The Underlying Question
The leader of a rapidly growing manufacturing firm was facing a frustrating paradox. Turnover had doubled to over €15 million—a clear sign of success. Yet, this growth created an intense feeling of suffocation. He was 100% convinced he could take the business to the next level, but the cash needed to fuel that ambition was trapped somewhere within the company's own operations. The central question was clear: how could he get the capital his business had already earned back into his hands to fund the future?
"My biggest frustration wasn't a lack of opportunity; it was a lack of fuel. This engagement didn't just find cash on a balance sheet; it liberated our ambition."
Installing a New Financial Discipline
Our initial diagnostic quickly confirmed the leader's hypothesis, revealing two critical drains on liquidity: an imbalanced payment cycle where new customers were given extended terms while suppliers were paid quickly, and a production-driven planning model that led to unnecessary raw material purchases. The second phase was implementation. We worked with the leadership to install a new operational discipline. A new credit policy was introduced, but critically, it was coupled with a revised sales incentive schema that rewarded profitable payment terms, not just top-line revenue. This aligned the sales team's goals with the company's liquidity needs. Furthermore, we helped shift the entire company from production-driven to sales-driven planning, making contract length and payment terms an integral part of the commercial strategy.
The Decisive Result
The impact of this new discipline was both immediate and lasting. By rebalancing their payment cycles and optimizing inventory, the company released a significant amount of trapped cash back into the business to be used as strategic fuel. More importantly, the new frameworks created a sustainable, self-funding growth engine. The new mindset around liquidity, embedded in everything from sales incentives to production planning, fundamentally strengthened the company's financial foundation. The leader was no longer suffocated by his own success; he was in confident control, with the operational cash flow to drive the company's next chapter.