NORDIC TANKERS COMMUNICATION AND INVOLVEMENT ENABLED A CASH MINDSET AND CULTURE THE CHALLENGE The shipping industry has come under increasing pressure in recent years, making it imperative for Nordic Tankers to streamline their processes to improve cash flows and thereby their competitiveness. Inefficient cash flow processes and complex internal legal structures had led to suboptimal practices of day-to-day management and reallocation of funds to handle liquidity issues. Henriette Schütze came onboard as the new CFO of Nordic Tankers as part of the transition to a more competitive Nordic Tankers. THE SOLUTION Nordic Tankers’ new CFO realised the necessity of a cash mindset and culture with constant focus on cash flows and competitiveness in all organisational processes. Valcon was invited to facilitate this transition process, and project Smart Cash was set up. In its initial phase, Project Smart Cash primarily focused on the low-hanging fruits to enable everyone in the organisation to quickly realise the possible benefits of the culture transformation journey the company had embarked on. This also helped create motivation in the organisation to contribute to this journey. Valcon spent 2-3 months analysing Nordic Tankers’ business processes across the organisation to identify the processes with potential for cash flow improvements before beginning implementation of improvement initiatives. Initiatives were distributed equally across the organisation to ensure involvement of the entire organisation and were split into three tracks: housekeeping, procedures/ processes and terms. A tangible example of such a process is a vessel coming to port: after the freight has been unloaded, it would normally take 6 days for Nordic Tankers to send an invoice to the customer even though the service provided to the customer has been completed the minute the freight is off the vessel. In other words, a process with potential for quickly realised benefits. Valcon’s analyses covered all corners in Nordic Tankers, and the overall focus was on creating the optimal conditions for a cash culture internally to cause minimum disruptions to customer and supplier relationships. However, optimisation in the sales department also included initiatives to improve payment terms, and some of the results were achieved simply by asking for better terms when closing the agreement. ABOUT NORDIC TANKERS Nordic Tankers is a fully integrated shipping company. They safely transport specialised liquid products in bulk. The products they carry range from edible oils, acids, chemicals and other specialised products to lubricating oils and petroleum products. Their large modern fleet of sophisticated vessels services our customers worldwide and offers flexibility and reliable service. TESTIMONIALS “Valcon helped us realise that a true transformation of mindset was only possible if we got everyone involved and committed, and or approach included continuous communication to keep the project in focus.” “The initial 80% of the transformation process is the easy part. It is the final 20% of the process, which takes 80% of the time. But we are confident in reaching our targets with Valcon’s support. We know we are not done with the transformation process before we can see a real change in behaviour throughout the organisation.” Henriette Schütze, CFO, Nordic Tankers.
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