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COVID-19: Managing cash flow during a period of crisis

Coronavirus cash flow implications across extended supply chain

This piece suggests ways organizations can mitigate damages to their business during this volatile event.

As a typical “black swan” event, COVID-19 took the world by surprise. This newly identified coronavirus was first seen in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China, on December 31, 2019. In March 2020, the virus had infected over 90,000 people, and led to more than 3,000 deaths. More importantly, more than 75 countries were reporting positive cases of COVID-19 as the virus spread globally, impacting communities, ecosystems, and supply chains far beyond China.

The focus of most businesses turned to protecting employees, understanding the risks to their business, and managing the supply chain disruptions caused by the efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. The full impact of this epidemic on businesses and supply chains is still unknown. However, one thing is certain: this event will have global economic and financial ramifications that will be felt throughout global supply chains, from raw materials to finished products.

Responding to the immediate challenge

Borrowing from the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003, the 2008 recession and credit crunch, and the last black swan event to significantly impact global supply chains–the Japanese earthquake of 2011–we offer the following practices and strategies for consideration:

  • Ensure you have a robust framework for managing supply chain risk
  • Ensure your own financing remains viable
  • Focus on the cash-to-cash conversion cycle
  • Think like a CFO, across the organization
  • Revisit your variable costs
  • Revisit capital investment plans
  • Focus on inventory management
  • Extend payables, intelligently
  • Manage and expedite recievables
  • Consider alternative supply chain financing options
  • Audit payables and recievables transactions 
  • Understand your business interruption insurance
  • Consider alternative or non-traditional revenue streams
  • Convert fixed to variable costs, where possible
  • Think beyond your four walls

What’s next: Recovering and returning to normal business operations

Cash flow management needs to be an integral element of a company’s overall COVID-19 risk assessment and action planning in the near term. Even for companies that have not yet been adversely affected, we recommend management teams with concerns about COVID-19 actively evaluate their cash flow requirements, develop appropriate actions under various scenarios, and assess potential risks in and to their customer base and supplier network.

This article was produced originally by Deloitte Canada.

COVID-19: Managing cash flow during a period of crisis
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