Tuesday 24 March5:15pm - 6:45pm

Structured Learning Points

• Collective responsibility means that Board Members must have an understanding of financial information and its terminology

• Understanding the business's risk profile and how that aligns with your own attitude to risk

• Understanding where your Director responsibilities lie especially in the face of difficulties/crisis- lateral-thinking required to survive!

SpeakersJim Shaw Founder & Partner at leadingcorporate finance boutique Shaw & Co. A Chartered Accountant, Jim has completed over 70 M&A transactions valued at over £0.5bn.

Clare Beazley A highly experienced tech SME

sector CFO, Clare has steered 2 VC-backed software businesses. through start-up, growth and successful exit

Ololade Adesanya - Ololade is a Director in

EY’s Financial Services practice and sits on the Advisory Boards of Bristol City Funds and UWE’s Dept of Accounting and Finance.

Building Boards for 2020 Vision - Finance!ESSENTIAL Learning for Better Boards

Teams Online Meeting

Building Boards for the Future Finance for SMEs

Transpire – The Director Network | March 2020

Jim ShawManaging Partner, Shaw & Co

March | 2020

• 15 years of deal experience

• FCA qualified accountant, trained with PwC

• Led the sale of businesses with values between

£5m and £100m and collectively total value

transacted is in excess of £0.5bn

• Led MBO of VoucherCloud from Vodafone then its

onward sale to Groupon sat as FD

• Led sale of Pukka Herbs to Unilever after two years

on the board as observer

• NED at TorchlightGroup Ltd for three years

• Completed multiple Private Equity transactions

• South-West Young Dealmaker of the Year 2013

• Short listed South-West Dealmaker of the Year

2018

Basic Awareness

• (All) Directors are legally required to keep specific registers, books and records that reflect the operation of the business

• Establishment and management of reporting systems a responsibility of the board

• Ignorance is not an excuse

• Understanding the numbers is essential

• Using numbers is a competitive advantage

Let's talk about risk

• Financial risk is a matter of opinion

• Its essential that you talk with your fellow directors and possibly shareholders to form a collective view

• It is not the job of an NED to be a drogue on a business

• It is the job of an NED to ensure governance to an agreed risk frame work

• There is a line, there are hard rules about trading insolvently

Key Information

• Cash is king – encourage your board to invest and maintain shorth and medium-term cash flow forecasts

• Cash forecasting is a result of P&L forecasting and understanding the balance sheet

• Understand the risk to cash, scenario planning appropriate to the business

• Liabilities, actual and contingent - what is the position of the balance sheet

• Where do you make money? Where are you losing money?

What you must do

• Document your agreed approach to financial risk

• Be clear on the frequency of reporting required by the business. In crisis this might be weekly or daily

• Keep a paper trail, document decisions

• Take professional advice if in doubt

• Stick with it, rough comes with smooth and you won’t be criticised for doing the right thing

Questions