1. Basic concepts Aa Aa During the wake of the financial crisis, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that "shortening the cash cycle and better use of working capital" are the most important factors as private-sector businesses struggle to overcome the current economic volatility and difficulty in accessing capital markets (IBM Global Business Services, "Managing Working Capital in the New Economic Environment," http://www-935.ibm.com/services/uk/bcs/pdf/working_capital_paper.pdf) Considering how important working capital management is, Ziff Corp. decided to evaluate the amount of working capital being used in the firm and explore the prospects of how its working capital will be financed Ziff Corp. reported the following results for current assets and liabilities on its most recent balance sheets. Interestingly, the company's sales did not change-it reported sales of $27,750 for its most recent year as well as for the previous year The columns labelled "Ending ($)" show results at the end of the most recent year, and the columns labelled "Beginning ($)" show results at the end of the previous year Beginning ($) Ending ($) Beginning ($) Ending ($) Current assets Current liabilities Cash Accounts receivable Inventory 6,500 12,500 9,750 12,500 10,000 Accounts payable Notes payable 12,000 8,000 12,250 9,000 8,500 Accruals Using the information given and a 365-day year, calculate days of working capital, net working capital, and net operating working capital for Ziff Corp. Use your calculations to complete the following statements: Ziff Corp.'s days of working capital improved from 101.93 days in the previous year to most recent vear days at the end of the 101.93 202.23 134.82 292.65 the previous year to . The company's net working capital increased from Ziff Corp.'s net operating working capital increased at the end of last year in the previous year to $18,750.00 at the end of last year