Supplier Payments, CFO Performance And Greece’s Economic Shrinkage

Last week, numbers flew. New data emerged about the economic impact of capital controls on Greece’s small businesses, a major corporation was rumored to be eyeing the sale of its enterprise units, businesses changed their supplier payment practices, and researchers uncovered new statistics about money management and the world of corporate finance. PYMNTS breaks down these numbers, from 0.8 to 380 billion, below. 

[bctt tweet=”Last week, numbers flew. PYMNTS breaks it down, from 0.8 to 380 billion”]

0.8: The percentage that Greece’s economy is expected to shrink in 2015. Not bad, analysts say, for a country in crisis these past few years. Still, despite not-so-terrible results from recent capital controls introduced by the country, small Greek businesses have been hit hard. According to the most recent data, SME revenue fell by 48 percent in the first two weeks those controls came into place, according to the Small Enterprises Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants last July. One-third of Greek SMEs saw sales decline by more than 70 percent, reports said last week. Industrial production, however, did rise in August and September, and exports saw a 5.6 percent increase in Q3 2015 compared to the same period the year before.

30: The percentage that Tata Steel in India is demanding from its suppliers in terms of price cuts, according to The Telegraph last week. Reports said the ongoing steel crisis means Tata is looking to tighten its belt, and has imposed an immediate 10 percent price cut on all deals with suppliers – savings that Tata will look to spike up to 30 percent, though reports did not indicate when that would occur. According to the publication, which saw a copy of a letter Tata reportedly sent to its suppliers, Tata will cut ties with suppliers that fail to meet the price-slashing demands.

40: The percentage of spend savings world-class finance professionals can bring to their companies, according to The Hackett Group. Researchers also found that these top-tier money managing teams can spend less with about half the staff as their typical peers. What makes a world-class finance organization? Managers that enable agile delivery of services to their corporate clients, prioritize enterprise performance management, and build an organization adaptive to client needs and market changes.

73: The percentage of CFOs, corporate treasurers and money managers who cited margin and earnings performance as their top cashflow worry, according to a new survey by the Financial Executives Research Foundation and Protiviti. Other concerns include tax planning, strategic planning, periodic forecasting and budgeting, while 81 percent of CFOs said cybersecurity is also one of their main concerns.

93: The number of days beer giant Carlsberg is reportedly taking to pay its suppliers, The Guardian reported only days ago. Suppliers have accused these payment terms as being “grossly unfair” as well as in breach of European guidelines. The publication saw a letter sent by Carlsberg to its suppliers advising them of the 93-day payment cycle, and in response, the Forum of Private Business has reportedly entered the corporation into its “Hall of Shame” for large conglomerates that impose long payment terms on its suppliers.

$10 billion: The dollar amount on the price tag of Verizon’s enterprise assets – or, at least, how much the telco conglomerate hopes to get for them. Unnamed sources told reporters last week that Verizon is looking to divest its enterprise-facing businesses, also divulging Verizon’s earlier, failed plans to sell some of its B2B assets earlier this year.

$380 billion: The dollar amount that banks could access if they up their financial inclusion game. Analysts from Accenture and CARE International UK came out last week with the results of their research, which discovered a $380 billion gap in banks providing services to micro-businesses and the underbanked. Despite the big-ticket opportunity, researchers also found that only 23 percent of the banks surveyed included financial inclusion in their corporate goals.