Finance Talent: Peter
The demand for finance leadership in private equity is always high on the Talmix network, whether fractional, interim or permanent. We put Peter under the spotlight to understand more about how he works and the difference he makes.
Q. When you’re at a networking event, how do you describe your independent career status, and where you focus your work?
I am a fractional CFO with extensive experience in multiple industries performing multiple tasks at different levels. I excel at business planning, financial planning and analysis, and strategy, but have done operational and accounting consulting as well.
Q. Why do you think there is increasing demand for independent expertise with PE operating teams?
Precision of skillset + flexibility of engagement + speed of deployment.
Q. Describe a recent or successful assignment in terms of scope, duration and any particular highlights in the outcomes.
I was brought on board a company with difficulty using their legacy systems to determine how costs and operations flowed through their manufacturing process. Working with the team I was able to determine what the actual transactions happening inside a (very) complex and not user-friendly platform were, and was able to communicate the issues the company was having with its costing system, its operations in general, and provide several recommendations for initiatives to fix the problems endemic to the system and their operations.
Q. What advice would you give to anyone about to embark on an independent career as to how they can provide the best results for a client, while fulfilling their own career path?
Very few accounting firms survive long term on one-time gigs. The ones that grow the most focus on audit, tax and IT consulting - the first two have the advantage of being needed every year, the last the advantage of hardly ever being finished. While they have divisions that do financial advisory services, these are usually a small part of their repertoire. What this means is that if you are doing one-time consulting with a final deliverable to the client, then you have to expect a lot of time spent on business development. The ones that seem to have the most long-term success doing this tend to focus on investment banking, which requires a raft of licenses and certifications. Being a consulting CFO is a hard road.
If you'd like to engage with talent like Peter to make a difference to your portfolio businesses, you can post your project now, or talk to us about building talent pools to get ahead of your future requirements.