Interim Managing Director — Cash Conversion and Operating Discipline

Trace the cash consequence of operating choices

Establish where resources are committed, where value is delivered and what must happen before payment becomes collectible. Distinguish a timing mismatch from weak execution, an unresolved customer obligation or an uneconomic offer. Validate cash opportunities with the managers who must perform the underlying work.

Review purchasing and delivery decisions for commitments that exceed credible demand or lock in unnecessary working capital. Prevent apparent improvement achieved solely by delaying essential suppliers or shifting costs into a later period. Ensure forecasts recognise the conditions attached to receipts rather than treating every expected payment as equally certain.

Cross-functional executive intervention

Set cross-functional actions with owners, dates and practical evidence of completion. Resolve disputes between commercial, operations and finance teams when their local objectives obstruct cash release. Change approval rules or incentives where they repeatedly create the same exposure.

Manage customer and supplier negotiations through delegated authority and appropriate specialist support. Significant concessions, financing decisions or changes in business scope require the relevant approval. The objective is a sustainable operating improvement rather than a temporary cash result bought at an undisclosed future cost.

Evidence of improvement that endures

Candidates should have led a profit-and-loss operation with direct responsibility for working capital and business performance. Demonstrate how you improved cash through operating changes while preserving a credible customer proposition and supplier base.

Applicants should explain a forecast cash release that proved less certain than first reported and how they changed the decision process. Financial literacy is essential, but the appointment requires the authority and practical understanding to change the underlying business activity. A purely treasury or collection-management background is insufficient without broader operating leadership.

Handover should include a dependable cash review, clear ownership of recurring exposures and evidence that new commitments follow the revised discipline. Distinguish one-off releases from structural improvement. Success is stronger conversion of operating performance into cash, with assumptions that the management team can explain and update without continued reliance on the interim executive.