Chief Financial Officer for an Industrial company (private equity)

An industrial company owned by a private equity firm, asks QMT for an interim manager as Chief Financial Officer. The private equity firm wants to sell its stake and wants to find a partner that, apart from replacing it in the capital, also contributes knowledge to the operations side of the company.

Situation

The company has still a strong brand and its products are considered world-class., although it is going through a complicated financial situation with losses. One of the problems is that there is a lack of reliable information. Because of many years of losses, Treasury management is chaotic.

In relation to financial information and reporting, main problems are that they are not up to date and have not the necessary quality. The report of the P&L is prepared 53 days after end of the month. There is a lack of internal organization, and the relationship between operations and finance administration is very tense. All of this makes it difficult to know the actual costs. It also impedes the company to bill the actual services it sells. Apart from this, a new computer system is being implemented with the difficulties that this entails.

Action

QMT provides a CFO with responsibilities in the area of organization for a period of eight months. He performs an analysis of the situation and decides which objectives must be achieved in that period:

  • Create an easy and agile management information system that provides accurate information in very short timeframes.
  • Determine the real economic and financial situation of the company.
  • Implement the new computer system.
  • Create organizational systems that adapt the functioning of the company.
  • Professionally manage the Treasury.

Results

The Chief Financial Officer achieves widespread improvements in all the target areas, the most outstanding being:

  • Creation of short and simple management circuits.
  • Clarification of responsibilities in the area of operations and appointing of operations director with hierarchical authority over delegations.
  • Matrix approach for the work of the different teams.
  • Reassigning roles in the administrative area and implementing a process-oriented organization of the work.
  • Implementation of the new computer system to help manage the company.
  • Reliable reporting system with daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly reports.
  • P&L arrives 6 days after the end of the month.
  • Treasury planning system and, a as a result, a manageable liquidity situation.
  • Clarification of the economic and financial situation that helps to establish an assessment of the company.
  • Collaboration in the successful negotiation process with a new partner.

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the partner

Spain

Javier Moreno & Dirk Kremer