Finding employees’ strengths and focusing workers on those assets is the most powerful people-management tool we can suggest. And it goes hand in hand with dehassling a person’s job.

Employees: Happiness and engagement scores (TINYpulse and Atlassian have simple systems for tracking these)

We encourage management teams to set aside an hour or more each month to brainstorm ways to improve each of these cash cycle components. This is a powerful exercise to do with the broader middle-management team at a half- to full-day monthly management meeting. It will give everyone a better understanding of how cash flows through the business and how each function can contribute positively.

However, we’ve seen profits and cash double within a year when businesspeople also devote just a little more attention and resources to accounting (remember, John D. Rockefeller was an accountant by training).

To tackle the cash conversion cycle, start by reading “How Fast Can Your Company Afford to Grow?” a Harvard Business Review article by Neil C. Churchill and John W. Mullins.