2024 Financial Trends and Outlook for 2025: Financial Discipline Will Be the Rule

By Laureen DeBuono

This year, we at FLG Partners celebrated our 20^th Anniversary in business as the premier interim CFO and BOD advisory services firm in the United States.  We thank our clients, referral partners, and industry colleagues who have helped us meet our business objectives. We are so grateful.

Through these partnerships, we have been able to close:

• 350+ M&A transactions
• 200+IPOs
• 100+ Divestiture transactions
• Raise over $6B+ in financings since January 2021

Additionally, as a firm, we continue to work toward our commitment to assist our clients in achieving growth and innovation. Internally, we are always striving to attract the best partner-candidates from the standpoint of experience, strength of network, and diversity.  In fact, diverse partners now represent 40% of FLG Partners, and we strongly believe that a diverse organization empowers us to do our best work and attract the best partner-candidates, and clients.

Recapping 2024 Accomplishments and Trends

This year continued with the late 2023 slowdown in multiple sectors, from technology in particular to small-cap biotech; two sectors in which we at FLG Partners have historically thrived.  In response, we were able to continue our 2023 strategy to cull work from nontraditional sectors and garner referrals from alternative sources to build our business.

Many other challenges continued this year, including high interest rates, an almost complete lack of equity capital and cash constraints, the ongoing Ukraine and Israeli-Hamas conflicts, the continual challenges of ever-changing hybrid work models, and now, an incoming U.S. Presidential Administration that is focused on challenging every aspect of the federal government.

Every business has had to navigate the tough business issues of 2024 and will now have to manage a likely unpredictable second Trump presidency and how it will impact our respective businesses.

As such, financial discipline will again be the rule in 2025 – as we assist clients in driving operational efficiency (and cash conservation) to generate profits while still building capacity for growth.  This tightrope will not be easy to navigate – but we at FLG Partners know we can help our clients do it, as we are seasoned problem-solvers.  We are bullish about what business will bring us in 2025, and we are hopeful that the capital markets will re-open so that we can help our clients access essential capital to grow their businesses.

FLG Partners – Major News for 2025

The exciting news for us is that Jennifer Cho will succeed me as Managing Partner, effective February 1^st.   After five years at the helm (and 14 years as an FLG Partner), I will be stepping down to continue as an active partner at the firm – focused on BOD advisory work, executive coaching, and hopefully another IPO to launch or complicated restructuring to implement.

It is always a difficult decision as to when to pass on the baton.  My own training and work in succession planning have taught me that it is critical to do the work to identify, counsel, and elevate those in the organization who can build on what has been achieved.  And then it is imperative to know when the time is right – to do the passing of that baton.  I am so proud of how we at FLG Partners are navigating this transition.

Jennifer joined FLG Partners in 2020, and we identified her a couple of years ago as someone who could be our next Managing Partner, as she has all the attributes that are required of this role. Jennifer is a seasoned CFO with over 30 years of financial and operational experience in public and private companies.  Her leadership spans consumer products, entertainment, digital media, and corporate & investment banking sectors.  She has held key executive leadership roles at GAP Inc, DIRECTV, AT&T, and Otter Media.  Her CFO consulting work at FLG includes working with Compass Real Estate, Keen Footwear, Dôen, and Goop, Inc.   Jennifer is a tireless networker who builds relationships, and she looks forward to building FLG referral partnerships and long-lasting client relationships.

To conclude, our team at FLG Partners is committed to providing our clients with the strategic insights, tools, and practices to successfully navigate through tough business cycles and necessary pivots – regardless of what comes next in 2025.  We believe setting the right vision, prioritizing, partnering with the right networks, carefully managing growth, and always keeping a watchful eye on cash and its uses – will keep us all successful in the coming year.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT FLG PARTNERS!

See my fireside chat with Jennifer Cho, exploring her background, how she grew her career, and came to FLG Partners.