INTERIM CFO

​

CASE STUDY 1 – US CFO Engagement

When the Board of a New York listed bio-pharmaceutical company wanted to transform its Finance Function...
We provided CFO leadership, streamlined the reporting process, instituted a budgeting system and implemented operational efficiencies

The challenge

Our bio-pharmaceutical client with a diverse R&D portfolio of drug development programs required an experienced CFO to transform its underperforming Finance Function.

How we helped? 

Our initial task was conduct a Current State Assessment of the Finance Function and provide the leadership team with a roadmap to creating an effective Finance Function for a small listed entity that was targeting to be up-listed onto either NASDAQ or NYSE Market within 12 months. Critical weaknesses were identified in the statutory reporting, accounts payable and budgeting processes:

Statutory Reporting:

• Revamped the existing quarterly 10Q and annual 10K statutory reporting process were unstructured and undocumented. We commenced the transformation process by identifying the key components and steps to recording, closing and reporting to create a robust Close Calendar. This resulted with data accountabilities being assigned, validation checkpoints instituted at point of recording and process steps documented.

• Consolidated and simplified the myriad of Excel files used in the reporting processes, most files were cumbersome and error prone, collectively not linked.
  
  
• Leveraged “cloud-based” technologies to record and report critical accounting transactions such as stock based compensation to ensure compliance with FAS 123R.
  

Accounting Operations:
Instituted and documented the ‘procure to payment’ process, ensuring that invoicing were approved and paid in accordance with the prescribed policies, approval levels were calibrated to reflect the new business needs and the recording of invoices and payment tighten to ensure timeliness.

Budgeting & Rolling Forecasts
Implemented budgeting and quarterly rolling forecasts processes that were supported with monthly variance analysis to provide management with early warning of potential material variances.

Value delivered

We transformed the Finance Function, gaining the confidence of all other operational units, including the R&D and Business Development teams cultivating a collaborative and deep business partner relationship.

Leveraging of our expertise in forecasting and strategic thinking we built models and provided management with scenario analyses that enabled the Board to make critical decisions on the phasing of the R&D programs.

On the external reporting front, once our Target Operating Model (TOM) was implemented, the 10Q close process was accelerated by 30% with significantly improved accuracy.

“In all our years in the pharmaceutical industry we have not come across a budgeting and reforecasting that has been as easy and effective as this process…”

​​​

CASE STUDY II: International CFO Engagement (India)

When an Infrastructure client needed to establish a Finance function for a major international project...
We provided CFO leadership to spearhead the design and implementation

The challenge

Our rapidly growing Asian client required immediate senior level finance and management leadership presence to implement of a major Greenfield infrastructure project in India.

How we helped? 

Engaged soon after the client successfully bid for an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract, we provided operational advisory, leadership and implementation across a number of business-critical challenges including:

Contract Negotiation - Led the negotiation process to restructure the joint venture contract to ensure that the project was undertaken in a tax efficient manner without impacting the scope of work, risk exposure and obligations under the original agreement

Finance Function Set-up - Acted as the functional lead to set-up the Finance function, including planning, reporting and governance practices and ensured that appropriate processes were in place to facilitate timely repatriation of funds to parent company 

Project Finance - Cultivated relationships with strategic investors in the domestic market for future Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects.

Value delivered

• It was attributed that our management of all the forces at work was very skillful and we got everyone on the same page efficiently in a highly complex negotiation process that involved a multitude of agencies, including a difficult consortium partner, as the key success factor to achieving the desired JV contract 
  

• We delivered the foundational platform of a fully operational Finance function that met the business needs and the scrutiny of two Big 4 audit firms, one each from the host and parent country

 ​

• Our global network and ability to establish relationships quickly provided access to strategic infrastructure investors within the international market who partnered our client in subsequent PPP bids.
  

“His knowledge of the field, quick uptake and phenomenal resource management are strengths, which very few have."