”Close The Gap” - Blog
Aligning Corporate Organisational Design to Company Culture & Markets (Part I)
How long ago was your last re-organization? Did you move to matrix, global, glocal, central, de-central, or regional? And how about the re-organization before? Was it complementary to what you are doing now, or the other way around? When sitting in business divisions or regions, how do you assess the work done by the folks in headquarters? And if you are sitting in headquarters, are the regions and divisions doing a good job, in your opinion?
In part 1 of our mini-series on organizational design, we hone in on the Corporate Headquarters, and how to do it right - once.
Enjoy!
DSO - Significantly optimising cash flow by changing the focus - mini-series (Part 3)
In part 3 of our mini-series on cash-flow optimization, we hone in on Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), or Payments from Customers.
This is a highly sensitive topic for most managing boards: they perceive significantly more buyer than supplier power and assume that there is little to be gained by focusing too much on optimising DSO without aggravating customers and consequently risking revenues.
This is, however, just a tiny part of business reality: More often, DSO is squandered…! We talk about where, and what to do about it. Enjoy!
DPO - Significantly optimising cash flow by changing the focus - mini-series (Part 2)
In part 2 of our mini-series on cash-flow optimization, we hone in on payments to suppliers, covered in Days Payable Outstanding (DPO).
External materials & services purchased are the largest cost block in most product-based companies. Hence, the cash flow improvement leverage is significant. Different from cash trapped in inventory, DPO management needs two to tango.
Why is it, that many companies can’t dance with their suppliers?
Inventory: Significantly optimising cash flow by changing the focus - mini-series (Part 1)
This marks the beginning of a three-part mini-series on the perennial subject of cash flow optimisation, focusing on the manufacturing and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries. The series argues that while finance must report on cash flow, operations should own the metrics. For practitioners along a company's value chain, the three posts can also act as a refresher…Let’s start with inventory!
‘Defragment' your business via Process Mining: gain speed, cash flow, and profitability in days
Process Mining is playing perfect TETRIS with your processes - it is lean an six sigma, infused with 21st-century digitalization. It is super-fast, and can help any company to gain speed, better cash flow, and higher revenue and customer satisfaction.
As always, we just have to do it - and accept that only very few people in leadership positions internally have experience with it - since it is just 10-15 years old. So, who leads with agility and digitalization in mind?
Is operations outsourcing still a viable option today?
Outsourcing, spin-offs, in-sourcing, reshoring, re-vitalising operations - what is the best approach towards improving customer satisfaction and the triple-bottom line? For 30 years the answer of most boards when competitive pressure was ramping up, was either spin-off or outsourcing to other continents. While there can be good reasons for spinning off or outsourcing parts or full operations, in the 21st century we should be relentless in assessing our tool box, and rather than grabbing the most used, shiny tool, we should understand the opportunity in our company first more thoroughly. This blog-post gives this topic a bit of a spin…enjoy.