''cash usage by product and by customer for segments, business units...''?

Question

Hi,Please have a look at this:[about the CFO] You will be the one to lay out for them your own evaluation of the profitability of products and customers and cash usage by product and by customer for segments, business units, and regions, and to recommend the allocation of resources.I find the bold part very confusing. Product and customer use cash for segments, business units,...?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

You will be the one to say how your subordinates can use cash, classified according to product or according to customer and classified by each division or subdivision of the company.  You will also be the one to allocate resources.

Avangi · Answer

"Cash flow" is hugely important in many businesses. You need money to make money. In retail, for instance, you must always be planning ahead, and be sure seasonal items and trendy or fashionable or new items supported by expensive advertising campaigns are available when the customers want them. You may have to tie up a lot of capital in inventory when there's no money coming in. This would be a cash flow problem for your business.
"To recommend the allocation of resources" is to wisely ballance the available cash against the needs of the various ongoing projects, with an eye to the likely return of profits.

You should have begun your bold type with "profitability." That's the measuring stick you'll use for all these decisions.

You're comparing the profitability among the individual products and among the individual customers; and weighing it against the cash usage by (money spent on) the individual products and the individual customers - all in terms of the various branches of the company.

The word "by" is a little confusing here. It doesn't necessarily mean the cash is used by the customers.
It's more like, "Please list the customers by (in order of) their volumn of business over the last five years," or something like that.

I guess in this case it might be "Please list the customers in the order of the money we've had to spend to meet their demands; and also list them in the order of the profitability of their accounts. "In the order of" means "by." (List the team members by hits, and also list them by errors.)

Nessie000 · Answer

Thank you very much, MM and Avangi

I've understood the part of 'cash usage by customers and products', but I'm still not very clear about this part - 'and by customer for segments, business units, and regions, and to recommend the allocation of resources'...

Avangi · Answer

<< You will be the one to lay out for them your own evaluation of the profitability of products and customers and cash usage by product and by customer for segments, business units, and regions, and to recommend the allocation of resources. >>

You will:

1. analyze profitability two ways: by customer and product

2. analyze cash usage three ways: by customer, by product, and by company subgroup (segment, unit, and region)

3. On the basis of the above, you will make recommendations about how the cash should be spent.

[H]

''cash usage by product and by customer for segments, business units...''?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions