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Professor Thomas Piper prepared the original version of this note, “Assessing a Firm’s Future Financial Health,” HBS No. 201-077, which is being replaced by this version prepared by the same author. This note was prepared as the basis for class discussion.
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Assessing a Company’s Future Financial Health
Assessing the long-term financial health of a company is an important task for management as it formulates goals and strategies and for outsiders as they consider the extension of credit, long-term supplier agreements, or an investment in a company’s equity. History abounds with examples of companies that embarked on overly ambitious programs and subsequently discovered that their portfolios of programs could not be financed on acceptable terms. The outcome was frequently the abandonment of programs mid-stream at considerable financial, organizational, and human cost.
It is the responsibility of management to anticipate a future imbalance in the corporate financial system before its severity is reflected in the financials, and to consider corrective action before both time and money are exhausted. The avoidance of bankruptcy is an insufficient standard. Management must ensure the continuity of the flow of funds to all of its strategically important programs, even in periods of adversity.
Figure A provides a