For those of you who know our internal team here at DARTON GROUP, it is understood that we place a priority focus on serving the needs of mid-market companies in the greater Charlotte region.
CFO Research Services, in collaboration with American Express, surveyed 129 qualified USA finance execs last month with a focus on the middle market (95% of respondents were from mid-size companies with revenues between $10 million and $2 billion).
The focus of the survey was to understand the actions that senior finance execs are taking to ensure sufficient capitilization to support growth over the next 12 months.
With the credit markets still tight and the economy in a state of recession, many finance execs stated that they are leading a movement to get “back to the basics”. The focus is on re-setting priorities to uncover every opportunity to manage expenses and increase working capital.
So what activities will most mid-market finance execs spend more time on over the next year (compared with the past year)?
- 85% of respondents will spend more time on cutting cost of operations.
- 83% are dedicating more time on improving cash management processes.
- 81% will allocate more time on developing better budgets, plans and forecasts.
Other methods to be used by mid-market finance execs to meet their liquidity requirements?
- Reducing DSO and better cash flow projections as well as reduce capital spending
- Slow payments, aggressively collect AR
- Improve DSO, DPO and inventory turn
- Tighten cash management/forecasts
- Aggressively reduce working capital (inventory/receivables)
- Exercise tighter control over working capital components
- Audit billing and collection processes
- Rein in extended terms to customers
- Adhere to benchmarks better
- Tighten AR and drop poor paying customers
- Reduce G&A
The objectives of mid-market companies over the next 12 months reinforce the value that DARTON’s highly-experienced project consultants deliver in helping to drive process improvements and bottom-line results.
Download the the full report “No Stone Unturned: Strategies for the Cash Management in Hard Times” (courtesy of CFO Research Services) at http://www.cfoconferences.com/research.htm.
