Lesson Learned: Dummy Vendors and a Cover-up By: Robert F Cummings Consulting CFO, Connecticut SBA * Consulting LTD Internal controls are not for big business only. I learned the hard way. I was the Controller CFO for multi-site property management firm. Our net revenues were approximately $4 million. Our project revenues were in excess of […]
Read More »The primaries are over and now we Americans and the world get to see the time honored spectacles of the Republican and Democratic Conventions. A place where party faithful come and listen to leaders of their party paint a vision of tomorrow and in turn try to convince the greater party members and those of […]
Read More »I have been making budgets for way too many years in scores of industries, sectors, sub-sectors, mid sized companies, small companies, start-ups, growth, turnarounds, privately held, VC/PE held, publicly held; well I guess you get the drift. As the senior accounting/finance person (the titles have been different over the years, but the responsibly in this […]
Read More »This is an open letter to the Chief Executive Officers of the world. cfo qualification There seems to be a great amount of confusion on the part of those who are, or who think they are and those who really aren’t, but say they are; as to what qualities and qualifications are necessary to hold […]
Read More »I went to the Small Business Expo held in NYC last week. This end of the company size/age spectrum is not where I spend a lot of my time, but I do start-ups and it was worth the trip to go (and I got a great workout walking cross-town). What I found, by way of […]
Read More »I have met and talked to hundreds of individuals who call themselves Chief Financial Officers. Some work in the small to mid-market, some large cap all with varying degrees, certification, and experiences in different industries and sectors. What an overwhelming number of these fine men and women say in their elevator pitch is they can […]
Read More »GAP Analysis is a technique used by all strata within an organization to first gauge how they are doing today versus a future state as well as a basis for creating a template or plan for improvement. A simple concept Really a very simple concept; I’m on first base, because I can see the scoreboard […]
Read More »Business Process Mapping, a simple yet time-consuming chore that seems never to get done due to lack of enthusiasm of both management and staff. A strange phenomenon where both employers and employees are in perfect synergy and both terribly short sited. For those who have never been involved in business process mapping: it is the […]
Read More »I have been involved in start-ups to the $100M business segment for most of my career. What is almost universal is that most business owners, whether first-timers, serial entrepreneur’s or professional management of start-ups to companies running about $40M in revenue just don’t understand, yet even appreciate what the back-office does for the organization. More […]
Read More »I’m not talking about computers, software, or physical security (although that is an aspect) of your offices. I’m talking about your people, the human assets on which your company is able to operate. While I am not specifically talking about people poachers, market swings, bad employees, bad managers, morale or company culture; they all play […]
Read More »