, ,

Can you handle the IPO tsunami?

Executives who take on an IPO ride a long and sometimes unpredictable wave from start to finish. There’s all the debate over whether going public is part of the company’s grand plan, when to make the move, how the business will be valued, and then—the part that most people overlook—the arduous journey after the Wall Street debut.

Is your company able to take on the ups and downs of going public and then actually being a public company?

A lot of senior leaders are asking that question—or should be—in our region. It’s an especially hot time for life sciences companies on the IPO track in the Bay Area. The industry is riding a “three-year wave of renewed Wall Street interest,” and a relatively high number intend to go public soon. Fast-track tech companies and the $1 billion “unicorns” topping the news are adding to the talk about an active market.

From the moment the company decides to forge ahead with going public through the year or two after the actual offering, there are lot of adjustments and transitions in store. What’s the difference between companies that achieve success and those that falter (from embarrassing restatements and miscommunications with investors)? It’s all in the preparation, it seems.

By getting some essentials done early on, companies can navigate the choppy waters that come with taking on such a huge transaction—and the onslaught of new work and expansive demands that come with it. In that multi-year period before and after going public, most companies face a whirlwind of change and a supercharged environment of employees learning new ropes, processes and systems, and everyone is having to dealing with a higher level of scrutiny. There’s a new mindset required and a whole slew of financial and legal requirements to handle.

Companies that are facing an IPO should be prepared to:

• Get their financial house in order if they haven’t already.

• Ready their financial accounting and reporting for maximum valuation and for a new class of investors.

• Review the finance team’s skills sets and consider what new skills should be brought in to the fold, and when. You need someone who has been there, done that.

• Accept that “being” a public company is different than going public, and that in some ways, the real work begins after the actual IPO.

An IPO is a pivotal moment in a company’s lifecycle, and it helps to be as prepared as possible. It can also be a bumpy ride unless you have a navigational guide.

Don’t miss our one-hour online webinar on August 6 to dig into this meaty topic. Senior Consultant Diana Gilbert, who leads the Technical Accounting Group at RoseRyan, will be joined by Matthew Rossiter, Partner at Fenwick & West LLP, and Susan Berland, Consultant, Finance & Strategy, as they lay out the course for IPO-bound companies in “Smooth Sailing for a Successful IPO” at 1 p.m. PST. To register for this webinar for companies contemplating or going public, visit our registration page: http://bitly.com/ipoaug6.

Want even more? Get RoseRyan’s series of reports for IPO-bound companies: IPO in Your Future?, Ensuring a Smooth Ride as a Newly Public Company, and The IPO Journey: 6 Potential Obstacles to Avoid for a Smooth Trip.

/by
,

How to earn a spot on the “Top Workplaces” list: 3 tips on employee engagement

Foosball tables in a company break room only go so far in fostering employee interaction and loyalty. If employees don’t feel a strong connection to their company, its future and their role in it, they’ll eventually step away from the foosball handles and polish up their résumés.

best_places_to_work_BANG_Portrait_2015_AWThis is a constant issue throughout Silicon Valley and San Francisco as well as our industry. In the midst of the talent war in the finance and accounting field, it is paramount to keep employees engaged and inspired. Well, we must be doing something right, as RoseRyan was just named to the prestigious Top 100 Workplaces list by the Bay Area News Group. Based on confidential employee surveys, the competition revealed that our team believes that RoseRyan has very strong organizational health and rate their jobs well. Overall, they gave the firm a big, fat thumbs-up.

Our team gave our organizational health very high marks, helping RoseRyan stand above the benchmark group in many respects. RoseRyan’s results were really high in the areas of overall strategy, ethics/values and confidence in leadership, and we achieved rave reviews in the areas of efficiency and execution.

What’s worked for us? Here are three hot tips we can humbly offer up:

Forge connections: Since our folks are predominantly out at client sites across the Bay Area and beyond, we double our efforts to keep people feeling connected with one another. Our setup has led to tight bonds among peers as well as between consultants and the client managers who oversee our engagements. Gurus who need some backup are able to quickly and easily reach out to the entire team, so the “collective intelligence” really comes to life. Teammates who know and trust each other can get things done so much more quickly than those who don’t.

And there are so many ways to stay connected. Technology helps break down the barriers of space and time, as text, chat, Skype, social, phone and email keep us connected. But those things have limitations. Real time spent face to face with people is always optimal. Lunches and happy hours with other employees, clients and partners are particularly fun for forging friendships and trading talk. These meetups are popular times to connect, sort through the business and swap great stories. Our volunteer activities with colleagues at food banks, childhood literacy agencies and backpack drives help support our community. The wine club, book club, fun runs and other activities are still more ways to give employees the chance to enjoy shared hobbies or a personal cause together.

Keep everyone informed: It’s important to actively manage the multiple streams of communication to keep the team up to date—such as email communiqués, videos, webinars, virtual fireside chats, all-hands meetings and social gatherings. Make it easy for folks to easily access all the material they need and know where to go for more. Every one of our managers enjoys chatting with employees live and over email for feedback, to gain input on strategy and to answer questions along the way—it is an open office world here, with genuine interest in hearing what’s on people’s minds.

RoseRyan employees feel well-informed about important decisions at the firm, according to the survey results, way more than their peers at other firms. Our employees believe that senior managers know what is really happening. The results were great to hear, because we work hard at developing a culture of open and honest communications.

Focus on execution: That sounds cliché, yet it remains so true. RoseRyan scored extremely high in overall execution, far outpacing firms we were benchmarked against. It’s a gratifying finding since that’s how we roll: we revel in jumping into fast-moving companies, picking the best practices that suit the situation, tailoring a few tools and melding it all together with our years of expertise from having worked with over 700 clients. By having swift and steady execution as a top priority and part of our DNA, we help clients move on to the next stage of the business lifecycle quickly and efficiently. Employees really relish the satisfaction of a job well done.

We’re thrilled to be named as a “Top Workplace” in the Bay Area. The recognition builds awareness, adds to our solid reputation and will naturally help our recruiting efforts this year. It’s a talent war out there, and the best candidates will gravitate to the firms that have leaders who lead, corporate cultures that inspire and truly live their values, and teams that work together like a well-oiled machine. That’s us.

For more information about the Top Workplaces in the Bay Area, see our press release. And to inquire about a career at RoseRyan, reach out to our talent manager, Michelle Hickam, at [email protected]. And just so you know, our workforce gets to work at some of the hottest Bay Area companies, so if you work with RoseRyan, you can still score the occasional foosball game.

/by