Ridge Hill Consulting provides strategic advisory services to corporations and boards of directors. Some examples of projects are:
Advisor to the CEO
Situation: A chief executive officer and his board of directors had mutually decided it was time for him to step down from his current position but could not agree on his future role or his exit package.
Project: Ridge Hill was brought in by the CEO to negotiate with the chair of the compensation committee. As an outsider, Ridge Hill was able to lower the level of emotion on both sides of the table and get the parties to concentrate on the CEO departure’s impact on the company, the investors, and the customers. From the CEO’s perspective, it was important the economics and title were acceptable.
Result: The CEO remained Chair of the Board and received a severance package paid out over a time period acceptable to both sides. The initial request for a large additional cash payment was traded for a longer exercise period on outstanding stock options. To the employees, customers and investors this was positioned as an orderly management transition.
Sale of Private Company
Situation: A private company did not have an obvious succession plan and the owners decided to test the market to see if the company could be sold at an acceptable price.
Project: Ridge Hill worked with the owners and management team to: prepare an offering memorandum; develop a list of possible strategic and financial buyers; contact potential buyers, answer initial questions, and arrange for company visits; gather anticipated due diligence materials; and manage the final offer process.
Result: After receiving a number of offers in the desired range, worked with the sellers to evaluate all aspects of the offers from both strategic and financial buyers, including the ongoing role of the sellers with the business. The transaction was successfully completed.
Strategy Review
Situation: The board of directors did not feel it had a good sense of the long term strategy of the business.
Project: Ridge Hill was brought in to work with the management team to prepare for an off-site session with the board of directors to discuss the future direction of the company. This entailed meeting separately with the different departments, facilitating discussions between departments where there were differences of opinion in the allocation of resources, and working with the entire management team to develop a strategy overview and consensus on the issues to be raised with the board for further discussion.
Result: At a successful off-site strategy session the management team discussed with the board of directors the challenges and opportunities faced by the company and the trade-off between aggressively investing in organic growth vs. acquisitions. At the suggestion of Ridge Hill, the session was also used as an opportunity to showcase some of the high potential junior managers by allowing them to make presentations.
For more information, contact Pamela:
info@ridgehillconsulting.com
Ridge Hill Consulting, LLC
22 Pheasant Landing Road
Needham, MA 02492
Phone: 781-449-9665
Fax: 781-444-0634