Reduced Trade Working Capital by $800
Million In Only Eight Months –
Global Shipping Company

Situation

A global shipping company
Negative development of working capital by $1 billion over the last several years
New CFO was concerned by a lack of focus on working capital and cash
High level of rebilling
High level of overdue %
Uncontrolled IT cost
Negative image on the market due to low quality of billing
No cash culture in the company
No visibility of working capital or cash flow in the company

One week Group Assessment performed in order to set priorities and assess top down target set by Group Management.
Full support to prioritized geographical areas through:
- Assessing local performance
- Developing local implementation plans through cross functional workshops
- Set local targets anchored by local management
- Hands on implementation support where needed
Trained a central team to carry out local support
Implemented incentive structure and aligned those with targets on different hierarchical levels
Implemented a global monitoring system
Communicated lessons learned and facilitated internal communication

Implemented working capital targets for each business units for the first time - built into annual budget
Realized a $800 million improvement in working capital in only eight months
Matrix showing trade-off between price discounts and payment terms was rolled out to procurement organization
Corporate best practices were identified and communicated across business units