Why I love working with Private Equity?
Over the last 10 years I have worked with Private Equity, in a CFO role, interim CFO role & through Private Equity firms as a consultant.
I love working with private equity, I’ll give you 5 reasons why.
Over the last 10 years I have worked with Private Equity, in a CFO role, interim CFO role & through Private Equity firms as a consultant.
I love working with private equity, I’ll give you 5 reasons why.
1. Fast paced – private equities have made an investment, and they want a return. Speed is the name of the game. Spending money to accelerate a project / return is justified as getting to exit with the required valuation as early as possible is the name of the game. I like this.
Spend money to save time, is a great strategy when you work with Private Equity. With private equity you need to put your runners on, red ones so you can run. Long hours, quick turnarounds & a team environment to drive an outcome in a short period of time.
2. Results oriented – private equity care about results. Whether it’s revenue, EBITDA or cash or all three they want results and they will incentive management to deliver. The incentives offered by private equity firms to deliver a financial outcome are part of the DNA. If you are an ambitious business leader, you can make some money driving very hard for private equity.
I love being results / outcome driven, it’s the way businesses should be. It’s not about the presentation packs, it's about what financial outcomes you delivered.
3. You know where you stand – honest, direct feedback from private equity means you know where you stand. If you are not performing, you won’t work there anymore. So don’t worry about what they think and continue to deliver the results at the speed.
4. Know your numbers – the PE firm expects the CFO to know the numbers, all the key numbers and be able to speak to the why behind the results. This means you need a strong team behind you that will deliver and ensure you can run along at the strategic level and ensure you also know the detail.
5. Cash is king – It wasn’t until I worked in Private Equity that I understood cash. When you report cash daily and do a 13-week cashflow forecast you start to realise that understanding all the timings and levers of cashflow is critical and while the Income statement is critical, knowing cashflow and how to pull the levers becomes critical.
What you learn is that cashflow doesn’t lie. Understanding earnings to cashflow means you can really understand where you are leaking cash.
Not every Private Equity firm is the same, so this article is a generalisation however it gives you a flavour and feel on the 5 key reasons I love Private Equity
At Whiteark we provide a number of services to Private Equity portfolio companies:
👉 Transition work
👉 Integration work
👉 Transaction work
👉 CFO transformation and operating model
👉 Transformation work
Led by Jo Hands who has experienced, capable, hands-on professionals who have done this before and want to help your team and business too.
We have a number of publications that you might find interesting:
Our work at Whiteark is focused on value creation levers, we have case studies for each of these levers that you can see on our website: https://www.whiteark.com.au/
We also have a number of articles that are relevant around private equity.
You might want to explore other thought leadership articles
A Look Into My Leadership Journey with Femeconomy
Whiteark is a proud member of Femeconomy, an organisation that supports and empowers female leaders and entrepreneurs.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to share my leadership experience with Femeconomy's audience and to our followers too.
Whiteark is a proud member of Femeconomy, an organisation that supports and empowers female leaders and entrepreneurs.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to share my leadership experience with Femeconomy's audience and to our followers too.
MY EXPERIENCE
Being a CFO at Whiteark, I have had the opportunity to lead our company through a period of immense change.
I have been able to work with small and medium enterprises in order to help them achieve their goals.
WHAT IS OUR APPROACH?
Our approach is hands-on. We work with the Board, CEO, and Leadership team to understand the problem/opportunity and what is required to delivered on this.
Our commercial experienced team is handpicked to ensure we help the organisation deliver on the outcomes.
MY BELIEFS
As a proud entrepreneur, I strongly support Femeconomy's mission to inspire and empower women in the workplace.
I believe that providing Femeconomy's readers with insights on my career trajectory will allow them to identify components of their own professional journey that can be applied to any female-dominated industry.
Check this interview HERE as I share my leadership journey as a CFO and Founder.
Disclaimer: This interview was first published by Femeconomy
Source: https://femeconomy.com/jo-hands-founder-director-whiteark/
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
Read more articles written by Jo Hands
Need help devising a strategy? Reach out.
Working closely with boards and senior leadership, we provide a blend of strategy, market insights, and operational expertise to drive results for clients. We understand that no two businesses are the same and will tailor our advice to meet your specific needs.
If you need advice on where to start reach out to Jo Hands or an expert from our team on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
The life of a CFO – how to thrive
The CFO role is not an easy one - there is a real struggle between short term financial objectives and long-term strategic outcomes. Both are very important but need to be balanced. Getting your priorities right will ensure you thrive and not just survive which ultimately is the goal for every organisation.
The CFO role is not an easy one - there is a real struggle between short term financial objectives and long-term strategic outcomes. Both are very important but need to be balanced.
Getting your priorities right will ensure you thrive and not just survive which ultimately is the goal for every organisation.
While there is a lot to do, I have narrowed down 5 key priorities that any CFO can apply to their role.
The key 5 priorities of a CFO
1. Financial Governance
Focused on financial governance through month-end, balance sheet reviews and working capital management. This eliminates any surprises during an audit. Building a robust process for accurate and timely reporting and forecasting so that good decisions can be made in a timely manner. This creates confidence with regulators and auditors.
2. Optimise the financial position
A CFO is expected to proactively manage and optimise the financial outcome. This requires good forecasting ability, business partnering and the ability to make good commercial decisions.
Work through strategic and operational strategies to optimise the financial position of the company by:
o Actively focusing on working capital management
o Actively managing investments including cashflow timing
o Actively managing government rebates, tax benefits and obligations
o Actively managing strategies to deliver financial outcomes both short term and long term
3. Alignment to strategy
The CFO must work closely with the strategy department to ensure alignment between long term strategies, priorities and the 3-5 year business plan and associated financials. This clear linkage is critical to ensure it all hangs together and will give confidence to the board. The CFO must work through the linkage to ensure key metrics are measured and tracked to ensure lead indicators for managing the success/delivery of the strategy.
4. Holding the business to account
As the CFO it's your job to hold the leadership team and the organisation to account on expenditure, investment, key metrics and achievement of the plan. You must do regular call out of results and ensure you hold the business to account.
5. Building an exceptional team
The quality of the finance team is paramount and ensures the business has the commercial support for decision making. The role of the team to provide insights and business partnering is critical to ensure the Executives and others in organisations have the support to make good commercial decisions.
The CFO role is not easy, but it is enjoyable and rewarding helping the organisation navigate through strategy and financials and measuring success while having the confidence of the regulators and auditors. There is always a lot to do - so focusing on your top 4-5 priorities.
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”
At Whiteark we have hands on practical experience to help CFOs navigate and set their company up for success, whatever is the challenge. Please reach out for a no obligation conversation.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
The CFO role has never been so important. Companies are navigating uncertain territory and having a strong CFO that can manage the nuts and bolts of finance and help navigate the commercial as well is instrumental to how companies navigate this period.