Many operating companies, even those that have matured as organizations and brands, can find themselves lost in a thicket of financial challenges.

CEOs and boards must also sometimes accept the realization that their existing CFO may not have the sufficient depth of experience and/or skillset to take the company to the next level of development so that they can capitalize on market opportunity in the timeframe they need to.

Confronting and resolving strategic, regulatory and/or operational threats while meeting public market expectations (or even private investor demands) can be daunting. A CFO, in these “mature company moments”, must be able to rapidly prioritize and address urgent organizational challenges while exerting strong leadership to “own” financial problems and establish effective operational and financial controls to curtail these in the future. They must be comfortable presenting cases to the board while being inspiring and “leader-like” with employees, showing them why and how to modify existing operating business processes to reach new objectives. And they must build infrastructure in their own finance organizations to enhance the sophistication with which their teams add capacity and capability to manage change, evaluate system development and improve cross-functional collaboration.

FLG’s expertise in operation finance is derived from our partners’ extensive depth addressing so many distinctly unique operating company situations from a financial perspective. Our partners are able to quickly assess the financial landscape and business requirements at our clients, prioritize effective responses and then rapidly deploy the right financial and operational solutions to solve operational issues. From installing expense control and strategies for preserving working capital to obtaining liquidity financing when needed, from restructuring organizations and staff assignments therein to evaluating the projected ROI from investments, at FLG, we’ve got you covered.



Related Case Studies:
What Our Clients Say

“At Parc, we turned to FLG Partners for focused leadership with several technical projects to correct audit deficiencies and improve our economic costing model, selecting Jonathan Wolter to assist us based on his deep financial and operational experience. Then, when our CFO unfortunately become seriously ill, Jonathan seamlessly stepped-into the role of PARC’s CFO – coordinating sensitive intercompany operations with our senior team for several years and ultimately mentoring our future CFO. I wouldn’t hesitate in hiring FLG (and Jonathan) again. They deliver excellence.”

Steve Hoover, Former CEO, PARC

Trinitas Partners contacted FLG several years ago as we were rapidly expanding our funds and investment portfolio.  We were looking for assistance in build our long-term strategic plans, as well as perform an assessment of our finance team so that we would be able to handle our anticipated growth and effectively manage our funds and the investment properties.  Our FLG partner helped us to achieve this and help develop our finance team over the past several years. We would strongly recommend FLG to any firm looking for experienced financial guidance and leadership to help in a period of rapid growth.”

Bill Hooper, Principal, Trinitas Partners LLC

“BrightSource is a complex environment for a variety of reasons: innovative technology, differing objectives among investors, global operations, not quite commercial status – among others. Our FLG partner, Doug Lehrmann, stepped in initially to our CFO slot under a “we need you now” scenario. He quickly sized up the situation, became a respected and trusted member of our Executive Committee and provided quick actions along a variety of fronts that streamlined operations and stabilized the Company. I then asked Doug to move to a newly created COO slot so that I could promote a high potential internal resource to CFO; Doug made the move seamlessly and was invaluable to me in taking on specific tasks that crossed multiple functional responsibilities. BrightSource is a now on path that we believe best positions it for success. Without Doug’s help, I’m not sure we would have the opportunity – for sure full of challenges, but a real chance – that we now have in front of us. Thanks for helping getting Doug to us, and we wish him and FLG much success in the future.”

David Ramm, Chairman and CEO, BrightSource

“When I agreed to join Hansen Medical, I knew we faced a multitude of challenges that had to be promptly addressed. As we evaluated the capital needs and cost structure of the company, I needed a CFO who could be a balanced and trusted business partner.  I needed someone to ensure my strategy was being implemented effectively, essentially an extension of me. Chris Lowe, my FLG partner, was immediately effective in guiding our financing strategy and implementing our cost reduction plans. The success of these programs allowed us to then pursue a strategic sale.  Our achievements could not have been done without FLG’s support.”

Cary Vance, CEO, Hansen Medical Inc.

“Taking over management of Adaptive Path, I needed an experienced partner who advocated for the health of the business and could be a counselor on big decisions. From turnaround of the business through to our acquisition by Capital One, Skip Smith from FLG Partners was that and much more. His work began with focusing us on building back a healthy business step-by-step, improving the accounting and analysis to make sure we made every project and every month, a profitable one. His role matured to shaping our recapitalization and mentoring me and other top managers in the organization as we ran and grew the business. Skip also made key introductions that supported our acquisition process. Throughout it all, I trusted Skip for his straight read on situations, tough advice that I needed to hear, but also for his love of our business and his passion to see it succeed with the leadership of myself and my team. Skip was central to our success.”

Brandon Schauer, Head of Emerging Design Practices, Capital One