As the role of the CFO has evolved in recent years and become both strategic and more complex, the difficulty of sourcing CFO talent has grown substantially for growth equity and private equity investors looking for looking for the right CFO talent for expansion stage and middle market portfolio companies. But now with Consero’s CFO Advisory Services – there is a solution.
Private equity understands that market uncertainty will remain a constant for the foreseeable future and are trusting in their own ability to create value within their portfolio. But this dynamic only increases pressure around those value creation efforts and the ability of any portfolio company leadership to deliver against investor expectations.
CFOs have always been part of the executive leadership “team” but historically within the middle market these CFOs tended to be Chief Number Crunchers who assemble and deliver financial performance reports. But today’s CFO is increasingly looked to as a business partner to the CEO and provides higher-level strategic guidance, especially for those companies undergoing major changes or realignments, which describes virtually all PE-backed enterprises. At the same time, it is challenging to find the higher caliber of talent for CFO roles, especially for smaller companies in the middle market.
This dynamic has created demand for a new suite of advisory services that acts like a “CFO on speed dial” that allows a portfolio company to enjoy on-demand expertise of top financial executives, without committing to a long-term compensation package. So Consero, a pacesetter in Finance as a Service (AKA ‘FaaS’) , has formalized and launched an advisory business that includes CFO Advisory Services in response to ongoing needs within our own customer base of 500+ growth stage and mid-market enterprises.
“Many of these clients might be founder-led businesses that are growing fast enough they need sufficient senior financial leadership and might be struggling to produce reliable pro-forma financials and KPIs,” says Tyler Nelson, Consero EVP of Corporate Development and General Manager of Advisory Services. “But they also need that extra level of strategic stewardship that CFOs weren’t expected to have in prior times.”
Having served as CEO for a number of companies before joining Consero, Tyler has seen first-hand how the CFO role has evolved. “It used to be about closing the books on time and delivering an accurate forecast, but now companies are relying on CFOs to deliver actionable business intelligence to make decisions in real time,” says Nelson. “And that level of CFO upskilling can be unaffordable for a mid-market enterprise to establish, which is why we offer these capabilities as part of our Advisory Services.”
This kind of offering becomes crucial as companies move towards a sale process to a buyer, explore strategic M&A, need further equity or debt financing, or feel unprepared for some upcoming due diligence. They might have secured funding from an institutional investor but lack the expertise to manage complex issues such as valuation or are unable to appropriately plan their future growth.
Consero’s CFO Advisory Services works closely with CEO’s, Boards and executive teams to tackle these issues. Consero’s team can lead strategic and technical initiatives across the gamut such as debt restructuring initiatives; equity financing; capital investment; or product pricing and unit-level economics. They can quickly get a company into sale process readiness or drive acuity into working capital management and cash burn rate projections. And they can tackle the more traditional budgeting and forecasting, as well as offer access and guidance around critical partner relationships.
“Not every company needs to bring that kind of CFO in-house,” says Nelson. “But that doesn’t mean they don’t need everything that CFO might bring to the table. We aim to offer an alternative solution that’s tailored to the unique needs of that company.”
So private equity investors struggling to find the right CFO to meet all of their needs, tapping Consero’s CFO Advisory Services will exactly the resources needed in real time delivered through our flexible, on-demand resourcing model.
