Advising from a Place of Experience

SynFiny Advisors helps companies of all sizes and industries grow and flourish.

It is often those with the most experience who give the best advice. SynFiny Advisors is no exception. Founded in 2014 by Jeff Wuest and Graham Cater—corporate executives with extensive financial management experience—SynFiny is rooted in the idea that seasoned advisors—people who have truly been there, done that—are ideally positioned to guide companies to success.

Today, the Cincinnati-based management consultancy firm with a global footprint is the second fastest-growing company in Ohio, with two years on the Inc. 5000 and more than a dozen offices spread over five continents. Since its foundation, SynFiny’s mission has expanded to encompass key functions of leading and managing an enterprise. Fueling this mission is an enviable talent pool of multi-functional advisors from a variety of industries and a shared desire to embrace new projects and solve new problems.

Best In Class Advisors

With an average of 25 years under their belts, SynFiny’s seasoned advisors boast sterling credentials and impressive track records, as well as an eagerness to share their expertise. “Because many of the people we put on engagements have seen this or that problem before, we’re likely to solve it faster,” says Christian C. Lee, North America managing partner. Many of SynFiny’s 250 advisors have held leadership positions at established organizations; they often work exclusively for SynFiny. “These are people who don’t want to stop learning and being active,” Lee says. “They like working on engagements, they enjoy the flexibility, and they want to be part of something great.”

With its hometown and international offices, SynFiny manages to be both globally minded and locally accessible. Its curated roster of advisors works with companies on mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, business process transformation, source-to-pay, financial planning and analysis, information technology, supply chain management, and other services. “For a small company, we’re diverse not only in the type of work we do, but also in our ability to support other international companies,” says Wuest.

Eager to roll up their sleeves, advisors often embed in the companies they’re assisting. Whether they’re overseeing a tricky merger or helping a company boost profitability, SynFiny’s advisors will run meetings, draw up roadmaps, coach managers, and even sit in for C-suite roles when companies are changing leadership. “It doesn’t matter if the proposal is $20,000 or $2 million or for a public, private, or nonprofit entity. We give the same caliber of service to all clients, and we never turn down small gigs,” says Lee. “We think in terms of relationships, and we always keep in touch.” Not surprisingly, 70% of SynFiny’s contracts are repeat business.

Since SynFiny’s inception, it has added to its client list—100 and growing—and has developed strong relationships all over the world. Yet, one thing has remained constant: the company’s mission to bring great people together, strive for excellence, and serve clients with honest, insightful advice that helps them grow and flourish.

Crisis Management – Banking/Payments

Insights to help you prepare and sustain your business during a business interruption

SynFiny Advisors has developed a series of Crisis Management Insights to help you strengthen and grow your business after having faced a major business interruption.  Our objective is to provide a framework that allows any business (no matter how big or small) to maintain focus while dealing with the multitude of distractions that take you away from your core business.   Our advisors’ share their seasoned experiences and “been there, done that” practical advice to not only survive but thrive in a crisis situation.

This Insight will address actions to ensure your banking and payment transactions will continue to be processed during a period of business interruption. Receivables and payments represent critical cash flow to the organization and careful transaction management is necessary to sustain your operations.

Mobilizing a Plan

You have 3 key partners with whom to share and mutually exchange your continuity plans:

  • Third party banks and/or payment processers – For security reasons, your banking partners may not willing to share the details of their plans. In this case, share your critical activity service expectations so that they can confirm their “Recovery Time Objective” (RTO), the target amount of time for their systems to be restored, is compatible with your expected service requirement.
  • Key Suppliers – These suppliers provide your key ingredients and/or services to maintain your operations. Limited cash may require extension of payment terms or other arrangements to ensure uninterrupted supply.
  • Key Customers – Your ability to produce may be impacted and in some cases, as with the current COVID-19 event, result in demands far exceeding supply and empty store shelves. Your customers’ ability to remit payments on time may require temporary extended payment terms and/or factoring.

Since today’s banking transactions and payments are heavily reliant upon automated processes and systems, the actions to be taken will be dependent upon the type of business interruption. The table below briefly summarizes the most common type and possible action:

Type of Loss Action
Loss of location – An event has disrupted the operation of your physical site. Work-from-home element and/or an offsite location (hotel). Ensure employees have required equipment and secure access to maintain the automated workflow. Address expected working hours to meet banking and payment cut-offs. Communicate changes to impacted stakeholders.
Loss of Infrastructure – An event has disrupted the operation of your financial information system, your email communication tool, your phone system. Plan dependent on (1) which infrastructure type has been impacted and (2) alternative solutions available. Typically requires advance testing and alternatives. Definitely requires understanding and communication of return to reduced and/or normal accounting operations. Impacts can be very broad, internally, and externally.
Loss of People – An event (typically local or regional disaster) disables your staff from executing business processes or functions. Plan is typically the more complex as this involves ensuring your alternate resources have the business knowledge, training, and in many cases assets and access to perform the required business process. Where possible, consider alternate locations to support impacted locations, but be sure legal requirements (i.e., payment approvals, local government requirements) are adhered.

Key Takeaways

  • Managing receivables and payments (cash) is one of the most critical activities during a time of crisis.
  • The type of loss experienced during a crisis will impact how you respond to the crisis.
  • Early engagement with your critical third parties and understanding their response capabilities will enable a more seamless end-to-end solution.

Conclusion

SynFiny Advisors exists to bring talented “been there, done that” experience to bear on solving client problems. Each engagement results in measurable, pragmatic, and actionable recommendations. We can assist you in developing Banking and Payment continuity solutions to minimize the disruption to your organization and business partners. These approaches may involve reviewing communication plans, identification of critical payments, determining business interruption limits, reviewing current work processes and system’s capabilities, developing and implementing testing plans, and documenting/modifying plans for possible future interruptions. Our approach is very simple, we Define, Design and Transform. And in doing so, transform your business from ‘existing’ to ‘exceeding’.

Download and read the full insight.

For more information, contact Doug Schupp (dvschupp@synfiny.com).

Other contributing authors to the “Crisis Management” series include the following:

Crisis Management – Insights Overview

Insights  to help  you prepare and sustain your business during a business  interruption

SynFiny Advisors has developed a series of Crisis Management Insights to help you strengthen and grow your business after having faced a major business interruption.  Our objective is to provide a framework that allows any business (no matter how big or small) to maintain focus while dealing with the multitude of distractions that take you away from your core business.   Our advisors’ share their seasoned experiences and “been there, done that” practical advice to not only survive but thrive in a crisis situation.

These Insights have the following objectives:

  1. Share proven business case examples that can be re-applied during times of business interruptions.
  2. Transformational options to manage and emerge from disruptive business situations with a more cost-effective, nimble, and flexible organization.
  3. Encourage the opportunity to capture learnings and also shape strong elements of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to further support the organization.

Overview

We will cover the following topics in this set of Insights:

  1. COVID 19 Learnings for CEOs – Provides business leaders with key guidance on what they need to do to sustain their teams and keep the business running during and after a major crisis.  Download Insight (PDF)
  2. Business Survival Kit  – Here we  challenge you to choose  supporting  those  processes  that are ‘nice to have’ or  stop what we are doing and only  maintain those that  we  ‘have to  have’?  Take a broad systemic approach to ensure throughput during a period of business interruption.  Download Insight (PDF)
  3. Developing Countries  – This Insight provides 5  actions  to be taken when  emerging markets  are facing  economic turmoil from a business interruption.  Of  particular importance  are actions when faced with currency devaluation and how to face  this challenge.  Download Insight (PDF)
  4. Procurement  – Provides  important  guidelines and insights on what  Procurement leaders need to address during a major business disruption event.  Download Insight (PDF)
  5. Balance Sheet and Fx Management – Proposes questions to consider during major economic and political  crises that impact market sizes, availability of funds and that create a flight to safety. Download Insight (PDF)
  6. Banking/Payments  – Identifies 3 loss types and potential actions to be taken; also reinforces the need to share your plans with your critical business partners to ensure mutual understanding and sustain productive relationships.  Download Insight (PDF)

Conclusion

SynFiny Advisors exists to bring talented “been there, done that” experience to bear on solving client problems.  Each engagement results in measurable, pragmatic and actionable recommendations. We assist in developing Business Process Transformation scenarios to survive changing economic conditions and minimize disruption to your organization and business partners. Our approach is very simple, we Define, Design and Transform. And in doing so, transform your business from ‘existing’ to ‘exceeding’.

Download and read the full insight here.

For more information, contact Doug Schupp (dvschupp@synfiny.com).

Other contributing authors to the “Crisis Management” series include the following:

Strategic Planning in a Rapidly Changing Business Environment

Strategic Planning: The Concept

In theory, a good business strategy provides a future plan of action to generate profit extending beyond the life cycle of a product or service. It is based upon insights born of an ongoing, thoughtful study of the:

  • Strategic Landscape: critical uncertainties that will change the future business environment in which the industry operates, such as disruptive technologies, societal shifts, demographic changes, economics, etc.
  • Market Landscape: critical uncertainties that in the future will impact and modify the industry in which the business currently competes.
  • Competitive Landscape: critical uncertainties about the future behavior of individual industry players.

Using geopolitical terms, a more accurate way to describe these three categories are as forms of “intelligence,” since intelligence is the acquisition and application of knowledge.

How far into the future a strategy looks depends upon the length of the product or service life cycle. For software, it may be as little as two years. For toothpaste, it may be five years. For oil, it may be fifty.

Strategy is not a static event, but rather a continuously evolving process altered as new intelligence emerges that impacts the insights upon which the strategy is based.

Strategic Planning: The Reality

In practice… too many business strategies suffer from one – if not all – of the following flaws.

  • Shortsighted Intelligence: Too many strategies fixate on the immediate competitive landscape, concern themselves too late with the mid-term market trends and completely ignore the larger long-term business environment change. Think Kodak…
  • Misdirected Metrics: Given bad intelligence, too many strategies set performance objectives based upon internal performance without regard for how the market pie is growing, shrinking or shifting. From this comes the ubiquitous hockey stick strategy. Since internal performance objectives are unrelated to external market behavior, they are rarely met. This breeds cynicism which, in turn, undercuts employee commitment to meet next year’s hockey stick.
  • Forced Process: Too many strategies result from a “hot house” process…an intense annual session in a hotel or corporate conference room where everyone involved loses the will to live before the cake is finally baked. And, after it is baked, it goes on the shelf and no one pays attention to it until the next year. No time is afforded for teasing insight out of the intelligence and there is certainly no expectation that reflecting upon that intelligence is an ongoing, everyday part of a manager’s position description.
  • Top-Down Culture: Too many strategies are imposed from the top down rather than constructed from the bottom up. They are based largely upon what the CEO or the VP feels is going to happen and are unencumbered by solid intelligence analysis. Invariably, the false assumption is made that the underlying business model is durable which, in turn, leads to misdirected metrics. The sad irony is that, the more successful a business has been in the past, the harder it is for leadership to see that the business model may fail in the future. This is partly due to arrogance, but it is also due to laziness. Good planning is hard brainwork and it is far easier to mindlessly continue doing what has always been done. “Managers do things right. Leaders do the right things…”1

Houston, We Have A Problem

All of this would be bad enough if nothing else was happening, but something else IS happening.

Up until recent years, business environment and industry change – with a few exceptions – was evolutionary. This gave businesses the luxury of time to react and course correct before it was too late.

That is no longer the case. The rate of change has accelerated in virtually every industry, fueled by a perfect storm of societal forces and disruptive technologies. The data already shows the consequences of this acceleration. In 1935, the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company was 90 years. In 2016, it was just 18.2 Between 1970 and 2015, the average lifespan of all publicly traded companies nearly halved.3 Unlike the Fortune 500, midmarket companies have never had the luxury of a deep planning bench. The accelerating decline in longevity makes strategic planning for the mid- market more important today than ever before.

Midmarket companies no longer have the luxury of time to react; increasingly they must anticipate if they are to survive, let alone prosper.

It Is Exceedingly Difficult to Make Predictions, Particularly About The Future.

So, how does a middle market business cope with this whirlwind of change?

On the societal side, how do you digest and prepare for deflation, urbanization, and deglobalization, as well as changing consumer and employee behavior? On the technological side how do you cope with 3D printing, nanotechnology, automation, new materials, the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, synthetic biology, and digital manufacturing?

Consider the business environment and market ramifications of a declining population as an example. A growing body of demographic experts now believe that global population will peak in our lifetimes – and then decline.5 What happens to your business – to your industry – when there are fewer young workers with different career aspirations, markets are shrinking, and the majority of consumers are over the age of 50?

Digesting strategic, market, and competitive intelligence to forecast the future is hard. How do you make forecasting better? Consider scenario planning as a precursor. Unlike forecasting, it parses alternative futures based on potential rather than probable impact.

Scenario planning works like this: take all the critical uncertainties that may impact a business’ future. Combine as many of the uncertainties as possible into the two most impactful transformational themes (let’s call them A and B). Now, imagine the two extremes for each theme…the extreme positive (+), as well as the extreme negative (-). Then combine the extremes to create four scenarios (A+/B+), (A+/B-), (A-/B+), (A-/B-). Build a narrative around what each future scenario might look like.

Now take your current business strategy and examine how it performs in each scenario. Is A+/ B+ an opportunity or a threat to how your company operates today? Is your company currently configured to take advantage of the opportunity or defend against the threat? If not, what will it take to prepare? How about A-/B-? It’s important to note that seldom do either the absolute best- or worst-case scenarios occur; by definition they are extremes. However, the best case sets the vision of what could be and the worst-case scenario forces you to address critical gaps.

If you have done it right, the future lurks somewhere within the four corners of your scenarios. By understanding the ramifications of each, you can now make a reasonable forecast against which to plan. By stress testing your current strategy against each scenario, you will be better prepared to course correct as the future unfolds, regardless of whether the future actually looks like your forecast.

A Perfect Storm…

Societal Change

  • Health & Wealth – increasing wealth and greater longevity
  • Urbanization – dramatic urban population growth in the developing world
  • Deflation – shrinking, aging populations
  • Deglobalization – increasing political unrest within developed world working classes
  • Consumer Behavior – shifting developed world consumer patterns
  • Employee Behavior – shifting millennial employee expectations

Technological Disruption

  • Energy – growing cheap ubiquitous off-grid energy
  • 3D Printing – changing how things are designed and where they are made
  • Nanotechnology – changing the scale at which things are made
  • Automation – changing the role of labor
  • New Materials – expanding material performance attributes
  • IoT+BigData+Analytics+AI – increasing insights to be gained from data
  • Digital Factory – redefining how manufacturing is done
  • Blockchain – redefining how transactions are done
  • Synthetic Biology – redefining how things are designed

Embracing the Unexpected

Today’s business environment is characterized by dramatic societal shifts and disruptive technological change.

To keep your competitive footing amid the chaos requires a new approach to strategic planning – one that serves as an ongoing exercise in readiness. Businesses that use scenario planning are not only more agile at coping with future threats, but also more capable of adapting to and capitalizing upon future growth opportunities.

Is your business prepared for the future coming at you?
We’ve prepared an exercise to help you begin thinking more clearly about your strategic landscape.

Resources

1 https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/88927-managers-do-things-right-leaders-do-the-right-thing

2 2 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/hr-leadership/lifespan-of-companies-shrinking-to-18-years-mckinseys-dominic-barton/articleshow/50775384.cms

3 https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2015/strategy-die-another-day-what-leaders-can-do-about-the-shrinking-life-expectancy-of-corporations.aspx

4 Quotation attributed to Niels Bohr. https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/meeting-why-prediction-so-difficult

5 See Bricker, Darrell and Ibbitson, John. (2019) Empty Planet, The Shock of Global Population Decline. London, United Kingdom: Robinson.