What to look for
Cash conversion cycle is driven by receivables, inventory, and payables policy together. The interesting question is not only who has the lowest cycle, but what trade-offs support it.
Treasury Management • Browser • 25-35 min
Dell vs Competitors Working Capital Case
Compare Dell’s working-capital discipline against HP, Lenovo, and Apple using cash conversion cycle metrics and estimate how much cash is tied up or released by operating choices.
Harvard-style case framing
Editable operating assumptions
Cash conversion cycle analysis
Decision question
If a competitor wanted to match Dell’s discipline, where would the biggest release of working capital likely come from first: collections, inventory turns, or supplier terms? Use the 1-day DSO cash-release figure to quantify the payoff from better collections.
Case workspace
Adjust the operating assumptions
Use the base case, then change days sales outstanding, days inventory outstanding, days payables outstanding, or annual revenue to see how cash discipline changes.
| Company | Revenue ($B) | DSO | DIO | DPO | CCC | Cash Tied Up ($B) | Cash Freed if DSO Drops 1 Day ($B) |
|---|
Best CCC
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Dell Cash Advantage
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Largest Improvement Lever
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Case Summary
Run the case to generate a management interpretation.
Teaching prompts
- Ask why a negative or very low CCC can still create operational risk if it depends too heavily on supplier terms.
- Compare whether the cash release comes from faster collections, inventory turns, or stretching payables.
- Discuss which lever is easiest to copy and which one is hardest to sustain competitively.