Oct 08, 2026 by Offer

FTI Liquidity Question 2027: Operational Levers Explained

The FTI Consulting liquidity management question — commonly reported by candidates as "How would you help a company manage liquidity operationally during distress?" — is answered with the cash levers in priority order: accelerate inflows (collections, asset sales), control outflows (payables discipline, capex freezes), and build visibility (13-week cash flow forecast).

What This FTI Consulting Liquidity Management Question Assesses

This is a core restructuring competency question. FTI's RX practice lives in liquidity crises, so the interviewer tests whether you understand that distressed liquidity management is operational and immediate — not strategic and eventual. Candidates who propose long-term strategy instead of weekly cash actions reveal they don't understand the situation's urgency.

How to Answer This FTI Consulting Liquidity Management Question

Walk the levers in order of speed and impact:

Lever 1 — Accelerate cash in. Tighten collections: chase overdue receivables, offer early-payment discounts where the math works, review billing cycles. Example line: "First, I'd map the receivables aging — in distress, uncollected cash is often the fastest source of liquidity."
Lever 2 — Control cash out. Prioritize payables: pay critical suppliers, stretch the rest with communication, freeze non-essential capex and discretionary spend. Distinguish strategic cuts from panic cuts — you need the business to keep operating.
Lever 3 — Build visibility. Implement a 13-week rolling cash flow forecast, updated weekly, so management sees the wall before hitting it. Without visibility, every decision is a guess.
Lever 4 — Structural options. Asset disposals, sale-and-leaseback, emergency facilities — slower, but part of the full toolkit. Mention them as the second wave.

Frame everything around the cash conversion cycle: the faster cash moves through the business, the less external funding it needs.

Common Mistakes

Strategic answers to an operational question. Talking about pivoting the business model when the company has six weeks of cash shows you misread the urgency.
Forgetting the forecast. Levers without visibility are blind — the 13-week cash flow is the single most expected element of a strong answer.
Ignoring stakeholders. Suppliers, lenders, and employees all react to liquidity actions — mention managing those relationships, not just the numbers.

Candidates commonly report follow-ups like "What if the forecast shows they run out in four weeks?" — that's the bridge to harder restructuring tools (standstills, emergency funding). Show you know the operational levers are step one of a ladder, not the whole ladder.

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FAQ

What is a 13-week cash flow forecast? A week-by-week projection of cash receipts and payments over the next quarter, updated weekly. It's the standard distressed-company control tool — short enough to be accurate, long enough to act on.

Should I mention specific ratios? The cash conversion cycle (receivables days + inventory days − payables days) is the key one. Keep ratios in service of the levers, not as decoration.

What about raising new funding? Mention it as a parallel track, but the question asks for operational levers — funding takes time the company may not have.

How technical should I get? Technical enough to name the real tools (13-week forecast, working capital levers), plain enough to explain the logic. You're showing judgment, not reciting a manual.

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