FINANCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Sloane Business Management Consultants (SBMC) a division of Sloane International Investments Ltd (SIIL) provides business advisory and IT management consulting services to banking, investment, insurance, life & pensions and capital markets clients. Our consultants have a highly successful track record in converting strategy into realistic programme of change, and working with organizations to help implement practical solutions.
Our approach is driven by client demands and business imperatives. This is a necessity in an industry that must continually respond to regulatory initiatives while at the same time meeting the challenges of reducing costs, managing risk and enhancing the total customer experience, working in cost effective unison with a wide range of partners and product suppliers.
Sloane Business Management consultants is an independent consulting firm that understands the needs of clients in the financial services sector, shares their business aspirations and recognizes the challenges. Our consultants appreciate that in today’s complex business world, the best solutions are rarely available ‘off the shelf’ but come from experience, intelligent insight and creative thinking.
Sloane Business Management Consultants work in partnership with clients to supplement their management teams to assess situations, consider issues, identify options, plan change programmes and manage their effective introduction. Our services include:

• Programme governance, including programme and project management
• Electronic document and records management
• Business/IT function outsourcing
• Business transformation
• Aligning business and IT strategy

Programme governance, including programme and project management
We provide experienced consultants to formulate and deliver major programmes of change, using established practices to align investment more closely to strategic goals, enhance accountability for change delivery, improve the realization of business benefits and manage risk more effectively. Our expertise in the financial services sector includes:

• Programme managing the development and launch of new retail financial products
• Conducting programme assurance reviews for a major business change & IT investment
• Providing coaching and mentoring to banking staff to improve the effectiveness of their project managers
• Undertaking a ‘project recovery’ exercise and restoring a major project to good health

Electronic document and records management
EDRM covers the management of information (both structured and unstructured) as a corporate resource, ensuring that appropriate policies and procedures are in place. Information management also includes responding to the broad regulatory requirements. We employ a large number of consultants who are EDRM specialists and offer formal training programmes using the highly acclaimed AIIM courseware. Our EDRM activities include:

• Helping create enterprise-wide records management strategies
• Undertaking a Document and Records Management project prompted by Sarbanes-Oxley

Business/IT function outsourcing
Our consultants assess the business function outsourcing opportunity and examine the viability of forming an outsourcing relationship. We assist with implementation, including the structuring of service level agreements and provide help in managing the outsourcing contract. Sloane Business management Consultants also provides ‘health checks’ and reviews of existing arrangements and offers support for the reintroduction in to the main business of a previously outsourced service. Our experience includes:

• Implementing outsourcing arrangements for third party administration
• Reviewing potential outsourcing arrangements for a major financial institution

Business transformation
We achieve cost effective and efficient methods of working by redesigning operational processes both within and external to the organization. At the same time our consultants normally review and determine appropriate technology solutions. This may involve straight-through processing to deliver cost savings by streamlining the flow of information from customers through sales channels to back-office and outsourced processes. Our work includes:

• Performing a business process re-engineering project across all aspects of sales, document production, supplier interfaces, accounting and compliance
• Defining new service level agreements and redesigning business processes between a financial services organization and one of its clients

Aligning business and IT strategy
Our consultants work with senior management to enable information and technology within the organization to work effectively together, delivering tangible business value. We are also skilled in helping improve the effectiveness of both development and production environments using frameworks such as CMMI and ITIL. Examples include:

• Implementing a new quality management regime into a large and sophisticated IT organization
• Improving the performance and effectiveness of a large-scale IT function by introducing significant process improvements

Enyinnaya Nnamdi
Sloane International Investments Ltd
C.E.O
info_sloanebizconsultants@yahoo.com

Fiscal vs. Annual Planning

Annual, or calendar, planning means preparing financial reports and forecasts to cover a calendar year, such as 2011. Fiscal planning means selecting a 365-day period, such as Sept. 1, 2010, through Aug. 31, 2011. While a firm technically could record historical financial accounts over one period but make future plans and forecasts over another, it is simpler and more common to use a consistent "financial year."

1. Pros of Fiscal
   
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     A business that experiences seasonal demand may find fiscal planning more suitable. This is because the time it receives revenue from sales and the time it spends money to make the relevant products will be distinct and could even be in different calendar years. Selecting a suitable fiscal year makes it easier both to assign specific expenses to specific sales and to apply the lessons learned from one "cycle" for future planning.
   Cons of Fiscal
   
   • 
     Using a fiscal year may make it more difficult to compare performance with other companies in a similar line of business that use either a different fiscal year or use the calendar year. This may be a particular problem for companies that deal in seasonal industries and want to see how well they performed against rivals over a particular season, or want to take account of their likely competition in a forthcoming season.
   Pros of Annual/Calendar
   
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     A sole proprietor may find the calendar year system simpler, as this usually allows him to calculate business profits or losses on the same time basis as calculating other elements of his personal income for tax purposes. Indeed, a sole proprietor or partnership usually has to specifically justify using a fiscal year to the IRS.
     A business that employs staff usually has to file annual wage reports for tax purposes on a calendar year basis. Using the calendar year for all financial records on forecasts thus streamlines the process.
   Cons of Annual/Calendar
   
   • 
     Because January 1 through December 31 is inherently the most popular choice of a financial year, businesses that use external accountants may find it more difficult to get a quick service at a favorable price if they use the calendar year system.

Enyinnaya Nnamdi
Sloane Business Management Consultants
CEO
info_sloanebizconsultants@yahoo.com

STARTING A PROFITABLE CARGO BUSINESS

Domestic cargo business has become one of the most successful enterprises in Nigeria in recent times. The growing need to send both retail and bulk goods by air within the country has contributed to the success of the business. And this has encouraged many to go into it.
Mr. Sola Dada, a 34-year old graduate, was almost getting frustrated after being in the labour market for six years. He was introduced to the business a few years ago. Today, he has a success story to tell.
Operators say you can go into the business with just a little amount of money and expect to start doing well almost immediately, if you are literate and enterprising.
The Managing Director, Ose‘s Transactions Nigeria Limited, Mr. Emma Odia, says many people have become successful by running the domestic cargo agency, which he describes as a flourishing business.
Odia, who is also the President, Domestic Airport Cargo Agents Association, says there are numerous clients seeking to send consignments (goods) to various parts of the country by air, especially from Lagos.
Most goods from overseas coming into the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, are usually transferred to the cargo section in the domestic wing for onward airlifting to other states especially Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kano, Yola, Abuja, and Owerri.
Apart from this, the DACAA leader says there are many organisations with offices in Lagos seeking to send their products and other cargoes to stations and offices in other parts of the country.
Explaining how the business works, the union leader says, ”Running a domestic cargo agency is a good business because operators live on commission. It works by receiving consignments (goods to be sent by air) from organisations and sometimes individuals on certain rates, usually calculated in naira per kilogrammes on the weight of the goods.
”As an agent, the airlines help you to convey these goods by charging you lower rates. The difference in the rates is what you get as your commission.”
While outlining the starting steps, Odia explains, ”Starting a domestic cargo agency is very easy. Anyone with a certificate of incorporation of his company can then become a member of the association by paying a membership registration fee of N250,000. From this amount, N50,000 is meant for registration form, and is non-refundable.
”The next step is to have an operations office located inside the Lagos airport‘s cargo section. This is acquired by paying the sum of N250,000 to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria as an annual rent.”
Learning the basic rudiments of the business is very easy, according to Odia.
He says the cargo agents either learn from colleagues in the same line of business as they try to get along or they may register at any of the aviation schools located around to acquire the knowledge. This, he says, takes just a few weeks. One of such schools is the Landover Aviation Business School in Lagos.
However, a major challenge currently facing the business, according to the DACAA leader, is the inadequate number of airlines ready to carry the consignments to their destinations.
He points out that for some reasons, Aerocontractors, which used to carry most consignments, has suspended operations, leaving only Chanchangi, Air Nigeria and IRS airlines to do the job.
The development, he says, has led to congestion at the cargo section as the remaining airlines cannot cope with the high demand. He notes that many of the agents, with the permission of the goods owners, are now forced to move some of the consignments by road.
The Managing Director, PTP Nigeria Limited, Mr. Jonathan Eghoboi, another operator, lists various items usually sent in retails and bulk by most clients to include laptops, computer systems, handsets, clothes, bags, communication equipment, electronics and companies‘ perishable and consumable products.
He lists some of the companies which usually send goods at the cargo section of MMA to include Globacom, Conoil, Mobil, Punch Nigeria Limited, AIT and MITV.
”One interesting thing is that apart from these Nigerian companies sending cargoes to other parts of the country mostly from Lagos, Nigerian and foreign traders importing goods from South Africa, Dubai, Hong Kong, Malasia and other countries depend on us to carry them by air to places like Abuja, Jos, Yola and Calabar among others.” he adds
Eghoboi says, ”The way you package your business will determine the extent to which you want to win big clients. Today, there are people who started small just a few years ago and they now have over 82 staff members, and offices located in most major airports in the country.”
An average of N120 per kilogramme on goods is charged, depending on the airline to be used. It is also important to note that the rate depends on the states and distance involved in the movement of the goods. What is charged in Abuja, for instance, is different from the rate in Yola.
The Managing Director, BOHMAT Ventures, Mr. Mathew Oboh, an agent, who says he ventures into the business five years ago, notes that there is nothing the agents do not send by air except arms, chemicals, inflammable substances and drugs.
He says the business is quite lucrative and anyone who is enterprising could become a successful operator in no time.

Enyinnaya Nnamdi
Sloane International Investments Ltd
C.E.O
info_sloanebizconsultants@yahoo.com
sloanebusinessmanagementconsultants.blogspot.com

How to Start a Small Scale Business

Starting a small scale business is a lot like falling in love. It grows on you. Sometimes you may not fancy the person that much, but as you get to know and interact with the person more, they grow on you, and before long, your heart starts to skip a beat.
You do not need a clash of cymbals, roll of drums, thunder and lightning flashes to get your business started. You may not even be thinking of starting a business in the first place. It often starts with your hobby or pet project. Something you have loads of fun doing on the side. You cannot wait to get back from work to jump on it. You are at work or school, but your mind keeps straying to it.
All it takes to move it to the next level is seriousness and commitment. Seriousness in improving your skills through practice and exposure, and commitment in finishing what you started. This may lead you to start a business or build your name into a brand. Somewhere along the line, it grows into a business. Maybe you are building a prototype of a machine that will change the way we do things, taking your cooking or sewing to the next level, compiling a volume of poems, writing a book, songs or film script, creating a masterpiece, composing a song, whatever it is that makes your heart race and soar. A business creates a platform for you to give the world what you’ve got.
At the beginning, you are just pottering around and having fun. You have no intention of going public or turning this into a business. You are just doing what you love. Somewhere down the line, as your product or service begins to make impact, it dawns on you, or you keep getting the comment “why don’t you turn this into a business”, the seed is sown in your mind, and the idea begins to grow.

Enyinnaya Nnamdi
Sloane International Investments Ltd
C.E.O
info_sloanebizconsultants@yahoo.com

How to Prepare Your Management Team for an Acquisition

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How to Prepare Your Management Team for an Acquisition

by Nnamdi Enyinnaya on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 7:28am

While the deal makes sense on paper, you know it's never that easy to pull off, which is why you'll need your management team prepped to make it happen as smoothly as possible.

Your business, unlike your competition, is doing well and growing. Or, perhaps your growth has reached a lull and you'd like to rectify that. In fact, everywhere you turn you see opportunity—something you'd like to capitalize on by acquiring another company that will expand your product or service in some way. However, buying a business is never as simple as it sounds.

"Integrating an acquired business is always a challenge, and poor integration is the leading factor for a failed acquisition,"  managing director of Orion Capital Group in Menlo Park, California, who has been a part of some 50 acquisitions on both sides of the ledger. "In most cases, the strategy people on the buyer's side have [results in] a difficult time demonstrating to middle and upper management why this deal makes strategic sense, especially if they were left out of the decision-making and planning process. It's like buying a brand new shiny red $200,000 Ferrari without telling your spouse and then trying to explain how he or she is going to love driving it."

The key to successful integration, SILL says, is getting your management team involved in planning properly for what happens after the deal is closed. In other words, buyers tend to get stuck thinking about how to close the deal rather than thinking ahead in terms of how they plan to integrate their new acquisition so that it can deliver on all the spreadsheet promises. Waiting makes sense at one level because many buyers want to wait until the deal closes and "the ink is dry," says SIIL, before they spend the time and social capital involved in completing the merger. But waiting too long can spell disaster as you could face a full-scale revolt from a management team that feels something has been dumped in their laps. That means, therefore, that to pull off a successful acquisition with the help of your entire team, you'll need to walk a fine line between starting too early or waiting too long to get everyone's buy in.

SIIL says it makes sense to wait until you think it's about 50 percent certain that the deal will go through (you should be well past the letter of intent/term sheet stage, for instance) before beginning your full-court press to get your entire team involved in making the acquisition a success.

What follows are some other pointers from SIIL on how you can prepare your management team to buy a business:

Go Downstream
When you're confident the deal is going to happen, it's time to start looping in the people that will be managing the new business on the details of when and how the deal is going to be completed.  When you have their buy-in, the planning downstream is likely to go more smoothly.

Be Transparent
When talking to your managers, be crystal clear about the strategic reason(s) you're making the acquisition.  This will enable them to understand why the acquisition is critical to the current and future success of both companies.

Use Incentives to Maintain Focus
When an acquisition looms, it can take your management team's focus away from running the day-to-day business. One solution can be to create incentives, financial or otherwise, that will reward your managers for meeting both short- and long-term goals associated with the performance of the acquisition.

Unleash the Hounds
If you were waiting for any one stage at which to get your management team actively involved in the acquisition, let it be the stage at which you begin the due diligence, the nitty-gritty analysis of whether the potential acquisition is all that its owners claim it is. There are a few areas in particular where your managers can shed light on problems or future liabilities that, tackled early, could save your company countless dollars and headaches.

• IT:  One of the reasons a deal may not be successful is that the cost of standardizing IT platforms across both companies and retraining one of the companies may make integration too costly. That's why you'll want to put your IT manager on the case to evaluate the compatibility between the two systems.
• HR:  Another reason an integration may fail is because of a mismatch in corporate cultures.  "Corporate cultures are very difficult to change and so it is important to ensure the two companies are similar," says SIIL, which is why it's so valuable to get your HR managers involved. Another key strength they'll bring is the ability to analyze how personnel at both companies are compensated. If the target company employees currently receive higher compensation than your employees, for instance, a significant cut in pay or benefits might prompt them to leave after the acquisition. If the target company employees currently receive lower compensation that your employees, a significant raise will shrink the net profit of the target company. If payrolls aren't too out of line, however, you can then have your HR management team put a plan together to even the differences out.
• Accounting:  Your accounting managers will be able to determine if extra people or software are needed to bring the acquisition's books up to your own accounting standards. That's an important question to assess because the extra cost of people or software would need to be invested by your company after the deal closes.
• Operations:  "It is important for the operations people to understand how the company is going to be managed after the acquisition," says SILL, which means getting them to answer questions such as, "Will the facilities of the two companies merge or remain separate? This is an important consideration in determining if there are excessive employees or managers after the acquisition and where the space will come from if the facilities merge.
• Sales and Marketing:  Getting your sales and marketing representatives involved in the acquisition process is essential because these are the people that will be selling the new products or services that come with the new company. That means you'll need to assess their buy-in by getting them to answer questions such as: Do they feel they can sell the new products or services with the existing ones? Are there benefits of selling them together? Does the new company hurt your brand?

SIIL suggests leaving ample time after you have agreed to a purchase agreement to allow your management team to get involved in the analysis process. "While there is some risk with this, it allows the buyer to be fully prepared on their integration actions once it has been announced to the world and the employees," he says, adding that you also need to make sure that you make time to discuss with IT, HR, Accounting, Operations, and Sales managers each of their specific plans on how they plan on integrating the respective functions of the new company.

Because acquisitions can be very complex and time-consuming, SILL also suggests that some companies might benefit from hiring an outside adviser who can help shepherd them through the stickiest of steps in closing a deal and then help iron out any wrinkles that might arise as the two companies begin to merge.


Enyinnaya Nnamdi
Sloane International Investments ltd
CEO
info-sloanebizconsultants@yahoo.com