After more than 15 years of a happy and fulfilling career in the corporate world, I am now contemplating a career leap toward Business Valuation
I am living this journey with enthusiasm and passion. The first step of the transition started with my subscription as an active member of the Canadian Institute of Business Valuators https://cbvinstitute.com and I am studying to obtain the title of chartered business valuator. Studying with CBV Institute is one of the best decision of my academic history.
I am also a member of various Forums and Groups on LinkedIn specialized in business valuation. Recently I attended many networking events and planning to attend more in order to build a network of professionals sharing my passion for one of the most rigorous and challenging professional niche of finance.
It is usually said that Business Valuation is a mix of Art, Science and Finance. I am naturally gifted with the artistic acumen; I am working hard to acquire the technical knowledge through the CBV Institute program, and I am also able to demonstrate a set of transferable skills acquired in the corporate world. The above pillars combined with a practical experience as a business valuator will definitely set me to succeed.
I am enthusiastic and ready to go through the pain that this might generate.
I have worked in the finance departments of many company across various industries:
Controller in an the aviation and ground handling industry with (http://www.swissport.com),
Accountant, Senior AR analyst and Project Coordinator in the Logistics and transportation industry https://www.maersk.com/),
Regional Administration & Finance Director in the advertising industry with https://www.iconprodafrica.com/,
Finance Manager in the tobacco industry with http://www.BAT.com,
Senior Analyst Financial Planning & Analysis in the distribution industry with http://www.grtouchette.com/,
Senior Analyst Financial Planning & Analysis in the Home security where I was also supporting the acquisition and valuation of dealers https://www.adt.ca/fr
Finance Manager in the beer and Fast Moving consumer Goods industry with http://molsoncoors.com/en.
My career in the corporate world gave me the opportunity to make some great achievements, the most distinctives that can be listed here include among others.
- The coordination of the finance agenda of the change of business model of British American tobacco in Congo.
- The tobacco industry in Congo is commoditized due to the local low purchasing power. Consumers are essentially price sensitive, therefore the price point was the key enabler of the trade competition. Other players in the industry were importer of cigarette from surrounding countries. The excise tax structure was a mix system (a fixed dollar amount + a percentage of the dead net cost for local manufacturers) and totally unfair to local manufacturers. This unfairness allow an importer with higher margin resulting from lower taxation to maintain a lower selling price. The only way for BAT to compete effectively and achieve the growth target was to change the business model and align with the competitors. As a matter of consequence, we moved the production to a more efficient factory (Kenya) and were able to grow aggressively in volume, market share and profitability. It was a difficult decision to close the factory in Congo and lay down 500 workers, but that was the only way to protect the shareholders’ interests.
- Manage the transition to a shared service Model with Molson Coors Brewery in Quebec
- It is a fact that big corporations achieve more operational, process and system efficiency through business share services. Molson Coors brewery has simply set it to that standard and I was happy to join the company in Quebec as a finance manager and oversaw the transition of the accounting department and other customer support function (Trade rebates team and the AR management team (overall 30 positions ranging from senior Analyst to accountant). My role also included the stabilization of the business model as well as the improvement of various accounting processes, the compliance to internal control, SOX and revenue recognition policies. During my tenure in that role the company was awarded a satisfactory internal audit opinion after more than 10 years as a result of various improvements that was done by the finance team across various key processes of the company.
- Drove the strategic expansion of a marketing agency across 7 countries.
- As the regional Administration & Finance Director, I supported the growth strategy of the agency allowing it to growth from 2 to 7 countries in 2 years. I drove the financial agenda behind that expansion and was actively involved in business development initiatives in a BtoB context. I was leading a team of 14 finance staff and approximately 700 people in my administration role .
- Supported the national transformation of the Order to Cash processes of Molson Coors brewery across Canada
- I reviewed, drafted and supported the deployment of a new credit policy and drove the improvement and the digitization of the related Order to cash processes
For the purpose of this article I have not listed here the routine tasks (Financial analysis, Financial modelling, budgeting, reporting, financial statement preparation and analysis etc…. attached to my previous employments as a finance and business partnering professional.
Business Valuation is my passion! Knowing the meaning of value make me a better finance manager and a visionary decision support professional. I am updating my skills and improving my learning curve in order to deliver any business valuation and advisory request with accuracy, meet and exceed the expectation of the client in a buy or sell scenario, provide superior service in a litigation or damage quantification mandate in an advisory role.
My business valuation skills will also booster my ability to support organic and non-orgarnic growth in any organisation by driving M&A projects from the identification of the targeted company, through synergies quantification, value estimate, due diligence and post-acquisition integration.
Dear reader, do you have any advise or recommendations for me, please drop your comments below.
Thanks for reading.