Strategic Financial Assessments

NPC performs its Strategic Financial Assessment as its first step to better understanding a client and its strengths, weaknesses, potential and constraints.

This fixed price, 3-5 day analysis looks at our client’s current business strategy, financial situation, operational objectives, infrastructure, organization and leadership in order to provide an assessment of where the company stands today and it’s potential to successfully meet its goals.  Like an audit, it reviews several areas of the business, both financial and operational, to determine where things stand today and to identify possible constraints to growth. Beyond an audit, the Assessment seeks to evaluate a company’s strengths, potential to grow and areas hindering expansion. The results of the Assessment are specific approaches that can accelerate a client toward their goals.

Issues found in previous Assessments that seriously impacted clients’ performance included:

•     Billing processes were delaying collections by 30-45 days.

•     ERP systems were not fully utilized, causing delaying management reporting by up to 30 days.

•     Improperly reported customs transactions had caused almost $1 million in payments to the client to be  delayed by 2 years.

•     Organizational design and related processes were causing hundreds of hours of extra accounting effort just to roll up standard monthly results.

•     Needs for new production equipment and more creative product development were constraining the  client’s  growth. This was resolved through an acquisition of a smaller competitor.

•     A telemarketing client’s pricing contract did not include up-front payments to cover start-up costs; when  the advertising failed to generate sufficient volume,  our client was left with losses since all their revenue  was on a per-call basis.

•     Product line profitability reports using simple allocation methodologies failed to pick up the true costs incurred by the individual products and incorrectly identified which products truly contributed to the  bottom line.

NPC's Assessment provides our clients with a third party evaluation of their business strategy and ability to implement it.  After the Assessment, if constraints and missed opportunities exist, NPC will be able to propose specific  actions that will assist its clients in meeting their long term business goals.

 

 Third Party Funding

Growth often requires financing and whether that is in the form of debt, equity or a strategic relationship, a company needs be present its current situation and proposed objectives in the best light possible.  Management reports whose goals are to focus executives on operational problems are useful to a point, but investors need to understand what makes the company profitable as well.  NPC can help sort and display the information that will reflect the success of your business in a way investors can immediately understand. Quality information, presented professionally, can make a key first impression on funding parties.

Once the materials are ready, NPC can make introductions to financing organizations and help you to engage in serious negotiations. Along with your attorney and other business advisors, NPC can make recommendations regarding structuring the deal that will enable your firm get the maximum value from the transaction.

From presenting actual results to business plans to pro-forma financials to negotiations, NPC has a wealth of experience providing its clients the support they need to work with investors. From $1 million start-ups to $1 billion IPOs, NPC has been involved with successful fundings for over 10 years.

 Growth and Change Management

When a company needs to do a major change to its processes, culture, management style and or systems due to growth, it is not a trivial effort. If the  change is being driven by poor performance, then the pressure to complete the transition is even greater.  Many management teams lack experience in leading organizations through these difficult and trying periods – having an experienced executive to advise them and keep their focus is a major advantage.

Examples of where NPC can assist in these transitional programs include:

•     Clear definitions of the long term objectives of the change.

•     Working with management to define the change program steps, milestones, responsible executives and deliverables calendar.

•     Confirming that the implementation teams have the needed expertise to do their assignments – either from NPC or identified resource providers/vendors.

•     Providing third party reporting on the progress of the transition effort by serving as a “program manager”.

 

 New Revenue Development

In seeking growth opportunities, companies need to look outside of their current capabilities and even current markets. NPC can assist management teams consider how growth through acquisitions, mergers, strategic partnerships, new pricing strategies and new sales channels can help accelerate the company toward its long term goals.

As part of this analysis, NPC can review with management the impact on ownership, finances and operations. Similarly, designing new partnership arrangements, sales channel agreements or working with the client’s Marketing team to develop new pricing strategies are all areas where NPC has experience.

From research to meetings to due diligence and negotiation, NPC can support your efforts to look “outside the box” for new approaches to growing your business.

 

 Business Dynamics – Financial Modeling

Management decisions are simpler when you know the financial impacts of what might happen. But to determine that impact, you need to understand how your business operates and the key “drivers” that have the greatest effect on the financials. Furthermore you need to build a financial “model” to test the likely outcomes of operational decisions in differing situations.

Building such a tool takes a combination of financial and operational management experience to ask all the right questions, along with a solid background in strategic planning, computer modeling and financial/accounting dynamics. This is where NPC can bring in its unique skills, to develop the tools that are needed and then train management on how to best use the insight these tools provide.

Good financial models are like radar on an airplane – they let you visualize what lies ahead beyond the normal range of day-to-day decisions. NPC can provide you that ability.

 

 Management Reporting and Analysis

For most companies, there is no lack of data and information, but organizing it in such a way to facilitate decision making is a major challenge. If you feel buried by data, but not getting the information you need, NPC can help your team evaluate:

1) What information is critical to immediate decisions and what is needed for long term direction setting.

2) How should that data be presented; what is the easiest, most efficient way to communicate the information to decision makers.

3) Determine where the data is coming from and if the quality of the data is sufficient for decision making. Often processes such as allocations and summaries dilute or even invalidate the information.

4) How often information should be updated and how should it be compared to past information, targets,  budgets, etc.

5) How should information be organized – by department, by product line, by country, by customer demographic, etc. Different cuts of the same data can often lead to new insights.

6) What business intelligence can be derived from the data. Are there hidden statistical trends, cause and effect relationships, patterns that indicate problems or opportunities, etc.

7) How can a “balanced scorecard” help the executive team see beyond the financials to the operational and other performance measures that drive the company’s success.

NPC has worked with dozens of companies and can offer proven ideas from different industries. Let NPC translate your data “overload” into efficient management reporting, designed to help your team make quicker and better decisions every day.

 

 Interim Financial Management

There are times when you need to have a proven, successful senior financial professional step into a situation and get it under control.  It could be the sudden loss of a key executive, an emergency workload that has stretched the current financial team too far or a unique opportunity that needs to be addressed today, but no one with the right skills is available.

NPC can provide full or part time management personnel at the CFO, Controller or Director level to help your team get through the situation. Please note we are not an executive placement firm; we will be renting you one of our people to get through a limited time situation. But unlike other consulting companies, if requested for a full time role, our person can set aside their other work to focus on your problem on a full time basis.