Horwath Bastow Charleton Limerick

The need

Many clients recognise that they cannot take their business to the next level on their own. They require something from the outside – more market impact, more know-how, more management depth, more finance, more credibility, higher profile, cheaper inputs and increased capacity.

Do you feel that your business needs to:

Hire a high-achiever to lead or professionalize one area of your business.
Reorganise your management structures and top management roles.
Find a strategic partner or alliance to survive or grow.
Develop an IP strategy to protect, roll out or exploit your know-how.
Secure an agency, licence, lease, brand, distributorship or other rights for your marketplace.
Develop a franchise strategy to roll out your business into new markets.
Secure a franchise for your marketplace.
Grant share options or similar rights to key personnel.

Each of these areas involves leveraging major intangible assets (people and their skills and experience) as an essential part of your business strategy. These events are far more significant for your capital and business ownership than the day-to-day HR, sales and marketing, purchasing or other operational matters.

Typically they have tax and other financial and ownership implications which require financial expertise. More importantly, you need a credible experienced business advisor to help structure the proposition and corroborate your attractiveness to the other party. At the same time, you need advice in not giving too much away or entering into “millstone” arrangements that you may struggle to get out from under should the initiative fail.

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Strategic alliance/partners

The benefits of a strategic partner or a strategic alliance are obvious. However, finding the right partner and delivering on the benefits are major challenges. As with all corporate transactions it is essential to identify what you need and we at Horwath Bastow Charleton Limerick will advise you on how to get it.

Franchising is a popular way of getting into business and for quickly growing a business with minimum financial investment. We have been involved in a number of cases on both sides of the relationship. But franchising is only one possible option; a joint venture or strategic alliance may better suit your needs.

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Key executive recruitment

As strategic advisors to our clients, we are frequently asked to assist in the recruitment of key members of senior management. We are more than happy to participate in these processes.

Looking back, some of the most valuable single inputs we have had to our clients has been in encouraging them to raise the recruitment stakes and hire at a higher level than heretofore.

By encouraging and implementing the recruitment of CEOs, Business Unit Leaders, Finance Directors, Marketing Directors, Chief Operating Officers and HR/Administration Directors, we have helped our clients to take a major step forward in their business.

Often we have had to overcome the scepticism of the client and sometimes the candidates in believing that a privately held, family-owned or partnership business offers a satisfactory career path or rewarding challenge to a high-achiever.

We have seen clients and candidates alike gradually come to the realisation that the latter type of business usually offers a much more fulfilling and rewarding combination of:

Dynamic, front-line engagement with the marketplace.
A whole-of-business management requirement.
Access to and participation in decision making and influence.
Real opportunities to participate in investment, wealth- and profit-generation.
Feeling part of something that matters to you and your team.
Good remuneration – which can often track performance upwards without the constraints of “corporate” bonus structures.

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Broadening shareholder base

Sooner or later most business people face the possibility of taking on another shareholder or giving an outsider the opportunity of owning some capital in their business. This can arise for motivational reasons, defensive reasons, succession reasons, as a reward or simply to drive growth. It is a very big step, once taken it is difficult and costly to reverse.

Analysing the first principles are key,

What do you want to achieve?
How do you value the stake?
How do you protect against future problems – or can you?
How do you deal with a future exit, retirement or death?
When implemented, what impact will the change have on existing shareholders, family members, and management?

Like all processes, these dealings need to be carefully managed and one of the great benefits of having a good advisor is that you remain in control. Horwath Bastow Charleton Limerick can play a vital role in searching for, approaching, negotiating and structuring a deal that suits your circumstances. We will work with you every step of the way to ensure that you get the deal you are looking for!

The whole process is highly sensitive and is charged with commitment and trust issues.

If shareholding is to be broached with another party, it is important that it is done right from the start. The wrong initial approach may lead to mismatched expectations, inability to deal or giving too much away.

In spite of all the pitfalls, ownership is extremely powerful. Many successful businesses recognise that broadening the shareholder base proved to be the beginning of new and better things and one of the major milestones in the growth of their business.

At Horwath Bastow Charleton Limerick we can provide the advice necessary to optimise your business structure and growth. We will work hand-in-hand with your solicitors in order to ensure that you are satisfied every step of the way.

Before you enter discussions on giving shares to others, take expert advice. Ensure that your approach is well thought through from the start. Effective planning is the key to success.

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Credentials

Our team has a great deal of experience areas such as:

Attracting high achievers to the management of family-owned or early-stage business.
Structures that permit key management to participate in ownership and profits without destabilising the ownership of the business in the long term.
Making successful pitches for international and national agencies, brands, licences, and franchises.
Developing franchising, licensing and royalty structures in rolling out business models.
Joint venture agreements, partnership agreements, management contracts, leases and all forms of engagement for mutual market success.

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Features of our service

We bring a number of unique characteristics to the table:

Commitment to enabling our clients to compete on an even footing with large multinational and national players when competing for top management, agencies, licences, franchises, etc.
Hands-on involvement and lending of resources and professionalism to your bid/ pitch that you cannot have in-house – while at the same time letting you lead the process (we remain advisors; it is the client that must consummate the engagement).
Multinational and overseas experience of how business is done at the highest levels leading to successful engagement with other parties.
Deeply resourced, highly professional and authoritative analysis, research and presentation of the business case.

Because of the importance of key strategic appointments to our clients and to our ability to play a major part in the strategic development of our clients, we have invested in our recruitment consultant capabilities to include:

Best-practice recruitment methodologies.
Alignments with a number of key executive and financial
recruiters to ensure access to high quality candidates.
Expert drafting of job specifications.
Advertising copywriting, design and placement of recruitment advertisements.
Targeted executive search.
Confidential search and advertising.

Recruitment consulting is not an everyday assignment for us. We do not seek volume in this area. We do not compete with normal recruitment agencies. We carry out key strategic hires in financial management and business strategy and leadership. We work side-by-side with the client. When we take on a campaign for a client, we give it a lot of partner time and a great deal of thought.

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Benefits to client of hiring us

In all of the above circumstances, you can be assured that we will:

Ensure that your proposition is presented persuasively so that you have the best possible chance of success.
Bring professionalism and credibility to the process.
Protect your interests.

For further information contact:

Con Quigley

E: cquigley@hbcl.ie

Brian McEnery

E: bmcenery@hbcl.ie