Companies can get by with sloppy execution if they have a killer strategy or highly dedicated people willing to work 18-hour days, eight days per week to cover up all the slop. Just recognize you’re wasting a lot of profitability and time (i.e., you’ll burn both cash and people in the process!)

The quickest action you can take is to have your CFO give you a modified cash flow statement every day detailing the cash that came in during the last 24 hours, the cash that owed out, and some idea of how cash is looking over the next 30 to 90 days. This will keep cash top-of-mind and give you a great feel for how cash is owing through the business.

In general, you’ll pick a Critical Number that will address either an opportunity or a challenge on the People/Balance Sheet side of the business (e.g., reduce employee turnover, improve customer service scores, or dramatically reduce a credit line with the bank) or the Process/Profit & Loss side (e.g., improve gross margins, reduce production cycle time, or increase sales close ratios).

Because many accounting departments are short-handed, there are often delays in getting invoices sent out and bills collected.

We say “additional” because whenever management tells us there’s a cash-flow problem, we always start with fixing profitability, unless the company is broke and needs an immediate cash infusion to make payroll.