Adapting and Evolving towards Excellence is an Opportunity, not an Obligation

As corporates grapple with the challenges hurled at them by the pandemic and seek to protect themselves against future turbulence, José-Carlos Cuevas, Vice President, Spanish Finance Association (ASSET), and Board Member, European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), discusses the steps treasurers can take towards making their operations more ‘lean, agile, and flexible’.

The Covid-19 crisis is having an unprecedented impact on most of the corporates and main players of the economy as a whole. The repercussions include:

• Sudden contraction of demand
• Cuts in the supply chain
• Serious difficulties in being able to undertake essential operations

These issues generated a situation that, during the confinement stage of the crisis, forced the CFO to concentrate efforts on two lines of action:

1. Evaluation of the impact of possible scenarios for the evolution of the pandemic and its effect on financial statements.
2. More than ever ‘cash is king’ and monitoring liquidity to guarantee business continuity became a must.

Regarding this last point, the different measures adopted have been the usual examples applied to cash stress situations: exhaustive monitoring of available liquidity, updating the cash forecast more frequently, application of actions aimed at reducing working capital, and tactical adjustment of costs.

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