In July, the Hackett Group released its annual “WorkingCapital Survey,” an analysis of trends in working capitalmanagement among large U.S. businesses. The Hackett Group examinedthe 2015 financial statements of the nation's 1,000 largest publiccompanies outside the financial services sector and calculated eachorganization's days sales outstanding (DSO), days payablesoutstanding (DPO), and days inventory on hand (DIO).

This year's report suggests that many companies have beenfilling their cash coffers by taking advantage of the historicallylow cost of debt, rather than by launching initiatives designed toimprove working capital performance. In fact, at the highest level,working capital performance among the companies included in theanalysis is at its lowest point since the 2008 financialcrisis.

Treasury & Risk sat down with Craig Bailey,a senior director with the Hackett Group, to get a better sense ofwhat companies have been doing in their working capital management—and what they could and should bedoing better.