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The customer is always… 7 May 2013
One of the great truisms of private equity ownership for FDs and FCs is that you need to be on the money. "On the money", in this instance, means you're exerting real discipline over cash, you have every metric covered and you can deliver the numbers - and precise explanations for variance - at the drop of a hat. This... Read more
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Fear or fundamentals: does it matter? 24 Apr 2013
Like much of the financial industry, private equity has been on a journey these past five years or so. Along the way, it's had to deal with a dearth of debt (although that's coming back... and not always in ways the industry would like) and re-emphasise the importance of operational transformation as a means of generating value. Is it working?... Read more
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Adaptability for the new normal 13 Mar 2013
A simple question: what's better, the ability to more accurately predict the future? Or faster reflexes to adapt to sudden change? I recently interviewed several experts in "foresight" (the art and science of predicting what might happen) and pretty much the one thing they all agree on is that while planning for the future is sensible, fixed forecasts and rigid... Read more
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M&A buzz: is the FD ready? 18 Feb 2013
What just happened in the M&A market? The corporate newswires were abuzz last week as two massive deals hit the slate (although they were far from being the only newsworthy deals recently). And guess what? Both are massive private equity plays. First up, Dell, where founder Michael Dell is teaming up with Microsoft and PE firm Silver Lake... Read more
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New year diet, anyone? 15 Jan 2013
Thin is in for FDs. Sadly, this isn't about waistlines. It's looking like spreading yourself thin is going to be the order of the day in 2013. Because while it's true that FDs have always had a pretty diverse role and range of responsibilities, the need now is for them to be operationally active as never before.And that's on top... Read more
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The Special Ones 2 Dec 2012
Many Chelsea FC fans are hankering after a return of the Special One. For non-football fans, that's Jose Mourinho; their team is currently saddled with unpopular interim manager Rafa Benitez. But private equity is also hoping 2013 is something of a special one, too, as we come to the end of another year of rather depressing figures.Examples? Take BDO's Q3... Read more
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Cloudy with sunny intervals 15 Oct 2012
One of the features of the much-discussed “new normal” in business and finance is its sheer unpredictability. Markets are in constant flux, trends seem to break down just when they're getting established and there are far more outliers in the system – non-conventional approaches that suddenly become significant. Just take a look at two recent datapoints in the... Read more
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Operational profits 4 Sep 2012
"You've got to want it." That was the core message of several FDs and PE folk interviewed for a recent article in Real Deals, published as part of the run-up to the Entrepreneurial FD conference in November, which is being co-hosted by EquityFD. In short, private equity ownership puts the finance director and their team in the spotlight. You have... Read more
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Be ready to change as PE adapts to a new world 7 Aug 2012
Is private equity dying? I've had three conversations with backed FDs recently and all suggested it might be in danger of doing so. “The big problem for these guys is that their model is broken and they’re not moving fast enough to fix it,” said the one – echoing, more or less word-for-word, what the second... Read more
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Why private equity needs financial discipline 26 Apr 2012
Private equity firms - and the industry as a whole - are a little obsessed with overall returns. In particular, they like to be able to show their investors that they're doing better with their money than, say, one of the highly liquid quoted indices; or property. The problem is, in recent years, that hasn't always been the case. But... Read more