Join us for another stellar CEO Workshop

The People Factor: A Discussion on Leadership Development and Succession Planning

Thursday, January 26, 2012 from 7:30am – 9:30am

Register Today!

Companies succeed because of people and people succeed because of the environment and culture we set as CEOs.  Finding the right hire for your business or your executive team is more difficult than often anticipated.  In our workshop evaluations you have marked this topic as very important.  We are excited to bring you another panel of experts around this theme. We will focus on two aspects:

1. Leadership Development
2. Succession Planning

The exceptional line up of  experts will share how to create a passionate and competitive environment for employees to excel and grow.

Moderator:

Bonni DiMatteo, President of Atlantic Consultants

Panelists:

William Bachman, COO of  Bingham

Lyn Kaplan, Business Performance Advisor at Insperity

Lisa Sasso, Executive Coach at Medical Development Partners

Larry Stybel, President of Stybel & Peabody Associates, Inc

Bring your own questions and learn from the experts:

• How to hire for success?
• How to train and support a valued employee from field to management?
• What are key components to building a highly effective executive team?
• What assessment tools do I need to evaluate and define talent?
• What are best practices in implementing a successful succession plan?
• How do you create and live an ideal culture for your organization?

Host:

Insperity, Inc

Sponsor:

Next Stage Solutions,Inc

Sign up and add this to your calendar today!  This event is complimentary yet registration is required.

In this month’s “Viewpoint” a periodic newsletter published by Mirus Capital Advisors, the topic of how ready you should be when a buyer knocks at the door is discussed.  Laura Kevghas and David Hoffer, partners at Mirus Capital Advisors, Inc., write about the importance an investment banker plays in one of your biggest transaction of your life.

The article reaches out to a group of experts, including Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz, CEO of Next Stage Solutions. NSS works closely with Investment Bankers and M&A Advisors representing the business as CFO or Internal Financial Advisor during this transaction.

The article includes many excellent tips.  To read the full article, click on the link MirusCapitalViewpointSept2011

NSS Workshop Series for CEOs and Business Owners

Leadership Skills for the Next Stage of your Company

Date: Tuesday, February 8, 2011   7:30am – 9:30am – Snowdate will be Friday, Feb 11th same time and place

Host: Bridge Bank | 1050 Winter Street | Suite 1000 | Waltham, MA

You have been growing your company significantly and are now contemplating how to take it to the next stage.  What new leadership skills do you need to successfully take the company through this transition? Whether you are contemplating succession planning, market expansion or business process technology to improve productivity, the ultimate success of this next change will depend on your leadership.

This workshop will focus on the complex demands made on CEOs and how to develop the specific and personal leadership skills you need. The goal of the workshop is for you to identify the 3 most important leadership skills you will need and what you might consider as your next steps in your development.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is exclusively for Presidents, CEOs or Business Owners of a company with $10MM+/- in sales. If you are not a candidate of the above criteria, please forward this email to clients and colleagues who are.

About the Discussion Leader:  Gerry Donnellan, PhD

Gerry Donnellan is president and founder of Big Leap (www.big-leap.com), a consulting company that utilizes innovative approaches in working with family and closely-held businesses. Trained as a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, Gerry has over thirty-five years of professional experience. As an organizational consulting psychologist and family business consultant, he works with families and their businesses as they navigate their way through the ups and downs of owning and running their businesses, all while hoping they all will still want to be together for Thanksgiving dinner.

He is adjunct professor at the International Business School of Brandeis University and has held university faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York. He was awarded the Certificate in Family Business Advising by the Family Firm Institute (FFI). He is on the faculty of the certificate program and is a frequent presenter at FFI conferences. He was founding director of the Institute for Organizational Consulting Psychology at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP), Boston.

He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.

About the NSS CEO Workshops Series

Next Stage Solutions, Inc (NSS) is a financial consulting firm providing CFO and Controller support to growing businesses on an interim or ongoing basis. Through its extensive network, NSS began offering the workshops in 2010 exclusively to CEOs and presidents of growing companies.  These workshops are interactive in nature and encourage company leaders to explore new ways of tackling the complexities a 21^st century business, to learn from each other and gain new and more effective tools in leading their business to the next stage.

Sponsored by Next Stage Solutions, Inc

Attendance is complimentary, but registration is required. Limited seating and workshops fill up quickly.

Call today 617-449-7728 or send an email info@nextstagesolutions.com to save a space

NSS Workshop Series for CEOs and Business Owners

Private Equity Transactions: From Raising Growth Capital to Making an Exit | What you Need to Know.

Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2010   7:30am – 9:30am

Host: Wolf & Company | 99 High Street | Boston, MA 02110

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is exclusively for any President/CEO or Business Owner of a mature company with greater than $10MM in sales. If you are not a candidate of the above criteria, please forward this email to clients and colleagues who are.

Attention: This workshop will be strictly confidential. Names and contact information will not be released.  No solicitations.

Moderator:

Frank Leibly, Partner, Alcon Partners

Panelists:

John Fernsell, CEO, Ibex Outdoor Clothing

Ethan Flaherty, Partner, Pabian & Russell

Laura Kevghas, Partner, Mirus Capital

Discussion Topics:

• What is Private Equity, and how is it relevant to my business?
• What kinds of transaction structures are common?
• What questions should I be prepared to answer?
• What types of companies are good candidates to work with Private Equity firms?
• Should I hire an investment banker or business broker?
• What are the steps towards a capital raise and an eventual exit?
• What does a due diligence process look like?
• Why a private equity transaction instead of a strategic sale?
• What to expect after a transaction is complete?
• Is now a good time for a private equity transaction?
• Horror stories and how to prevent them.

Sponsored by Next Stage Solutions, Inc

Attendance is complimentary, but registration is required

Call today 617-449-7728 or send an email info@nextstagesolutions.com to save a space

By Mark Ott, CFO Consultant, Next Stage Solutions, Inc. (NSS)

Previously I talked about How to Prepare Your Company for Sale and the need to get your historical financial information in order.  While potential buyers are certainly interested in how well your company has performed in the past, they are even more interested in how well you will perform going forward as this is what they are truly buying.  While no forecast is guaranteed, nothing will make a potential buyer more nervous than a rosy forecast that doesn’t hang together.

Prepare a Credible Forecast

Many things go into a sound financial forecast but here are a few key things to focus on:

• Sound historical financials – the past is often times a good indication of the future.  Dramatic changes in trends from the past to the future need to be explainable and believable.
• Detail your assumptions – capture each and every assumption and test them before you employ them in your forecast.  Be able to explain the assumptions and defend them.
• Test the logic built into your model – test it yourself, give it to a trusted colleague to test, give it to your accountant/financial advisor to test.  After you’re satisfied, give it one more test.
• Consider buying or subscribing to a forecasting tool – Many companies rely solely on Excel models.  I can almost guarantee you that there are flaws in any such models.  Using a forecasting tool can eliminate many of these flaws, make it simpler to import actual data, and make it far easier to do what-if scenarios.
• Presentation – Simpler is better. Prepare materials that are easy to read and understand and have supplemental charts, graphs, and more that drill down into more detail should questions come up.

Working on these points will go a long way to developing better forecast, budgets, and long range plans.  One other thing to keep in mind:  make sure you and your financial partner understand the projections thoroughly and can talk about them easily and freely.  No matter how sound they may be, if you’re unsure of yourself in front of potential investors, they will be wary of what you are telling them.

Next time we’ll talk a bit about why it may be helpful to enlist the help of professional people to help you sell (or buy) a company and when it is appropriate to do so.

If you are contemplating to sell your business, make sure to join our next NSS CEO Workshop on this topic on Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010

If you are running a company, Intangible Capital (IC) is a must read. This newly published book (2010) by Mary Adams and Michael Oleksak addresses the knowledge economy and its shortcomings in how we value corporations today. It is a provocative book, but an excellent read reflecting a deep understanding of how businesses work and how the intangible is becoming more important than the tangible. How do we account for that?

According to IC, only 30% of corporate assets are tangible, what about the rest? Knowledge assets are simply not measured, leaving 70% on the table. Today we have no good approach in how to account for the changes, not short term nor long term and certainly not in terms of inclusion in Financial Reporting. The book divides the knowledge intangibles into three classes of assets: human, relationship and structural capital and every chapter provides a set of tools.

Working with early stage companies, I often found push back from CEOs not wanting structure for their businesses, as it was viewed as a hindrance to innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. Intrigued by this fact, I wrote an article From Dissonance to Harmony to emphasize the importance of striking a balance between no structure and a hierarchical structure within the innovative community. I agree with the book that today’s business must have fluidity and flexibility and be an engine for ongoing learning, to allow for new thinking and better ways of problem solving from all employees with the ultimate goal to bring best value. Since the Google phenomena and vast technology advances, we have moved further into the knowledge economy. The authors were right on in suggesting leading as a conductor (horizontal) rather than the more traditional as the commander (vertical). I love that vision.

Another intangible asset is collective knowledge, a topic near and dear to me and how I believe Next Stage Solutions (NNS) is evolving. IC points out that markets coupled with technology today move so fast, that no one person can have all the information. This is certainly true in financial services where rules and regulations are changing almost daily. Within NSS, we work as a team of senior level financial experts exchanging ideas and solutions empowering each member to greater knowledge on behalf of our clients. The book explains how shared knowledge multiplies and emphasizes the necessity for value creation.

It continues to describe how it is imperative that a business today examines what its core competency is and looks at outsourcing all other aspects of a business. This leads in their opinion to the relevance of strong external partnerships or ‘relationship capital’ where what is not core to you is core to your partner, collectively creating a powerful engine, what the authors call a Knowledge Factory, displayed creatively with Legos in the book. The importance of networks and technology are significant facets of doing business.

All in all, I loved this book because it describes so well in how to think about a 21^st century business. It validates NSS’ approach in many aspects, but more importantly for me, it gives me tools and metrics in the continued development of our knowledge and innovation strategy. The Knowledge Factory demands that we look at our business holistically and all involved must be engaged. Only then does the collective knowledge fuel our economic engine.

Make sure to get a copy of Intangible Capital today. The flexible business model is here to stay. It includes a mapping of the networks, multiplicity of goals and benefits with bottom up thinking. Congratulations to Mary and Michael with the publication of this innovative and pioneering book, helping businesses look at intangibles in a better way for doing business today and the future. Let’s continue the discussion in how to account for intangibles in business valuations and in our financial reporting.

Title: Intangible Capital, 2010
Authors: Mary Adams and Michael Oleksak
Publisher: Praeger, Santa Barbara, CA
ISBN: 978-0-313-38074-7

Laurie Taylor joined the NSS team recently.  He has over 20 years of experience and has worked with multiple start-up as Controller. We are delighted to have him on board.

Most Satisfying: In your CONTROLLER work you have done in the past, what is the most satisfying feedback you got from the CEO?

Nineteen out of twenty client companies have offered me a full time position during the engagement.

Most Inventive: Given that as CONTROLLER we understand the importance of providing our clients with more than just accounting and financial reporting, share with us a project that truly made you a value creator.

I began a two person project to determine why a major bank’s ATM conversion had an out of balance total of $19M after the merger of the two banking systems.   The bank booked a 200k reserve to cover this reconciliation exposure.  I requested a Bank Tiger team to assist my current consulting team and at the end of the project we had completely reconciled the account and were only unable to account for $9k in bank funds.  We also discovered a major systems glitch that was the result of the systems merger and trained the banking staff to recognize the problem and how to correct the system if it occurred again.

Most Positive: CONTROLLER’s have different skill set, yet often we are viewed as one of the same.  Tell us a story where your actions made a powerful positive change and why.

I was assigned a project to take over for a Director of Finance at a specialized moving van company.  I first determined that there was a massive amount of misspending going on and no one was managing the AR accounts.  In 6 weeks we were able to make enough corrections that company was stable enough for sale to a much better funded and staffed regional carrier.  The sale of this business unit saved 250 staff member’s jobs as a result of the merger instead of a company closure due to prior management neglect.

Best Business Book: What should every CEO be reading going forward in this tepid economy?

The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win by
David Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich

Funniest Fact: Tell us something funny about you.

I am crazy about WWII aircraft that have massively supercharged engines that “go fast, stay low, and turn left!” also known as the National Championship Air Races held each fall in Reno, NV.  The only rules are that these planes must have a prop and straight wings.

By Mark Ott, CFO Consultant, Next Stage Solutions, Inc. (NSS)

While the M&A market is fairly quiet as we enter the summer doldrums, it is a perfect time for owners and boards to think about what preparations can be made now in anticipation of selling a company when the market does open up.  Over the next several months, I will highlight some of the key financial issues that you should be thinking about and preparing for during this quiet period.

Are Your Historical Financials In Order?

In discussions with potential buyers, one potential red flag is a set of historical financials which doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.  You should have a complete set of financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) for the previous three years (two minimum) which have either been reviewed by or, better yet, certified by outside auditors as well as unaudited interim financials for the current year.  If your accounting is currently on a cash basis, you should consider changing to an accrual basis (after consulting with your tax advisor) and it would be advisable to ensure that your accounting is in compliance with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

Most companies have someone in house to do their bookkeeping but it is wise to have an independent company like Next Stage Solutions (NSS) come in and review the historical financials and get them in good shape.  NSS has strategic-thinking CFO’s who have experience in leading companies through the M&A process.  Their participation in this phase will actually pay for itself to some degree as it will reduce the cost of the review/audit by the outside audit firm and accelerate the process.  Furthermore, you cannot use the same firm to prepare the financials and then audit/review them.

One other good reason to have sound historical financials is that they will better enable you to Prepare a Credible Forecast which will be the subject of my next article.

Mark Ott joined Next Stage Solutions this Spring.  Read on to see what Mark has been up to – he has a great story to tell!

Most Satisfying: In your CFO work you have done in the past, what is the most satisfying feedback you got from the CEO?

The most satisfying feedback I received is when the CEO told me that he knew he could spend a considerable amount of time out of the office (with customers, investors, board members, press, etc.) knowing that everything back at headquarters was being looked after with me looking after things.

Most Inventive: Given that as CFO we understand the importance of providing our clients with more than just accounting and financial reporting, share with us a project that truly made you a value creator.

When we moved a company from California to Massachusetts, I had to build a complete infrastructure pretty much from the ground up.  This included the recruitment/interviewing and engagement/hiring of new corporate attorneys, external auditors, Accounting Manager, Office Manager, and Human Resources Manager as well as establishing new banking relationships and corporate insurance programs.  All of this had to be done in a matter of three months.

Most Positive: CFOs have different skill set, yet often we are viewed as one of the same.  Tell us a story where your actions made a powerful positive change and why.

When I was European Controller for a large networking company, I had eight country controllers reporting to me.  Some of the countries (like the UK and Germany) were larger contributors to the results of the overall operation than others (like Spain and Sweden).  In that environment the controllers for the larger countries tended to be more influential in group decisions and the controllers for the smaller countries would sit back and complain that their needs were always overlooked because of their size.  This ultimately led to a team that did not work very well together and this was reinforced by pre-existing cultural differences.  One of the things I did to turn this around was to solicit ideas from the controllers concerning topics to be covered in an upcoming quarterly staff meeting.  When the time for the meeting came, I appointed the controller who suggested the topic as the leader of the discussion leader and subsequent action items.  This forced the smaller countries to play a much more active role in the group in identifying their issues and forced the larger countries to sit up and listen and help find solutions as they were cast in more of a “follower” role.  Following this pattern in subsequent staff meeting resulted in a much more cohesive pan-European staff.

Best Business Book: What should every CEO be reading going forward in this tepid economy?

“Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty:  The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times” by Ram Charan, McGraw-Hill.

Funniest Fact: Tell us something funny about you.

My fraternity brothers used to call me “Howard”, which is my middle name.  They thought that it was an “amusing” middle name, so they thought they could get me going if they kept calling me by that name.  It worked for a while but the nickname stuck throughout college and they will even use it today in those rare occasions when we get together.

Stay tuned for our next team member’s story!