Adaptive CFOs Turn Payment Speed Into Market Opportunity

When finance teams finally pry open locked-up cash through external working capital solutions, the biggest question isn’t how much they’ve saved. It’s what happens next.

And according to findings from the 2025/2026 Growth Corporates Working Capital Index , a Visa report in collaboration with PYMNTS Intelligence, there are two clear paths for reinvestment: paying suppliers faster to stay nimble in a volatile economy, and channeling capital toward growth levers such as innovation and expansion.

For many CFOs, this is a new kind of liquidity event. Where once surplus cash sat trapped in payment cycles, automation and financing tools are making it fluid. Freed-up funds can be redirected within weeks, sometimes days. And the choices firms make about those dollars — whether to shore up supplier relationships or double down on R&D — say much about their operational philosophy.

Rather than hoarding cash, CFOs are learning to move it faster. This dynamic use of liquidity transforms volatility into a competitive advantage.

The Agility Imperative

In volatile markets, resilience is often built upstream. According to the study, 7 in 10 adaptive CFOs and treasurers reinvest their savings by paying suppliers faster, using accelerated payment strategies as a lever for flexibility and trust. On the surface, this may look altruistic. In practice, it’s deeply strategic.

Shorter payment cycles reduce supply chain risk, strengthen vendor loyalty, and can even yield preferential pricing or priority access to scarce materials. When credit conditions tighten — as they have across industries in recent quarters — suppliers value liquidity over almost anything else. Companies that can offer it gain an advantage that spreadsheets can’t quantify: reliability.

In industries with long or complex supply chains, early payment programs have become a form of competitive insulation. They help firms absorb shocks faster, pivot production more easily, and keep strategic partnerships intact when volatility spikes.

Read more: Study Finds Working Capital Efficiency Unlocks $19M Average Savings for Middle Market Companies

Investing for the Long Horizon

While adaptive CFOs use liquidity to move faster, strategically focused Growth Corporates are looking further ahead. The study finds that 54% of these organizations reinvest savings into product and service innovation, transforming working capital optimization into a funding engine for growth.

This pattern is particularly strong among companies that view finance as a partner to strategy rather than a back-office function. For them, unlocked cash is seed capital. It funds R&D, market expansion, and digital transformation projects that might otherwise have waited for the next budget cycle.

These behaviors signal a broader transformation in the CFO’s role. No longer confined to cost management and compliance, finance leaders are increasingly positioned as architects of agility and growth. The working capital revolution has accelerated that shift, pushing CFOs to think more like portfolio managers — allocating liquidity to where it drives the greatest strategic return.

In practice, this means finance teams are aligning more closely with product and R&D leaders, building joint governance models that link liquidity events to strategic investments. Freed-up cash is being directed toward initiatives that promise measurable growth: new product lines, service digitization, and sustainability programs that open access to green financing.

The study’s dual findings — faster supplier payments and innovation investment — might seem like divergent strategies, but in practice they’re complementary. Both reflect a commitment to liquidity mobility: the ability to move cash where it delivers the highest immediate or long-term impact.

Ultimately, the study underscores a simple but powerful insight: Cash that CFOs and treasurers can’t see is cash they can’t use. In the future, “unlocked cash” won’t be a headline — it’ll be a baseline. Liquidity won’t just be discovered; it will be orchestrated, continuously flowing to wherever it creates the most value.

This dynamic use of liquidity transforms volatility into a competitive advantage. Over 1 in 4 firms (27%) now use working capital platforms primarily for strategic investments and system upgrades.

At the same time, Growth Corporates are 64% more likely than they were just two years ago to use external working capital solutions for unplanned growth like accelerating supplier payments, securing just-in-time inventory, and locking in favorable terms before competitors can react.