Right now, companies all over America, in every industry, are beginning a dash for cash. They will go to great lengths to slash their working capital in the fourth quarter, in hopes of improving the cash flow number in their annual report.

But these companies are caught in a vicious cycle. The gain is very short: working capital will soar again in the first quarter of 2008, as it has in the first quarter of the past five years.

Moreover, the tactics -- granting favorable terms to customers, discounts, rebates, stepped-up collection efforts, and delayed payments to vendors -- do enormous long-term damage to customer and supplier relationships.

In this webcast, CFO.com Editorial Director Tim Reason discusses CFO magazine's 2007 Year-End Gamesmanship Scorecard with its authors, Steve Payne and Karlo Bustos of REL. They will discuss specific ways companies can break this cycle, and develop sustainable working capital improvements through improvements in compensation, incentive plans, supplier management, and internal financial reporting.

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