I will be hosting 2 events for the Chartered Institute of Management Accounts (CIMA) in the North West Midlands area in the next few weeks: -
Tuesday 21st September - 6.30pm
Private Equity at the Best Western Hotel, Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent
Paul Harper of Barclays Private Equity (and Midlands Young Dealmaker of the Year 2008 & 2009) will be giving a presentation on what Private Equity is, the conditions in which it makes an investment, the details of how a deal is made up and the potential returns on offer to investees (i.e. the management team). He will also be discussing the effect that the recession has had on Private Equity and what the environment will look like to them in the forthcoming recovery.
Tuesday 19th October - 6.30pm
"Faff" at the Roman Way Hotel, Cannock
Author, presenter and business man, Mike Pagan, will deliver his presentation, "Faff", based on his book of the same name which was published earlier in 2010. He will highlight the many ways we have of "Faffing About" and doing anything other than the things that we really should be focussing on. He will also highlight a tool kit and templates to assist you to keep focused on the things that really matter if you are going to succeed in your endeavours.
Both of the events are free to attend but require an email to julie.witts@cimaglobal.com to let us know that you will be coming (in order to assist with housekeeping matters such as room layout, handouts and refreshments etc).
I look forward to seeing you at one or both of these events.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
PHK Presentation to the Association of Accounting Technicians, 16th September 2010
CV Writing Tips & Interview Techniques from the other side of the FD's Desk
7pm 16th September 2010, Best Western Moat House Hotel, Festival Park, Hanley, Soke-on-Trent
Cheshire and Staffordshire Branch, Association of Accounting Technicians
Details: -
7pm 16th September 2010, Best Western Moat House Hotel, Festival Park, Hanley, Soke-on-Trent
Cheshire and Staffordshire Branch, Association of Accounting Technicians
Details: -
- how to design a CV for maximum impact
- suppositions don't matter, it's the numbers that count
- why you should always take a copy of your CV to an interview
- a good first impression is crucial to success, but so rarely achieved
The Financial Director's perspective
Speaker: Paul Hooper-Keeley, Managing Director, Intervallum Limited
Monday, 9 August 2010
Why it is in every Company’s interest to train their operational managers in finance.
A recurring theme I’m getting from many of my clients centres on the role of their operational managers and their ability to perform back office functions around their duties.
To me, an effective operational/area/regional manager should operate as any business person would and have a full grasp of at least the spectrum of business basics.
Unfortunately, it seems that far too often, some people operating at this management level want to focus solely on the operational delivery of a service or product line and avoid the paperwork and administration associated with this management role (and therefore also the performance measurement and monitoring of their team and its activity).
Situations that result from this lack of back office focus include purchase orders not being raised (or even worse from a financial control perspective, raised in arrears), invoicing left until the end of the month (the company is losing out on the collection of cash in a timely manner) and paperwork returned for amendment of basic errors or left in “in-trays” for long periods of time. Furthermore, these are all common causes of month end issues in revenue recognition, payment applications and the late collection of debt adversely impacting on the working capital position.
The easy responses to these issues include, “Do nothing – they need to remain focused solely on operational output”, or, at the other extreme, “Let’s get them on a structured Head Office course on Finance for non-Finance Managers”.
My solution would be neither of the above, but to visit these managers in their field centres, therefore in very small groups, and give them a basic business grounding at local level in Profit & Loss, Cash, Budgets & Forecast etc and perhaps even the basics of what a Balance Sheet is.
A formal Head Office training course often involves a presenter talking at a room full of delegates for the majority of the day, but doesn’t really allow you to gauge the level of knowledge transferred to this mass gathering. Attention soon wanes until the main area of focus is on what lunch will be provided and how soon will it start!
Small groups at a local level allow you to tailor learning requirements to the manager’s level of knowledge and needs, with the managers able to use the IT at their centre and to demonstrate that the training received on purchase orders, invoices, new starters etc. has been properly absorbed to the trainers standards (or an immediate refresh of the process can be run through again very quickly to compound the knowledge of the procedures). It also gives the managers the chance to ask questions in a more informal setting (which they may not ask in a more formal Head Office training room) and brush up on other areas that they may not be quite up to speed on.
Another frequent grey area in the field (and, more worryingly, sometimes at higher levels too) that needs covering off is the difference between a profit and loss item and a cash item – for non-financially trained people, this can often be quite confusing. And as for the Balance Sheet – I’ve seen the very mention of them cause some manager’s eyes to glaze over in an instance.
One basic piece of logic that all operational managers should be encouraged to take on board is the concept of the basic reality check on their business unit’s monthly activity. Is the revenue stream at the level it was expected to be at in the latest forecast? If not, why not? Have all the costs gone through in the period and been recorded in the profit and loss account or are there other costs that the Finance Department and/or Head Office need informing of in order that they can be reflected in the final set of management accounts (often highlighted in the GRNI report (goods received but not invoiced) and in the purchase order wash-up process)? Have HR been informed about any new starters and/or leavers?
The bottom line really is the bottom line – do the draft results for the month make sense? If not, this needs investigating and explaining or amending before the final monthly accounts are published.
The aim of finance training for operational managers is not to produce a multitude of accountants all around the business – the goal is to have all round business savvy operational managers managing effectively at the sharp end of the business by taking the responsibility as well as the authority for their own area of the commercial enterprise.
For a professional manager in an enlightened business, that should not be too much to ask – and for many businesses this could make all the difference between success and failure!!!
To me, an effective operational/area/regional manager should operate as any business person would and have a full grasp of at least the spectrum of business basics.
Unfortunately, it seems that far too often, some people operating at this management level want to focus solely on the operational delivery of a service or product line and avoid the paperwork and administration associated with this management role (and therefore also the performance measurement and monitoring of their team and its activity).
Situations that result from this lack of back office focus include purchase orders not being raised (or even worse from a financial control perspective, raised in arrears), invoicing left until the end of the month (the company is losing out on the collection of cash in a timely manner) and paperwork returned for amendment of basic errors or left in “in-trays” for long periods of time. Furthermore, these are all common causes of month end issues in revenue recognition, payment applications and the late collection of debt adversely impacting on the working capital position.
The easy responses to these issues include, “Do nothing – they need to remain focused solely on operational output”, or, at the other extreme, “Let’s get them on a structured Head Office course on Finance for non-Finance Managers”.
My solution would be neither of the above, but to visit these managers in their field centres, therefore in very small groups, and give them a basic business grounding at local level in Profit & Loss, Cash, Budgets & Forecast etc and perhaps even the basics of what a Balance Sheet is.
A formal Head Office training course often involves a presenter talking at a room full of delegates for the majority of the day, but doesn’t really allow you to gauge the level of knowledge transferred to this mass gathering. Attention soon wanes until the main area of focus is on what lunch will be provided and how soon will it start!
Small groups at a local level allow you to tailor learning requirements to the manager’s level of knowledge and needs, with the managers able to use the IT at their centre and to demonstrate that the training received on purchase orders, invoices, new starters etc. has been properly absorbed to the trainers standards (or an immediate refresh of the process can be run through again very quickly to compound the knowledge of the procedures). It also gives the managers the chance to ask questions in a more informal setting (which they may not ask in a more formal Head Office training room) and brush up on other areas that they may not be quite up to speed on.
Another frequent grey area in the field (and, more worryingly, sometimes at higher levels too) that needs covering off is the difference between a profit and loss item and a cash item – for non-financially trained people, this can often be quite confusing. And as for the Balance Sheet – I’ve seen the very mention of them cause some manager’s eyes to glaze over in an instance.
One basic piece of logic that all operational managers should be encouraged to take on board is the concept of the basic reality check on their business unit’s monthly activity. Is the revenue stream at the level it was expected to be at in the latest forecast? If not, why not? Have all the costs gone through in the period and been recorded in the profit and loss account or are there other costs that the Finance Department and/or Head Office need informing of in order that they can be reflected in the final set of management accounts (often highlighted in the GRNI report (goods received but not invoiced) and in the purchase order wash-up process)? Have HR been informed about any new starters and/or leavers?
The bottom line really is the bottom line – do the draft results for the month make sense? If not, this needs investigating and explaining or amending before the final monthly accounts are published.
The aim of finance training for operational managers is not to produce a multitude of accountants all around the business – the goal is to have all round business savvy operational managers managing effectively at the sharp end of the business by taking the responsibility as well as the authority for their own area of the commercial enterprise.
For a professional manager in an enlightened business, that should not be too much to ask – and for many businesses this could make all the difference between success and failure!!!
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Train To Gain – Be a Professional Director
In the recent recession, when costs needed to be managed especially closely in order to survive, the first things that many businesses chopped from the budget as not mission critical were training and marketing. The justification was that belts had to be tightened; training was a luxury that business could do without as the hatches were batoned down and marketing was an unnecessary area - who promotes their Company when others are cutting hard? But was this thinking the right way to go?
If all businesses take the traditional route of cutting marketing spend in a recession, this actually provides a great opportunity for those companies brave enough to keep their marketing spend intact. They are not now competing with a number of other marketing budgets but will have the field pretty much to themselves, with the result being a compounding of returns on their investment and an opportunity to grow market share (businesses don’t just stop dead in a recession so customers will still be making expenditure on the right products and services).
The training budget is a similar story – when recession hits, the training budget is slashed to almost nothing. But does this make good sense? With a likely freeze on new recruitment then I would suggest that it is all the more imperative that employers are able to get the best out of the staff that they do have. And the only way to do this is by identifying skills gaps and then closing this gap via training.
In the West Midlands we have a strong advocate of improving individual’s skill sets in Lord Digby Jones, who regularly makes speeches encouraging skills training at all levels across the region. And at national level we have the new coalition government attempting to streamline the Employability programmes and Work Place Apprenticeship schemes by cancelling the Flexible New Deal 2 scheme (amongst others) and working to introduce a new Work Programme scheme by summer 2011 that will remove a lot of the bureaucracy and inefficiencies previously criticised.
For most companies to stand a chance of survival, it is vital to have the best Board and Management Team possible. As Jim Collins said in his seminal work, “Good to Great”, employees aren’t your greatest assets, the “right” employees are. Get the right people on the bus, and in the right seats, before you start your journey (vision/strategy). This will make all the difference when the entire economy suffers a trauma such as the one we have recently experienced and the business relies on its top level to steer the Company round the rocks. At the senior level, to support previous experience and functional qualifications, there is one training route that stands out above all others – the IoD’s course in Company Direction leading to the Chartered Director qualification. This is still the only qualification route in the world for professional Directors, and the only designation in this field that can help investors gain confidence that the Chartered Directors running a particular Company have been suitably trained for the role.
Train as a Chartered Director and gain the credibility and marketability that this professional qualification will give you in your business career.
Paul Hooper-Keeley is the IoD’s 25th Chartered Director and Managing Director of Intervallum Limited, a provider of Interim Finance Director Services (www.intervallum.co.uk). He can be contacted at phk@intervallum.co.uk .
If all businesses take the traditional route of cutting marketing spend in a recession, this actually provides a great opportunity for those companies brave enough to keep their marketing spend intact. They are not now competing with a number of other marketing budgets but will have the field pretty much to themselves, with the result being a compounding of returns on their investment and an opportunity to grow market share (businesses don’t just stop dead in a recession so customers will still be making expenditure on the right products and services).
The training budget is a similar story – when recession hits, the training budget is slashed to almost nothing. But does this make good sense? With a likely freeze on new recruitment then I would suggest that it is all the more imperative that employers are able to get the best out of the staff that they do have. And the only way to do this is by identifying skills gaps and then closing this gap via training.
In the West Midlands we have a strong advocate of improving individual’s skill sets in Lord Digby Jones, who regularly makes speeches encouraging skills training at all levels across the region. And at national level we have the new coalition government attempting to streamline the Employability programmes and Work Place Apprenticeship schemes by cancelling the Flexible New Deal 2 scheme (amongst others) and working to introduce a new Work Programme scheme by summer 2011 that will remove a lot of the bureaucracy and inefficiencies previously criticised.
For most companies to stand a chance of survival, it is vital to have the best Board and Management Team possible. As Jim Collins said in his seminal work, “Good to Great”, employees aren’t your greatest assets, the “right” employees are. Get the right people on the bus, and in the right seats, before you start your journey (vision/strategy). This will make all the difference when the entire economy suffers a trauma such as the one we have recently experienced and the business relies on its top level to steer the Company round the rocks. At the senior level, to support previous experience and functional qualifications, there is one training route that stands out above all others – the IoD’s course in Company Direction leading to the Chartered Director qualification. This is still the only qualification route in the world for professional Directors, and the only designation in this field that can help investors gain confidence that the Chartered Directors running a particular Company have been suitably trained for the role.
Train as a Chartered Director and gain the credibility and marketability that this professional qualification will give you in your business career.
Paul Hooper-Keeley is the IoD’s 25th Chartered Director and Managing Director of Intervallum Limited, a provider of Interim Finance Director Services (www.intervallum.co.uk). He can be contacted at phk@intervallum.co.uk .
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Intervallum Conference 2010
The Intervallum Conference for 2010 has now come to a close, but once again it has proved to be extraordinarily beneficial to the strategic direction of the business.
As always with these types of events, it is absolutely necessary to get the entire team away from their normal organisational surroundings (and phones/emails) to have some uninterrupted and quality time working "on" not "in" the business. This really does lead to the most incisive creativity of all.
And it worked well. Some very good thoughts and ideas were brought into play, particularly with regard to business development and additional services that can be offered to our clients (and clearly relevant during this prolonged economic downturn and very slow recovery).
The end result is that the whole team have been left fully enthused and totally focused about getting back into the workplace, working on the new ideas and projects formulated at the conference, and taking Intervallum (and our clients) forward.
As always with these types of events, it is absolutely necessary to get the entire team away from their normal organisational surroundings (and phones/emails) to have some uninterrupted and quality time working "on" not "in" the business. This really does lead to the most incisive creativity of all.
And it worked well. Some very good thoughts and ideas were brought into play, particularly with regard to business development and additional services that can be offered to our clients (and clearly relevant during this prolonged economic downturn and very slow recovery).
The end result is that the whole team have been left fully enthused and totally focused about getting back into the workplace, working on the new ideas and projects formulated at the conference, and taking Intervallum (and our clients) forward.
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Book Review - "Faff" by Mike Pagan
In his book, "Faff", Mike Pagan highlights the way in which so many business people have a tendency to allow their focus to drift and "Faff About" doing the things they like or want to do, which don't necessarily add any value to their business, instead of doing the things they need to do to take their company or idea forward.
The book is full of anecdotal and humorous stories from Mike's experience, and gives lots of practical advice and tool kits to help you to focus on what activities really are important to you and need your attention if you are going to take your business, career or life forward.
As Mike himself says, you can dip in and out of this book and use the tools when required (i.e. you shouldn't be running all of the tools at the same time) and come back to some of his other templates and suggestions as and when you need to.
This is definitely a book to read now to de-clutter yourself and move onwards more efficiently - don't faff about, get your copy today.
Monday, 31 May 2010
What is an Interim Finance Director and how can one add value to your business?
Many business people are not totally clear on exactly what an Interim Finance Director is. The objective of this article is to answer that question for you and suggest areas where an Interim FD can add value to your business.
When would you need the services of an Interim FD?
This can vary from client to client, but the 3 main requirements are:-
1) The owners of the business want to sell their company and therefore need a financial professional to get their business in order, assist with the preparation of the sales memorandum, take the company through the due diligence process and then assist in the negotiations to achieve a satisfactory deal and take it to legal conclusion. In 2005 I assisted in the sale of a Telecoms business to Lord Young, and on 3rd April 2008 (just hours before the Capital Gains Tax rule change came into force) I helped a £200m t/o construction business to go through a £154m secondary buyout, assisting the owner/directors to realise personal wealth.
2) A safe pair of hands - when a company's permanent FD resigns, he can often be gone within a month. The search and selection process, interviewing routines and successors notice period can on average, be a 5 to 9 month period. An interim FD can quickly enter this company at the point of original resignation to spend almost a month with the outgoing FD to quickly understand his knowledge and experience of the business in order that projects can continue and that the valuable company knowledge from the original FD can be kept warm and the baton can be effectively handed over to the incoming permanent FD.
3) Turnaround situations and cash issues - as the credit crunch took hold, and the economy tanked, several businesses found themselves reducing in activity levels and strangulated by a lack of cash. Several Private Equity companies moved from potential outward investment to an inward look at their portfolio of businesses, as some of these came under pressure - which was exasperated by the debt funding that had to be serviced. Therefore I have been called into such businesses in a "dash for cash" to meet loan repayments, followed by a restructuring and cost cutting exercise (and in most cases a refocus on strategy) in order to turn the company around and allowing them to continue as a going concern.
How can an Interim Finance Director add value to your business?
The fact that the company is maintained as a going concern after the extreme scenario of a turnaround means there is still value of some description for the business owners (and employees and creditors for that matter) as compared to a total wipe-out and liquidation. Successful negotiations with the crown by an interim can effect a time to pay arrangement and give valuable breathing space to get cash in. A good Interim FD will quickly get a grip on the cash management, effecting a daily cash report and forecast to highlight any future pinch points and navigate the business around the rocks.
Once the position is stabilised, the financial process and systems will be reviewed and "best in sector" solutions will be applied i.e. to ensure the most efficient collection of cash.
In a sale situation, an experienced Interim FD can quickly prepare the necessary financial data to support the sales memorandum, oversee the due diligence process and resulting negotiations, and ensure that the best price has been attained at deal conclusion.
Acting as a safe pair of hands protects valuable company information and ensures its safe transfer to an incoming permanent FD, rather than leaving a finance vacuum at the top of the company and a very steep learning curve for the new incumbent, which can prove very costly.
In summary then, "What is an Interim Finance Director?" He or she is a vastly experienced financial professional, often overqualified for the role, who can parachute into your business at very short notice to assist with a specific issue, project or transaction and deliver results quickly.
At Intervallum we pride ourselves with the delivery of high quality interim service provision combined with the ultimate flexibility - you turn the tap off at the point when you have had all the required targets and services delivered, and your thirst has been quenched. Whether you are looking to sell your business, have a need for a safe pair of hands between permanent Finance Directors, or require urgent assistance with getting cash into your company fast, your Intervallum Interim will add value to your business from day one.
We are the sledgehammer to crack your walnut - remember, when you need and Interim, choose Intervallum.
When would you need the services of an Interim FD?
This can vary from client to client, but the 3 main requirements are:-
1) The owners of the business want to sell their company and therefore need a financial professional to get their business in order, assist with the preparation of the sales memorandum, take the company through the due diligence process and then assist in the negotiations to achieve a satisfactory deal and take it to legal conclusion. In 2005 I assisted in the sale of a Telecoms business to Lord Young, and on 3rd April 2008 (just hours before the Capital Gains Tax rule change came into force) I helped a £200m t/o construction business to go through a £154m secondary buyout, assisting the owner/directors to realise personal wealth.
2) A safe pair of hands - when a company's permanent FD resigns, he can often be gone within a month. The search and selection process, interviewing routines and successors notice period can on average, be a 5 to 9 month period. An interim FD can quickly enter this company at the point of original resignation to spend almost a month with the outgoing FD to quickly understand his knowledge and experience of the business in order that projects can continue and that the valuable company knowledge from the original FD can be kept warm and the baton can be effectively handed over to the incoming permanent FD.
3) Turnaround situations and cash issues - as the credit crunch took hold, and the economy tanked, several businesses found themselves reducing in activity levels and strangulated by a lack of cash. Several Private Equity companies moved from potential outward investment to an inward look at their portfolio of businesses, as some of these came under pressure - which was exasperated by the debt funding that had to be serviced. Therefore I have been called into such businesses in a "dash for cash" to meet loan repayments, followed by a restructuring and cost cutting exercise (and in most cases a refocus on strategy) in order to turn the company around and allowing them to continue as a going concern.
How can an Interim Finance Director add value to your business?
The fact that the company is maintained as a going concern after the extreme scenario of a turnaround means there is still value of some description for the business owners (and employees and creditors for that matter) as compared to a total wipe-out and liquidation. Successful negotiations with the crown by an interim can effect a time to pay arrangement and give valuable breathing space to get cash in. A good Interim FD will quickly get a grip on the cash management, effecting a daily cash report and forecast to highlight any future pinch points and navigate the business around the rocks.
Once the position is stabilised, the financial process and systems will be reviewed and "best in sector" solutions will be applied i.e. to ensure the most efficient collection of cash.
In a sale situation, an experienced Interim FD can quickly prepare the necessary financial data to support the sales memorandum, oversee the due diligence process and resulting negotiations, and ensure that the best price has been attained at deal conclusion.
Acting as a safe pair of hands protects valuable company information and ensures its safe transfer to an incoming permanent FD, rather than leaving a finance vacuum at the top of the company and a very steep learning curve for the new incumbent, which can prove very costly.
In summary then, "What is an Interim Finance Director?" He or she is a vastly experienced financial professional, often overqualified for the role, who can parachute into your business at very short notice to assist with a specific issue, project or transaction and deliver results quickly.
At Intervallum we pride ourselves with the delivery of high quality interim service provision combined with the ultimate flexibility - you turn the tap off at the point when you have had all the required targets and services delivered, and your thirst has been quenched. Whether you are looking to sell your business, have a need for a safe pair of hands between permanent Finance Directors, or require urgent assistance with getting cash into your company fast, your Intervallum Interim will add value to your business from day one.
We are the sledgehammer to crack your walnut - remember, when you need and Interim, choose Intervallum.
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