ARE THERE EMPTY SEATS AT YOUR MANAGEMENT TABLE?

Picture this scenario: A mid-sized manufacturer of medical products employs some of the most talented people in the industry.  The founder owns several patents for prosthetic devices, and has authored many articles on these devices and their uses.  The Vice President of Product Development is a renowned expert on surgical apparatus, while the VP of Sales has sold for some of the most successful medical and pharmaceutical firms in the country. 

Nonetheless, this manufacturer is not showing a profit.  Why?  One reason is, for all its brainpower, the company’s production and shipping operations are not strategically organized or managed.  Another reason is that the company’s finance department is run by two relatively low level accountants, one handling receivables, the other handling payables.  While the company has experts in its core business, it lacks the same expertise in business support.

When your management team assembles, do you see some gaps?  Are there some crucial skills and experience missing?  Is the absence of these skills and experience holding your business back from clear strategic planning, and realizing its full potential?

If the answer to these questions is “yes,” then you should consider utilizing a corporate advisory board to fill those empty seats.  An experienced advisory board can provide you with solutions for many of the following issues: 

·        Objective evaluation of your business:
In what areas of your business are you succeeding, and where are you struggling?   Are your targets reasonable and attainable?  Are the proper measurements in place to evaluate the effectiveness of your business?

·        Facilitate the development of new business strategies, and implement plans for change:
Are the strategies that you enlisted yesterday still working today?  The business world, the marketplace, and your customers are constantly evolving.  Are you and your business keeping up with them?

·        Help you evaluate the strengths in your management team, as well as areas for improvement:
Identify, and properly utilize those who are getting the job done for you.  Objectively appraise the potential of those who are under-performing. 

·        Assist in improving your banking relationship:
Does your banker really know you and your business?  Do you make it easy for your bank to get to know you?

·        Enhance financing relationships by introducing new providers:
You don’t have to be dependent on one banking institution for the lifetime of your business.  An experienced advisor can introduce you to alternative sources of financing.

·        Prepare you to sell your company or to buy another company:
Selling your business or acquiring a new one is a very complex matter.  It helps to have someone on your team who has been through this process before, and can alert you to potential problems or delays.

·        Mediate family business succession plans:
Family businesses can often take on more of a “family dynamic” than a “business dynamic.”  Having an unrelated, neutral third party mediate the succession planning can ensure that decisions are made based on sound business reasoning.

Savvy advisors will spend an entire day each month (or more, if needed) at your business site, observing interactions between you, your management team, your employees and your customers, gaining an understanding of the issues facing your company.  Fill the empty seats at your management table with objective, tactical experience!

By Jay L. Fialkow

© 2003 RossFialkow Capital Partners, LLC

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