I'll confess I didn't realize this is what was happening the first 3-4 times it happened to me, but now I'm acutely aware of the reality and it's changed how I plan and forecast, and how we acquire businesses.

You still won the work. You're still growing, but your working capital cycle that is usually 60-90 days is now 180-360 days as you ramp up. Once the ramp-up happens, you catch up and the cash comes back. But these swings don't show up in averages.

Example: New contract, new customer. Great! Recurring, contracted revenue! Now you have to stock up on everything necessary to meet the demands of the contract, and the actual start date of production gets pushed back 6-12 monhts becuase of engineering delays.

There's an important consideration that can be missed in working capital management in manufacturing or distribution: Sometimes growth is more expensive than run-rate.

We survived years with DeBlasio, despite the immigration crisis, the homelessness crisis, the crime crisis, and the affordability crisis. Adams was OK for 3 years. Now we can survive Mamdani for 3 years before we go back to real adults running the city.

Just heard from another source that we were in a manufacturing recession for half of 2023 and all of 2024. Anyone in manufacturing knows this. It still hasn't hit the normie news.

I’m an east coast supremacist but west coast beer is the only true beer. Pictured: flight of fresh hopped beer at the Portland Airport. No east coast tap room could come even close to this quality and variety. This is offered on every block in Portland. As available as pastrami

A good controller is the backbone of the finance team

The IRS owes me $14,000. Can I put a lien on them or send angry letters threatening jail time? Of course not! Best case scenario I get a refund without interest some time in the next 12 months, while they continue to take my monthly and quarterly payments. In unrelated news,

Kudos to Indian English. I just heard "prepone" for the first time and I love it. Obviously it would be the antonym of "postpone" and it fits the Latin root ("pre- ponere" -- put before)

I just discovered Meta's new AI JEPA model. This seems much more valuable than an LLM, with huge real-world implications for robotics, self-driving vehicles, etc.

This guy is right. 10 years ago we were doing “digital transformations” in finance functions and there wasn’t much cost savings because a good finance function isn’t expensive relative to the business it maintains. If your goal is to obsolete your AP team you have another thing

Wise words from an excellent dad.

I just assigned a new employee to make a presentation in 2 days to our plant leadership team. I wasn’t sure what the response would be, but she was thrilled! I love hiring people who make the whole team better. Brings new energy and excitement.

Embarrassed at how little endurance I have for a standing desk. How long will it take?

Slightly political post in honor of the upcoming Independence Day. In 2023, Nippon Steel won a bid to acquire U.S. Steel in order to rebuild a struggling manufacturing facility (among other things). A Japanese company decided that because the rule of law in America is so stable

I really wanted DOGE to be the beginning of a change in the way that congress thinks about its job. Instead, this is what they come up with, pandering to yet another president who doesn't like to be told "no."

If you're in a difficult business situation, there is nothing like having a good friend and advisor to help you through it. Find someone you trust who is willing to get deep in your business details (probably for a fee) and will give you really useful input when the time comes.

I just realized that no American car company makes a regular sedan anymore. Only Cadillac still has a luxury sedan in its lineup. Am I the only one who prefers the experience of driving a sedan to an SUV or truck?

I used to work at McKinsey, and since then I've learned that one thing top professional services firms (basically MBB, Bulge Bracket, and Big Law) do (and virtually no one else does) is communicate. That's right. People would make fun of us for being PowerPoint jockeys, but no