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.

We wanted to capture the essence and caliber of the discussions on video so that we can share them with more CEOs and other thought leaders.

We take pride in our selection of panelists and moderators who are leaders in their respective fields. Our thanks again to the workshop panelists:

• Skip Kelly of Silicon Valley Bank
• Katherine Brand of Monroe Credit Advisors
• Joan McArdle of Massachusetts Capital Resources Company
• Patricia Conry of Middlesex Savings Bank

If you are in the process of looking for debt or equity financing, NSS can help you prepare the story and the numbers so that lenders will listen.

Call us at 617-449-7728 today to set up a time to meet.

Contact Ben Weller, BD & CFO of NSS at weller@nextstagesolutions.com or call at 617-449-7728 ext. 710 for a consultation.

1. Let It Roll: Why more companies are abandoning budgets in favor of rolling forecasts by Russ Bangham of CFO Magazine, May 2011
2. Use a Rolling Forecast to Spot Trends by Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, March 13, 2006

Budgets and Forecasts represent two parts of a business management continuous improvement process. A successful enterprise must first have a clear understanding of its strategic plan. In fact Budgets and Forecasts are the financial GPS tools that carry strategy through to implementation.

How do you communicate and manage the goals for your team?

The workshop posed the following questions to our CEO participants;

• Do you see a budget as a Strategic or a Tactical tool?
• How can your budget reflect your strategy?
• Do you see your budget as more of a tactical tool, i.e. the performance yardstick for annual goals and compensation plans?
• Is the budget made up of strictly financial metrics?
• Where do you capture operational goals and performance measurement metrics?
• Is your budget implementation process a reflection of your company’s culture or is it a process within itself?
• Do you recognize your business and industry drivers within your budget?
• Does your budget have an expiration date, or do you keep it alive through continuous improvement forecasting?

Ben Weller, BD & CFO for Next Stage Solutions compiled the following check list as a hand out:

The measure of how you execute strategy is captured in the topic of Budget. But different areas of your business require different measurement criteria.

Budgets can refer to:

• Marketing Strategies
• Sales Plans
• Operational performance
• Human Resource development
• Capital Investment
• Financing Strategy
• Ownership Return

And can take on many measurement dimensions

• Fiscal
• Continuous Improvement goals
• Key Performance indicators
• Strategic Planning Milestones
• Benchmarked Metrics
• Customer Satisfaction

Budget Implementations can take on the personality of the organization

• Size of Company and distribution of authority
• Top Down versus bottom up management style
• Fiscal Micro management vs  Strategical Macro management
• Cash Flow is Primary Focus
• Performance vs External Expectations is a Priority

And all methods and uses need to focus on Business Drivers

• Variable Sales and Cost (Marginal Profitability)
• Fixed Costs
• Project Costs (New Product Introduction)
• Occupancy Costs
• Variable Energy Costs
• Headcount
• Average Selling Prices (Competitive Positioning)
• Efficiency (Labor and Machine Operations)
• Productivity

What Profiles of budget design fit with various industries

• Software
• Life Science
• Medical Device
• Manufacturing
• Food Production
• Professional Services

What are the various focuses of forecasting and where do they apply

• Traditional Rolling 12 Month forecast
• Sales Driven Top down vs trend based
• Cash Flow vs P&L
• Analysis vs Plan
• Current State vs Future State (This involves lean accounting and is a whole other topic)

If you are interested in this topic and would like to explore rolling forecasts further for your business, NSS provided a customized one-day workshop.

Contact Ben Weller, BD & CFO of NSS at weller@nextstagesolutions.com or call at 617-449-7728 ext. 710

If you are a service provider receiving this, please share it with your clients, a value add for you, thank you.

GPS for Budgets & Forecasts: What are your Value Drivers?

Date: Wednesday, 11 May, 2011 | 7:30am – 9:30am

Place: Bridge Bank | 1050 Winter Street | Suite 1000 |

Waltham, MA | light breakfast

The measure of how you execute strategy is captured in the topic of Budget. But different areas of your business require different measurement criteria, all of which fall under the subject of Budget.  In this workshop we will discuss and answer questions around value drivers and how to communicate and manage your goals within your business. We will also talk about the importance of aligning strategy to Budget.

Mail in or bring your questions to this interactive discussion with our very own NSS team:

Moderator:

Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz, CEO, Next Stage Solutions, Inc (NSS)

Panelists:

John Connolly, CFO, NSS
Steve Dance, CFO, NSS
Laurie Taylor, Controller, NSS
Ben Weller, CFO, NSS

Host:

Dick Sweeney, Partner, Bridge Bank

Discussion Topics:

• How can your budget enable you to execute your strategy?
• How does your organizational culture drive the way you design a budget?
• What are your business drivers and what methods and uses should you focus on?
• How do you integrate functional planning into your budget implementation process?
• What are the metrics dimensions of a budget?
• What budget profiles fit your industry?
• How can forecasting be a reality measure on your business strategy?

Who should attend?

CEOs and presidents of companies with $3MM+/- of revenue who are considering next steps for their company.

If you do not match the above criteria, please forward this email to clients and colleagues who are. They will appreciate it. Thanks.

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 21st century business, to learn from each other and gain new and more effective tools in leading their business to the next stage.

Register today at info@nextstagesolutions.com or 617-449-7728

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

From all of us at Next Stage Solutions -

Peace – Rudi, Lucinda, Mark, Laurie and Steve

http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/morning/powerful-women-at-work-keys-to-success-20101101

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.

Harsha Jattani will give a talk on the need to adapt when marketing themselves in either country. Key aspects on existing laws and legislation will be explored. Following the talk, a panel including Harsha Jattani, Rudi Scheiber-Kurtz, CEO of Next Stage Solutions and Robert Cunningham will lead the case study discussion of  RehaxOne, a Swiss medtech start-up, with Co-Founder Frederic LaSala present.

SwissNex Consulate of Switzerland in Boston is sponsoring this event on Monday, Nov 15, 2010