PE firms looking to exit will often put the finance function under scrutiny to work out where improvements can be made, and using an experienced CFO to support the changes needed for the exit can accelerate this process. Mark talks about the many facets involved in this, and how he sees the changes through a fresh pair of eyes.
I am an experienced CFO/FD with experience of growth and change leading to excellent exits for PE and owner managers.
I bring fresh eyes and experience in a breadth of areas:
To provide independence and fresh eyes to concentrate on executing the strategy, developing growth and transformation.
I was brought in to transition a long time CFO of a PE owned business to act as Interim CFO for 5 months in a £75m highly leveraged business. I delivered a transition plan agreed with the CFO where he did a full handover and completed key systems projects including developing the forecasting system.
This included restoring the Reporting, Forecasting and Analysis, understanding the bank covenant enabling more favourable reporting and re-establishing contact and credibility with the lender. I also revised the cashflow enabling control of purchasing and living within the bank covenant limits, invested in credit control to improve cashflow.
I developed the FD so I was able to leave and he was able to handle until the arrival of a new CFO a month later, and restructured the finance team to save £100k pa. The objectives set and agreed at the outset were more than achieved and the PE was able to exit shortly afterwards.
It is important to focus on the best results for a client and meet their identified needs. There is always something new and new needs emerge, versatility is essential. Take the new opportunities to develop further experience. If you feel called to develop experience in certain specific areas, see if any of your clients may have needs in those areas and make sure they know you are interested. Equally do your research and training to be ready for the opportunity/ies and talk to recruiters and your network about how to obtain the experience.
Mark is the perfect example of the talent that can make a difference to your finance function available on the Talmix network. To find talent like Mark, or in different functions that can impact on the success of your portfolio, post a project today, or contact us to discuss how to create pools of relevant talent for current and future requirements.
