Financial Supply Chain Management
05 Jul The best solutions are those that solve a problem you never thought you had
Sometimes, great ideas just never take off because some prerequisite solution to a problem hasn’t been solved. E-procurement was a great idea in the 1990’s but until the internet was ubiquitous and trusted, it was slow to take off. Looking back, the trust and ubiquity grew quite quickly but in 1996, if we had a crystal ball that said it would take the best part of a decade to become an established way of doing business, I wonder whether we’d have given up. We didn't know that the problem was trust and ubiquity until it was solved.01 Jul Europe’s working capital opportunity – a conversation with REL
Posted at 11:56h
in Financial Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Finance, Working Capital Management
We have highlighted many times the challenges of working capital management. It’s become a cliché to refer to the “perfect storm” – the combination of virtually zero interest rates and constrained liquidity that gives both cash rich, large businesses and cash strapped suppliers a headache. But every cloud has a silver lining. Better working capital management provides an opportunity and now, REL, the specialist working capital arm of Hackett, has revealed the size of the prize, in Europe - a total of €762bn is tied up in excess working capital - equivalent to 6 per cent of EU GDP!
24 Apr There’s no such thing as win-win – especially in supply chain finance
When anyone tells you something is a win-win, they’re usually lying. Where there’s a winner there’s always a loser. But sometimes it does look very compelling. Supply Chain Finance (SCF) offers the possibility of a supplier getting paid early, lowering their cost of working capital and at the same time, the buyer gets to extend their DPO. When something looks too good to be true it usually is. There must be a catch. And actually, there is.21 Apr How misaligned business metrics can cost millions
Isn't it interesting how opposites attract. When the circumstances are just right, people, businesses, natural elements and chemical compounds bind together in synergistic relationships of mutual self interest. Successful supply chain partnerships are just like that and collaborations between very different businesses can create profitable partnerships in which the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. And isn't it disappointing when different parts of the same organization repel each other like the poles of a magnet. You would think that procurement and finance divisions of the same business would have a similar agenda but when it comes to some matters of finance, buyers have more in common with their suppliers than they have with their own finance people.19 Apr Managing the supply chain risk in Europe – supply chain finance should be taken more seriously
Critical components in your supply chain are at risk - and you may not even know it. There are numerous points of failure in today's complex supply chains and because of the difficulty that upstream suppliers have funding their business from day to day, the risk of a damaging and expensive failure is increasing. And it gets worse. Efforts to cut costs have resulted in leaner, riskier supply chains held together by a network small suppliers. If the risk of financial failure isn't mitigated it could have disastrous consequences - which is why businesses - especially in Europe - should begin to take supply chain finance more seriously.01 Apr An unusually enlightened politician and why the UK needs to up its game on e-invoicing
Posted at 16:56h
in AP Automation, e-invoicing, Electronic Invoicing, Financial Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Finance
There are a few things that make Stephen McPartland unusual. He's a scouse Tory (trust me - it's unusual) who writes for the Morning Star campaigning about corporate tax avoidance (and you thought a scouse Tory was unusual) and, on top of that, he gets e-business. That's right - a politician that understand e-business. Now that is unusual!
I went to the House of Parliament in London to speak with Stephen about why he believes now is the time for the UK to act on e-invoicing.