Flow of Funds

The Business of Supply Chain

Flow of Funds is a newsletter that seeks to dig deeper into the intersection of global supply chains and the businesses that surround them.

Who are you?

I’m Brian Smith, a hedge fund accountant-turned-supply chain professional who is fascinated by the way the world works from behind the scenes. After working in financial services for over a decade, I decided to shift gears towards supply chain management with a master’s degree from SUNY Maritime College, one of just seven U.S. state maritime schools that typically train cadets for the United States Merchant Marine fleet that crews commercial (i.e., non-military) ships.1 I currently work as a senior supply chain financial analyst for a consumer products company that you have probably heard of.

Why should I read Flow of Funds?

Flow of Funds is a newsletter that seeks to bridge gaps in analysis and understanding of the way supply chains and business work together. Supply chain management is a reasonably established field of study that has seen formal research since the early 1980s. Business is a similar “natural science” (I use that term extremely loosely) which has evolved over the centuries and sees its share of attention from academia and the press. The combination of supply chains and business, however, is often poorly documented and understood despite its central role in delivering life as we know it today—the things we eat, the homes we live in, the cars we drive, etc. This newsletter won’t document the relationship between the two from the ground up, but it will seek to fill in some blanks and provide value-added commentary which may not be found elsewhere.

What is a Flow of Funds?

A flow of funds can be a couple of things. In macroeconomics, it refers to central bank accounts that track inflows and outflows of money among the various sectors of a national economy. In practical terms, it often refers to a pre-closing settlement statement prepared by parties to an M&A or financing transaction instructing their accountants (hi) where and when to send cash to consummate a deal. In this newsletter, it is a cheeky reference to the way money flows along with physical goods and information throughout a supply chain.

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