Rapidly growing companies can rapidly outgrow their financial systems and practices. Matching costs to revenue streams, managing multiple currencies or bolting together different divisions can suddenly get tangled.

If you attempt to run a one-off project with your existing team, you risk drawing them away from what they normally do or that they'll run into problems that they haven't seen before.

While it might be relatively straightforward to make the strategic decision to create a Shared Services Centre, actually running it is a different matter. Planning & implementing an SSC so that it really performs requires a specific skill & experience set

A traditional answer to improving efficiency in response to external conditions or to shape-up a new acquisition is to implement a severe slash and burn cost-cutting programme; but it doesn't have to be that way.

The FD or CFO is often guardian of a company's future, at the same time acts as the shock absorber, working out ways to deal with adverse conditions of today. When these two functions conflict, a helping hand can make all the difference.

It most certainly involves a first step of getting an impartial and pragmatic overview of what the problem actually is, from professionals who also know the kind of language with which to talk to banks.