Fig. 01 · Glossary
Cash Runway
Also known as Runway, Liquidity Runway
Definition
Cash runway measures how long a company can operate before exhausting available cash, usually calculated as cash balance divided by net monthly burn. In turnaround work, runway is not just a finance metric; it is the clock that determines how quickly pricing, cost, collections, delivery, capital, or restructuring actions must move.
Runway gets misread when the model assumes every expense, collection, and renewal behaves normally. Turnarounds rarely have normal timing. Collections slip, vendors tighten terms, churn accelerates, and leadership loses weeks debating actions that should have started immediately.
The operating question is not “how many months are left?” It is “which decisions must be made before the company loses optionality?”
Human Renaissance glossary · operator-grade definitions · Research methodology
