Confronted with shrinking revenue during the Great Recession, many U.S. companies made what seemed to be lasting improvements in their management of working capital. But today it appears that the improvements were simply a short-term fix.
That conclusion can be drawn from the findings of the latest working capital survey by REL Consulting. For the second straight year, REL’s annual survey of 1,000 large public U.S. companies reveals a pronounced lack of sustained working capital improvement.