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Specialist CFO, Raffles Park (2026)

22/01/2022

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09/02/2021

CREATING A WINNING COMPANY WORTHY OF INVESTMENT

There are so many companies out there. But how can companies take advantage of the current pandemic and create a differentiation for their business to thrive and be attractive for future interested investors?

Businesses can choose to be among the crowd and muscle through the competition or differentiate themselves away from the crowd and niche themselves away to create an advantage.

Here are the differences that makes the Differentiation;

Successful businesses:

1. Think long-term on possible outcomes
They gain realization from future events in the commercial world and possess the understanding from analysis about the extent of the impact, spinning scenarios after scenarios of what is needed to thrive continuously in the long term.

2. Anticipate the potential changes
They look at events and ask what if questions to anticipate what could come that may caught them by surprise. To them, these are important things to know so that it would hopefully not turn out to be urgent where panic actions are required.

3. Manage financials to secure longevity
At the bottom of their mind is what does external changes means in financial terms and can their current financials be used to protect and create more opportunities with even bigger financial returns. They think of risk and opportunities in numbers term, not in concept. They manage their financial well-being professionally to create business longevity.
Unsuccessful business:

1. Reactive in nature
They tend to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Normally they will not be those who enjoy super-normal returns from their business as they are not the first-movers. By the time they move in, competitors are already significant and the only thing to compete on is pricing.

2. Reward system unrelated to outcome
Many such businesses do not relate how their compensation scheme relates to the changing dynamics in the business world. To them it’s a norm with annual increment which has no specific relatedness to the need to change quickly and adopt new practices. Most of these businesses are also legacy and protective on how they are compensated, regardless of what is going on in the marketplace.

3. Think in piecemeal
Many solutions are to tackle the fire-fighting needs basis. There are not strategic nor relatable to the entire business, not realizing that a solution to one part of the business may turn out to be a showstopper to another part, causing inefficiencies and disharmony in the workplace, hence weakening productivity and affecting financial return.

In every situation there are winners and losers and how they ended to be where they are depends on their attitude, anticipation and reaction to the marketplace. It is here where the smarter will survive, gets investment support and thrive whilst the others will probably stay mediocre or perish with time.

To benefit a larger business community, feel free to share this article 😊.

Welcome to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.specialistcfo.com on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

02/02/2021

BE PREPARED FOR THE COMING SOLVENCY CRISIS

The current pandemic has caused not only a crisis in health but also greatly affected businesses, employment and future planning.

No further explanation is needed to demonstrate how bad businesses has been saddled with business failures. And for those surviving under massive debts, their survivability will be tested in days to come.

It is expected that corporate bankruptcies will increase by 30% in the Asia Pacific in the coming year.

Many may immediately think about debt restructuring. While debt restructuring could be a way, that should not be the main way. Typically, debt restructuring comes at a time of urgency. It has become something very important and highly urgent. And the reason it becomes urgent is because when it was important, not enough attention and actions was put into it to pre-empt it. Hence important matters become urgent.

We should deal with our current business by taking care of every important matter first so that it does not turn into something urgent. The difference between the 2 (important and urgent) is time. And time is the oxygen for businesses to make plans for survival.

Time waits for no man and hence the timeliness to get involved and plan ahead is highly critical for business continuity. Here are a few key points to create more opportunities to grow the top line to remain solvent:

1. Pivoting and re-pivoting – the need to explore related business opportunities has never been of greater importance than now. Many business models are disrupted and need transformation. A strategic pivoting exercise would be a great insight into what is possible.

2. Innovate – thinking outside of the normal convention and understand what are the pain points that can be innovated. Innovation through design thinking that understand and empathise on the customer journey is a good start.

3. Partnering collaboration – it is not possible to grow big without any external help and the right network. Partnering for growth is one of the fastest ways to expand, avoid costly mistakes and leverage what you don’t have and learn quickly to scale.

4. Workable business model – all thinking must result in a workable business model that addressees a need and willingness to pay for it. Converting and testing it with financial outcomes will provide a clear feasibility of the business model.

5. Business building – this is deemed to be one of the most valuable organic growth pathways compare to other modes of organic growth. Building business within a business has more sustainability for longer term value.

6. More revenue streams – in most businesses there are almost always opportunities for more than one source of revenue stream that can be generated. A business review that opens up the possibility of more revenue stream is what is needed today.

Business solvency requires business innovation, methodology and a change of mindset to be open to understand the current situation and accept what may come and willing to be prepared for it. Any kind of new endeavour always requires risk taking and management expertise to generate that higher return for business continuity.

To benefit a larger business community, feel free to share this article 😊.

Welcome to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.specialistcfo.com on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

26/01/2021

CREATING A FINANCIAL PLAN THAT RELATES TO STRATEGIC PLAN

Many businesses face financial deficiency challenges and this deficiency has created significant challenges to the survival of the business. A vast majority which does not have strong financial insight ended saddling themselves in a financial crisis and catastrophic situation.

As for some of them who has knowledge, they do not have the ability to connect the financial plan to their strategic plan. This creates another set of problems that derails direction and failure to meet goals.

A financial plan has close interlinked with a strategic plan and the following shows how they relate and why it is important to understand the dynamics of this interlink that create significant business advantage to the most successful companies.

1. Not mutually exclusive – the strategic plan and financial plan are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are very much related and dependent on each other. They run on a parallel and work alongside to reach common goals.

2. Focus on external factors – a strategic plan looks at the developments of external factors that is relevant to the business competitiveness and growth. Changes that may happen are anticipated and mitigation plan are developed to counter any threats.

3. Focuses on the mission and vision – a strategic plan always mirrors the vision of the business and align its mission to achieved corporate objectives. Good strategic plan always draws everything closer and closer to the business vision finishing line and not farther and farther away.

4. Defines the initiatives – a strategic plan also defines the various initiatives, actions and plan that encompasses among others; human resources, infrastructures, planning and promotion etc required to achieved its objectives.

5. A longer time plan – a financial plan set its path on a longer plan (although as part of it there will be the short- and medium-term plan). This allows the financial plan to fully support and envision it readiness to support the strategic plan.

6. Addresses readiness – a financials’ goal is always to make itself ready to provide the run way for the strategic plan to take off. It assesses and built its financial strength, liquidity, debt capacity and financial prudence. Without such readiness, strategic plans will face significant barrier to do anything.

7. A roadmap to achieve goal – putting both the strategic plan and financial plan together to like developing a roadmap that not only know what is its forward destination but also having the means to arrive at it.

8. Continuous review and adjustment to goals – this is one of the most important part of the connectivity between a strategic plan and a financial plan. Periodic review is highly necessary to keep it on track. Without continuous reviews there is a tendency that both may go off tangent due to competing priorities that sways attention away from the primary corporate goals.

A strategic plan is important but without a financial plan, it remain a dream without the means to achieve it. A financial plan that goes without a strategic plan has no define purpose and lack the vision to lead the business to what the company is after.

To benefit a larger business community, feel free to share this article 😊.

Welcome to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.rvpcapital.com.sg on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

19/01/2021

CONSIDERING ESG VALUE IN YOUR FUNDING STRATEGY

ESG (environment, social and governance) is not something that a business does separately beyond and above its core business. In fact, ESG should be part and parcel of what the business does in the producing of its products/services.

The adoption of ESG is part of how a company choose to conduct its business and operation, starting from identifying potential customers to the selection of supplies, processes to the adoption of business practices that ultimately delivers its product/services to consumers. And it is by doing so, it incorporates the benefits of ESG to customers.

Because today consumers are much more aware of the urgent need to support and embrace any initiatives that care for the environment, social and governance, businesses that seek for funding must appeal to this desire driven by consumers.

In the preparation of a funding plan, the aspect of ESG that must be included as key considerations should at least covers the following:

1. Financial returns. Incorporating ESG contribution into the financials returns as part of the forward-looking analysis. Show what is being done as part of the core business and how does it relate to ESG initiatives. Example could be the environmental conservation, promotion of good labour practice that leads to higher work engagement, higher productivity or Work-From-Home that lessen carbon footprint.

2. Cost of Capital. With higher compliance and adjustment to work and business practices, it will change the cost of capital (due higher cost of compliance and investment judgement) that will impact the financial returns and Free Cash Flow. This should be quantified, understood and weight against the better course of practicing ESG initiatives with a bigger goal in mind.

3. Scenario planning. As in any kind of uncertainty to the realization of ESG goals, it is prudent to conduct different scenario analysis that measures the impact and timeliness of the goal realization. Probability must weight in to provide impact on the business value.

4. Intangibles. A number of ESG initiatives may be in intangible form and therefore need to be valued in an Intangibles valuation to include the value appropriately. Missing out this part could mean missing out a significant part of ESG contribution.

5. Risk management. Adding the perspective of risk (of non-compliance, hidden cost) and opportunity is another important aspect of a proper funding plan. As much as risk need to be highlighted and have mitigation plan in place, investors are also interested to know what are the opportunities from it. Risk analysis that include some form of environmental assessment and regulatory compliance would be highly useful, depending on industry applicability. Some risk only manifest itself many years down the road.

6. Capabilities. Demonstrate management/team capability/commitment and familiarization in ESG initiatives is of high importance. With the proper understanding and leadership, they can implement system and process and communicate guidance to the team for effective ex*****on, realization and reporting.

ESG inclusion is becoming a game changer in capital raising and knowing how it’s done is an important part of supporting business growth.

Feel free to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.rvpcapital.com.sg on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

12/01/2021

HOW TO BE DIFFERENTIATED IN CAPITAL RAISING BY INCLUDING ENVIROMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE IMPACT

In the past, environmental, social and governance (ESG) did not have highly important place in investors’ evaluation. But in recent years, especially now it has grown in importance and is being valued more and more. People are looking into green economy or green finance.

To be differentiated from the typical way to attract investors, businesses should include an edge from ESG in their capital raising exercise.

Businesses would benefit from their capital raising if it can demonstrate how it play an effective role in ESG. ESG is also changing how investors/lenders and consumers behave and their view on how businesses should look at their future.

1. Heighten investors interest – there is a growing interest among investors to put their money not just only make more money but also that their investment serves a broader purpose that would be attractive to their existing and future investors too.

2. Seen to drive positive behaviour – such positive behaviour sends a very positive message for others to emulate and be educated. Whether it’s the public or consumer at large, they are attracted to emulate and endorse such positive behaviours.

3. Have a social conscious - businesses that is deem to be more social conscious are always viewed more in a more positive light. They are appreciated for their positive contribution to the larger society ranging from concern for environmental effects to caring for the future generation.

4. Differentiated pack from the rest of the business – beyond being pure capitalism, business that are ESG conscious, develop a strong brand growth strategy that differentiate themselves from pure money-making motive to care for others and the earth.

5. More financing option – more lending institutions are also growing to cater for this group of green business. By demonstrating how their ESG efforts compliment/part of their core business, it makes itself attractive to financial institutions who are keen to propel businesses into a greener and cleaner future.

How to demonstrate that your business embrace ESG practices:

1. Life-cycle costing – develop a life-cycle costing that track and report on the ESG initiatives being carried out ranging from raw materials used to the adoption of practices that contributes to the positive ESG. It tracks on the lifecycle and provides stakeholders a clear understanding of its contribution.

2. Reporting – participation in a total quality management system that related to ESG would be an effective way to have a clear top management mandate, strategy, process and system to implement those ESG initiatives. It brings in governance to support its development and implementation.

Capital raising is brought to a new level by businesses who take early steps to move away from conventional way to raise funds and take their business forward.

Feel free to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.rvpcapital.com.sg on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

05/01/2021

HOW TO MANAGE A CRISIS THAT WILL LEAD TO BETTER OPPORTUNITIES

Crisis will happen and more will come disrupting the way business is conducted. Many will fall by the way side due to crisis that cause significant harm to their continuity. But at the same time there will also be those who will thrive and succeed and newcomers who join and create the next wave of entrepreneurship.

So, when the going gets tough, what can businesses do to strive ahead and make the best out of it?

Here are a few key thoughts that can shape a better outcome for businesses managing through a crisis.

1. Planning out and phasing out
Crisis itself is already a big deal. It can be exhausting and energy consuming. It is prudent to diagnose the crisis clearly and understand the cause and effects. This look simple and because we are surrounded by so much news/information, it is very easy to assign blame and draw a big conclusion without diagnosing the real detail reasons. If the issue can be diagnosed into its specific cause(s) and effects, it will help to prioritise what is most needful to be done between the most urgent versus the most important.

2. Set small goals leading to the bigger outcome
With limitation in resources, the big task to manage a crisis should be set into smaller goals with dedicated team to focus on it. Smaller goals are more targeted, measurable and achievable. Rather than trying to handle a massive task in one big goal, smaller goals is more manageable, realistic and more confidence can be built when it is achieved.

3. Create a plan to work it out
In order to successfully execute the task, there must be a clear project plan, mission and accountability approved by top management. Walking the talk becomes the real message. Many crisis managements are not effective as the establishment, roles, responsibilities and oversight is poorly done. This will lead to poor ex*****on due to poor leadership.

4. Explore the new frontier
It is exactly during a crisis that openness to new ideas and exploration need to take place. Typically, a crisis threatens its existing business model and therefore while it may be important to preserve the current business, more importantly is the ability to explore new frontiers to create new business model and revenue stream. Normally businesses that have a strong sense of exploration will be able to provide a higher return to shareholders. Sitting still is not a solution.

5. Don’t fret over small things
Focus on what is important and not urgent (yet) so that those important things will not become urgent that will put tremendous pressure to the business in crisis. Too many firefighting and bickering over small matters de-focus and derail top management attention. Solving all the small matters will not lead the business out of crisis, not to mention it will cause it to miss any opportunities that could have come its way.

Business leaders has the mandate to create opportunities in every crisis. The secret lies in this wisdom - If you want to change who you are, change what you do.

Feel free to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.rvpcapital.com.sg on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

22/12/2020

HOW TO RAISE CAPITAL THAT BRINGS INNOVATION INTO REALITY

Capital raising is both an art and a science. Only thing is that it cannot be just based on feeling and luck. In fact, most successful companies put meticulous thoughts into shaping how to raise funds and strategizing it.

In order to strategies capital raising to support innovative work, it is important that the following are addressed;

1. Business model transformation
The uniqueness of the innovation is a key selling point. In most cases it creates the premium for the offer and give investor the added interest in something new. Business model that relooks at how customers experience can be enhanced multiple times brings significant value to the innovation itself.

2. Financial modelling
Any innovation that is worth investing must be tested and viewed from different scenarios (high case, low case, base case) through financial modelling. From it the expected return can be better understood and potential risk and opportunity is kept in view to keep blind spot in check.

3. Business valuation
Valuation gives the prospective seller and buyer a sense of what is deemed fair. It has its usefulness to guide negotiation and understood how value was derived and will be build. Despite uncertainty in any innovation that can change a valuation, one that is done is always better than one that has not.

4. Capital raise strategy
Depending on the stage of investment and the external factors that drive capital raising environment, capital raising strategy and the types of funding vehicles will change too. Smart innovators also look for non-monetary value e.g., expertise, network, sales channel, partnership to grow their innovation business.

5. Strong management team
The ones who will be the key driver to value creation is the management team. A cohesive, well line up team with the right skill and experience brings confidence and belief into the business future prospect.

6. Compelling equity story
Capital raising is a story-telling that narrates the present and future value of the business brought about by the characters in the story-telling. It is an appealing form to connect with investor’s interest.

7. Tax efficiency
When planning for capital raising, tax efficiency that relates to the structure and form must not be overlook. Tax efficiency is very important and any inefficiency will reduce the return to the innovators.

8. IP ownership
The intangibles are becoming more and more important, more so in many of today’s innovative work. Capturing its financial value is often overlook and this minimizes the return to the innovators.

9. Risk management
In any capital raising, one of the key areas that must be addressed is the business risk management. How the business will address its risk is as important as how it creates value. Value can be easily destroyed without proper risk management.

In order to devise a solid capital raising strategy, innovators must know how to address what is important to potential investors.

Feel free to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.rvpcapital.com.sg on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

15/12/2020

NAVIGATING YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH A CRISIS

Focus is what drives the intensity of value creation. Many businesses start with a particular direction but then was drawn into others due to daily firefighting, more new trendy direction and thinking that another direction seems to be better.

Without a key strategic focus, businesses find it hard to stay the course to deliver the intended value and gets distracted into other area, wasting time and resources.

During times of uncertainty and crisis, there are 3 key questions that is a must on every CEO dashboard, where answers must be work out quickly:

1) What is the crisis doing to your business?

a) Have a clear understanding on the overall impact on the entire business and separately on each part of the business. This should comprise of both the financial and non-financial aspect. Without this first level knowledge, it’s difficult to have control.

b) To understand any crisis well, the ability to obtain timely and complete information is critical. Successful companies have crisis team that can be launch quickly in action to size up the issue.

c) With proper data, business assessment on the impact can be carried out objectively and communicated clearly especially in a visual manner to all stakeholders. Everyone should be brought to awareness.

2) How does it impact the current and future of your business?

a) Here it is to understand the extensiveness of the impact across different functions and segments of the business. Financial impact is always the key assessment as the survivability is of topmost concern. A complete business review assessment will highlight the weakest link along the business value chain.

b) The weakest link must be the priority of focus in the short-term, medium-term to long-term. The degree of risk associated with each one must be quantified as some are so severe that it will cripple the business going concern.

3) What can you do to manage your business?

a) Data analytics and assessment will drive the thinking behind the various alternative solutions for mitigating the crisis. Deep expert research and group key opinion thinking can provide think-out-of-the-box solutions and risk consideration.

b) As a crisis consist of many uncertainties, scenario planning applying different key updated information, solutions and risk appetite will provide optimal balance to the most appropriate approach.

c) Assessment with unbiased prejudice is critical to avoid herd mentality or being dominated by certain individual controlling opinion. This is a very important factor that differentiate between the most feasible solution versus the most favoured solution. Often you will need an independent expert moderator to provide unbiased feedback.

The ability to navigate through a crisis is critical not just to manage the situation but it provides the longer-term view on business continuity and pivoting opportunities. It also allows the development of a business continuity plan to future crisis management.

Feel free to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.rvpcapital.com.sg on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

08/12/2020

THE PATH AHEAD AS ECONOMICS SHOWS THE WAY

As the global economy faces serious challenges due to the pandemic, demand for almost every product and services has dropped drastically. With dramatic fall in demand, prices across the world has also fallen generally.

At the same time, global debts have mounted to an unprecedented high level mainly driven by debt in the past to fuel the dramatic growth in Asia. Against the backdrop of committed borrowing cost and loan maturity nearing its due date (about US$11 trillion in bonds issued by Asian companies will mature by end of next year and 40% of the world’s riskiest debt are owed by Chinese corporates), businesses are generally facing strong headwind ahead.

With weaker pricing, businesses will find it difficult to meet their financial obligations. They will resort to lower spending and investments. Household will hold off their expenses due to uncertainty in the employment market, in particular.

For a business to stay on course and continue its journey ahead, it is important to;

1. Have a strategy on a profitability management plan. This plan is about knowing the key value creation levers that generates the greatest impact on your business. Pulling the right levers gives the greatest impact to the business. Through the profitability planning, it will show you the current and potential future impact and what you may do to your margins.

2. Build cost improvement projects. Successful companies deliver at least 3% cost reduction on their cost base year over year. This is a dedicated effort and systematic approach that delivers cost rationalization year over year with a team that apply improvement tools to the business with the right ex*****on on the value levers.

3. Develop a debt management process. A well-designed process uses scenario planning that allows the business to apply and understand leverage (debt) capacity and manage risk at the same time.

4. Conduct customer’s analytics. This allows a fresh perspective to know the customers again. Remember, the past customers would most probably have changed their buying habits. Knowing this new behaviour will provide you a step ahead to new revenue sources.

5. Know your business value. We are seeing more and more businesses seeking for equity partners. Be ready to demonstrate (especially in numbers) how your business creates value and despite the current challenges, what is the game plan of the company. With so much uncertainty around, investors will also look for the same safe harbour for their investment too.

The road ahead may be tough but with a strategic plan in place, businesses will have stronger control to steer ahead and come up a winner.

Feel free to connect with me or visit my webpage at: www.rvpcapital.com.sg on how we help businesses to create more value. Every business has its value, we make sure it’s more!

Specialist CFO

22/01/2022

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