How to Build and Retain Value for Your Company in a Slow Recovery!

Wednesday, Sept 28 2011 | 7:30am-9:30am

Host Place: NENS, New England Networking Solutions, 1 Presidential Way, Suite 104 B, Woburn, MA 01801

Click here to register!

Moderator: Carol Kunik, Vistage Expert

Speakers:

• Dan Adams, NENS
• Ron Adams, Capstone Partners, LLC
• Beth Arnold, Foley Hoag, LLP
• Ben Weller, Next Stage Solutions, Inc.
• Steve Wishner, Corporate Director and Managing Director of Exigent

Host: NENS, New England Networking Solutions,  1 Presidential Way, Suite 104B, Woburn, MA 01801

Sponsor: Next Stage Solutions, Inc.

Value Creation Topics:

• The Role your Company Culture plays
• Identify Your Value Drivers
• Balance Variable and Fixed Costs
• Leverage Technology for Scalability
• Continuous Improvement Methodologies
• Leverage IP for new Revenue streams
• Assess Competitive Risk

Join our Panel of Experts in an interactive discussion how to build and retain value creation in uncertain times.  What is value creation and why should you care?  Value creation is achieved by positively affecting the valuation of your business and is an ongoing process.

Many CEOs are so busy right now working in the business, that they lose sight of the longer term goals. The workshop intends to lead you back to a longer term view focusing on value creation inside and outside your business. Our panel of experts will propose ways to maximize the impact value drivers can have in realizing success.

The uncertain economy demands disruptive innovation, yet that implies risk that is harder to achieve. Agility is more important than ever, you want to be a speedboat rather than an ocean liner.  We will discuss how to incorporate hidden values into your strategy and how to attain value short-term and for the future health of your company. Value creation starts at inception and gets more complex with maturity.

Who should attend?

Exclusively for CEOs, Presidents, Founders, Board Members and Investors.

We want your participation in our Annual NSS CEO Survey. The survey is anonymous, so your privacy is completely protected. The information collected from this survey will be aggregated and only the collective data will be shared.

We are conducting this survey to better understand how you view the current and future state of your organization and what is of importance to your company in moving forward.

We have experienced one of the worst economic cycles in the nation’s history.  From today’s afflictions to tomorrow’s aspirations, the annual NSS CEO survey presents a number of options that will contribute to overcoming challenges. Rank what priorities you think are most important and then find out what your peers are thinking.

How will you prioritize the next steps for your organization?

Within the framework of present state, future state, challenges and resources, please review and rank the following questions. It is a forced rating, meaning that we ask you to choose from most to least.

To take our survey, please go to:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NLHHBP2

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Next Stage Solutions, Inc. 2011- Proprietary & Confidential

Big Brothers Big Sisters | The Winner | Next Stage Solutions

Welcome to the NSS unCommon Contest, where all participants are winners!

We’re looking for one business with the drive to reach the next  stage – and the desire to do good.

What’s in it for you?

The opportunity to be selected to win financial consulting services from the NSS team valued at approximately $50,000 in exchange for a $5,000 donation to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay. Would your business benefit from a financial consultation, performed by an experienced team of CFOs and senior-level finance consultants who are well versed in best practices and competitive strategies?

Probably. But in these uncertain economic times, the challenge is finding the cash to pay for expert support.

What’s in it for us?

We believe in driving value for our clients and driving the economy upwards. We believe in doing good for those around us. The NSS unCommon Contest helps us do both. NSS prides itself on helping companies get to the next stage. Why not do it in a way that helps us raise money for the needs of New England’s children and families?

That’s where the NSS unCommon Contest comes in.

In the spirit of giving, NSS has partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay to raise $5,000 for the needs of children and families across New England.

For contest details and proposal form, click here

No phone calls please.  Questions and answers will be addressed in our “Intent to Bid”  Pre-Proposal Conference Call.

Nominations are open for the 2011 Mass High Tech Women to Watch Awards. Now in its eighth year, the program recognizes accomplished women in the New England technology and innovation sector who are on the rise in their careers and their industries.

These women are the technology stars of tomorrow. They are bright, innovative, inspirational to others and highly motivated. They will shape the future of their industries, and they serve as role models for girls.

The honorees are leaders in developing and commercializing technology, or in leveraging technology to build successful businesses. They also are active as mentors within their organization and leaders in their community (an important factor in the selection process).

Honorees will be recognized at a special event in March.

Nominations close December 7.

MHT encourages you to nominate your peers, partners and co-workers. Complete the online nomination form at http://www.masshightech.com/nominations/womentowatch.html

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

For full disclosure – he is my husband and also Next Stage Solution’s Clerk!

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.

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!

Program Highlights:

• Life Science companies with fewer than 250 FTEs eligible
• Project expense years: 2009 and 2010
• Maximum cash or credit amount: $5M
• Multiple projects/applications can be submitted
• Forms and Instructions are now available
• Application decisions will be made within 30 days
• Applications are due no later than 21 July 2010

Introduction:

One of the results of the Health Care Reform Bill was the appropriation of a poll of $1 Billion in tax credits or grants to support the costs of research by small and mid-size life sciences companies paid or incurred in 2009 and 2010. This program is advantageous for companies without income tax liability.

Subject to some exceptions, the QTDP (Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project) credit or grant is available to any business with 250 or fewer employees at the time the application is submitted. No applicant will be allocated more than $5 million in QTDP tax credits or cash grants and because of the wide open application process most winning projects will receive less than the requested amount and completion is expected to be very intense.

Applicants will choose between the tax credit and cash grant during the application process.

The final deadline for application submission is 21 July 2010 and submissions after this date will not be considered.

Application Process and Selection Criteria

Life sciences companies must apply to the Treasury Department for an allocation from this incentive pool using IRS Form 8942. The Treasury will approve or deny applications within 30 days of submission.

A QTDP is a project designed to achieve any of the following objectives:

• To treat or prevent diseases or conditions by conducting pre-clinical activities, clinical trials, and clinical studies, or carrying out research protocols, for the purpose of securing approval of a product by the Food & Drug Administration or Public Health Service,
• To diagnose diseases or conditions or to determine molecular factors related to diseases or conditions by developing molecular diagnostics to guide therapeutic decisions, or
• To develop a product, process, or technology to further the delivery or administration of therapeutics.

In addition to the life science component of the selection process the financial impact of the QTDP will be reviewed to determine which submissions will likely:

• create and sustain (directly or indirectly) “high-quality, high-paying” jobs in the U.S., and
• advance U.S. competitiveness in the fields of life, biological, and medical sciences.

The following entities are not eligible for this program:

• Foreign businesses unless more than 50% of their income from the relevant project is subject to U.S. federal income tax,
• Federal, state, or local governments,
• Tax-exempt organizations,
• Partnerships or
• Other pass-through entities.

Additionally, the following are not eligible project expenses: CEO and other officer’s compensation, interest expense, facility maintenance expenses, service costs or such costs as determined by the IRS.

The QTDP credits and grants are subject to recapture if the patents or other resulting property are transferred within five years.

An applicant must complete a separate IRS Form 8942 for each QTDP for which it is seeking a QTDP tax credit or cash grant and this form is due for release 18 June 2010.

The following is a summary of the QTDP Credit Project Credit established in by the Health Care Reform and by IRS Notice 2010-45.  Interested applicants should thoroughly review IRS instructions and form 8942.

Please feel free to contact Lauriston Taylor at Next Stage Solutions; if we may assist you in any way.

Lauriston Taylor, Controller Consultant

o:  617. 449.7728, x-712

c:  978. 397.6412

f:   978. 339.5202

The GPS of Finance