The CFO is often the most senior determinant of the strategic role that procurement gets to enjoy within an organization, and the ultimate arbiter of “procurement driven value”. In my experience, this is a key factor in the ongoing challenge of defining what procurement value really is.
Our perception is that the CFO cares about managing cost over all else. And while maintaining or improving margins will always be a key CFO priority, survey’s consistently suggest that cash management is the issue at the top of the CFO’s agenda.
In today’s Art of Procurement podcast, I welcome Amber Christian to the show. Amber is the Founder of ConsultAce, and focuses on helping Corporate Treasurers improve their management of cash and working capital. I invited Amber to the show to understand how procurement professionals and leaders can better support the Treasurer – as the overseer of cash – deliver value to the CFO over and above cost savings.
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“Determining supplier payment terms needs to be a more strategic conversation as opposed to an afterthought…. and instead of just pushing out terms you might need to be more creative in your financing structures that you set up with your suppliers so that you don’t ultimately end up pushing them out of your supply chain.”
In this episode, you will learn:
- What are the key priorities of the Treasurer, and how can procurement play a greater role in helping them to meet their objectives?
- What role do payment terms play in cash management, and why does an organizations cost of capital play a key role in determining payment terms.
- The dangers of pushing out supplier payment terms, and why creative financing can help mitigate the risk of supplier bankruptcies.
- How Finance and Procurement can partner to implement detailed data analytics to better understand, optimize and manage the flow of cash throughout the supply chain.
Links and Resources:
- Subscribe to The Art of Procurement
- Amber Christian on LinkedIn and Twitter
- ConsultAce Homepage
- A Path or a Ditch? Navigating Transformation Using Supply Chain Analytics by Amber Christian (Supply & Demand Chain Executive)
