Hannover Blog

Paper for Saint Mary’s University This is a question I am often asked, especially by students who are not finance majors but take Corporate Finance 643 as an elective. Perhaps they intend to go into other business areas: HR, Operations, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, or IT. For many of them, finance is a mysterious dark-matter hole

Finance is a mission-critical function for any company. The financial pressures on companies are never-ending throughout their life cycle, whether they are in early-stage development, mid-stage growth, turnaround, or late-stage exit.  It is critical that any company has a comprehensive and detailed Financial Management System.  This will underpin all of the other management systems within

Litigation may seem like one of the unavoidable risks of business life, but there are a number of ways that a business can reduce and mitigate that risk.  Given the significant costs, turmoil and distraction of litigation, and the possibility of losing in trial or settlement, it is important to understand some of the measures

You already know that your company needs a constant infusion of capital, especially in a capital-intensive industry like manufacturing.  But let’s explore that issue further. Why Do You Need Capital? As a capital-intensive business, you will need capital for: (a) Working capital – routine on-going needs for materials inventory, financing works-in-process, marketing expenses and operating

As a manufacturer, you periodically assess your needs and opportunities for outsourcing all or some of your manufacturing.   In the last couple of decades, the choice for many U.S. manufacturers has been Asia, first China and now increasingly other countries in SE Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.  But let’s not overlook our neighbor

Struggling with Cash Flow in a Time of Crisis As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on, it is clear that businesses need to change tactics in order to survive this crisis. With sales down, cashflow tight, and no end in sight, small business owners have to figure out how to get cash flowing back into their

What is the long-term impact of the COVID pandemic on business, on our society, on our governmental systems?   A number of people have observed that this pandemic poses an international and existential threat to our society.  It is not enough to simply state that we are very possibly going to have a major economic

There has been a lot of discussion since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis on the need for small-medium size businesses (SMBs) to re-open and re-start.  However, there are some very difficult and complex issues to understand in this directive; it is not simply a matter of an SMB opening its doors again.     Current