practice; Craig Jeffery, managing partner of Strategic Treasurer; and Marie Hollein, former president and CEO of Financial Executives International.

Finally, thank you very much to C2FO, TIS, ION Treasury, ICD, and Kyriba for sponsoring the 2022 Alexander Hamilton Awards program.

You can learn more about the three Working Capital & Payments award-winning projects by watching the on-demand webcast during which we presented the awards.

Information on our other 2022 Alexander Hamilton Awards is available, as well:

• Best Practices in Restricted/Emerging Markets: View the on-demand webcast, or read about the projects.
• Treasury Transformation: View the on-demand webcast, or read about the projects.
• Liquidity Management: View the on-demand webcast, or read about the project.
• And register today for our live webcast recognizing the Alexander Hamilton Small Company Excellence Award winners, which will take place on July 20 at 11 a.m. ET.

Treasury & Risk will present the rest of our 2022 Alexander Hamilton Awards in a series of articles and webcasts throughout the year. Stay tuned!