At the very least, management owes it to the business owners and to every key management and supervisory employee to define a set of cash-driver objectives. These should be well communicated, achievable and logically explained in terms of the individual’s job description and sphere of influence. When
this occurs, the organization is optimally positioned for growth-–not just sales growth, which is not necessarily a good thing, but real growth—an increasing rate of growth in the firm’s value. Stated another way, key employees who understand the cash-flow goals and implications of their choices will almost always maximize the company’s total economic value. That value is ultimately rooted in the ability to generate increasing cash flows over the long term.
Positive cash flow is the measure of sustainability even in the public sector and in nonprofit organizations. Excess cash may come directly from operations, or be provided by people or organizations who value what an organization does enough to keep it supplied with the fuel to keep things running. In business, those people are the customers. In the public sector they are primarily taxpayers or other political constituencies.
In nonprofit organizations, they are usually a combination of users and donors. Regardless of your work setting, cash flow remains the bottom line
