Corporate America December 2014

THE FORMULA FOR GROWTH + THE 3 WAYS TO FOLLOW THE MARKETS

Corporate America DECEMBER 2014 • WWW.CORPORATEAMERICA-NEWS.COM

Andy Khawaja The Face of Online Payments In the billion-dollar world of online transactions, one firm is leading the way. Allied Wallet, which today serves more than 100 million users globally, is the brainchild of Andy Khawaja, whose own rags-to-riches story is a lesson in how to build a thriving company in an extremely competitive environment.

We caught up with Khawaja to hear about his journey to business success and what he has planned for the future

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Contents 26

14

Feature

Feature

Is your business too slow to react to changing trends?

18 22

Feature

Loneliness Epidemic Amongst Leaders

Feature

Hedge Funds: A Stronger System?

Strategic Business Advisory May Hold the Cure.

Don Steinbrugge, Founder and Managing Partner of global hedge fund consulting and marketing firm Agecroft Partners, asks what will happen to the hedge fund industry if we experience a 2008-style market decline.

One of the biggest threats to businesses, regardless of the sector in which they are based, is complacency.

Just because you’ve had a particularly profitable 2014, that doesn’t necessarily mean whatever you’ve done this year will be a winning formula in five to ten years’ time.

36

News

The Formula for Growth

Personnel Profile

Helping Clients Win

We spoke to John Partilla, CEO of Olson, to find out more about the company and where it’s headed in the future.

By Grace Garland, writer for ExpertMarket.us

4

Feature

30

How to prepare for transatlantic expansion

Valuing a company is the easy part – creating that value in the first place so you have something to measure is a much more formidable task.

John Collard, turnaround professional and Chairman of Strategic Management Partners, Inc., tells us how creating a value equation can help build worth into a company.

50 Deals

56 40

Out of Office

City Focus

Colorado Springs

A new startup is launched every 72 hours in Colorado. Denver and Boulder have joined the list of the world’s fastest developing tech hubs, and business is also booming in Colorado Springs.

60 Calendar/ Planner

On the Cover 8

Personnel Profile Andy Khawaja We caught up with Khawaja to hear about his journey to business success and what he has planned for the future.

December 2014 • CorporateAmerica • 3

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News

Which Are the Happiest Companies in America?

Johnson & Johnson, Broadcom and Chevron Outrank Apple in Employee Happiness The multi-national medical device, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, has topped a list of America’s best places to work.

The 5th annual CareerBliss 50 Happiest Companies in America list, released by CareerBliss, the online information hub for employees, job seekers and recruiters. honors the top companies dedicated to creating happier work environments for their employees.

CareerBliss analyzed thousands of independent company reviews from visitors of CareerBliss.com to determine which companies have the happiest workers.

Following Johnson & Johnson on the list are Broadcom, Chevron, and, for the second year in a row, Texas Instruments, followed by McAfee at No. 5 and Google at No. 6.

Intuit, Adobe, Amgen and SAP round out the top 10.

CareerBliss evaluates eight key factors that affect work happiness, including: work-life balance, employees’ relationship with their boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, and company culture. The data also shows how much the employee values each factor.

Each review is given an average score indicating where the company places between one and five.

Reviews are gathered from employees who visited CareerBliss.com between 2013 and 2014. Reviews from thousands of companies were tabulated to find the CareerBliss Happiest Companies in America in 2015.

“Each year, CareerBliss evaluates the companies dedicated to creating happier work environments.

This year we saw a surge of STEM-related companies (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) rank in the top 10,” said Heidi Golledge, Chief Happiness Officer and Co-founder of CareerBliss.

“As we evaluate the factors that impact happiness such as growth opportunity and company culture, it is also important to understand what type of industries are creating happier work environments overall,” Golledge said.

CareerBliss advisor Bradley Brummel, said, “Not only do these industries pay well, but employees in STEM-related companies are happier in these jobs overall. This may reflect the positive features in the type of jobs these companies offer, but it also might reflect the fact that employees with these skills have lots of choices of whom to work for. This means the companies have to keep them happy to keep them at the company.”

Movers and Shakers: Voted Happiest Company in America in 2014, Pfizer dropped steeply from their No. 1 position, not even making the top 50 for 2015. Moving up the list was Google, climbing from a ranking of No. 18 last year to No. 6 this year. In a surprising fall, Apple ranked No. 14 last year but dropped to No. 50 for 2015.

“It is important to see how workplaces are constantly evolving and changing. Creating happiness at work is a very fluid process, building and adapting to a changing workforce, while accounting for the key factors that create happier environments,” said Golledge.

4 • CorporateAmerica • December 2014

More than 66% of Americans Still Favor Keeping the Penny Recent poll shows increasing penny support and concern about price increases if penny is eliminated A poll released today by Americans for Common Cents (ACC) continues to show overwhelming and increasing support for the penny by the American public. 68% of those surveyed favor keeping the penny in circulation, representing a slight increase since the last poll in 2012.

“These results confirm the strong and unwavering support the penny continues to receive from Americas,” said Mark Weller, Executive Director of ACC. Weller’s group includes more than 50 organizations that support continued production of the penny.

The poll found that nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) were concerned that without the penny merchants might use price rounding to raise prices. “The public understands that eliminating the penny would lead to a rounding process and cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in higher prices,” Weller said.

Confirming that the penny is an economic issue, the polling data showed that support for the penny was strongest among lower income groups. 71% of those earning $35,000 or less per year want to keep the penny. There is strong penny support among minorities with 75% of Hispanics and 77% of African Americans wanting to keep the coin. More women (73%) than men (62%) want to keep the penny.

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News

Investor Optimism Holds Steady at Seven-Year High Four in ten Americans are “more optimistic” about the economy in next 12 months post-election, while seven in ten investors believe they could save an additional median of $250 a month Despite stock market volatility this fall, the Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index, which includes 1,009 investors randomly selected from across the country, held steady in the fourth quarter, registering +48 in November, similar to the +46 measured in the third quarter.

Retiree optimism surged, rising 19 points to +54, driven by their more upbeat view of the economy than in prior quarters. Optimism among non-retired investors waned slightly, registering +46 in the fourth quarter, versus +50 in the third quarter.

Overall investor sentiment reflected a more positive outlook about personal financial situations rather than the broad economy.

The overall Investor and Retirement Optimism Index is now the highest it has been since 2007, following several years of gradual, steady increases.

The index is registering a value that is double what it was a year ago, and significantly higher than in November 2012, when it was -8. Still, it remains well below its +178 high point recorded in January 2000.

In a new question, investors were asked if the results of the November elections make them more optimistic about the economy: 43% say they are “more” optimistic, 29% say they are “less” optimistic and 28% say the elections have generated “no impact” on their outlook.

“While moving in the right direction, investor optimism and outlook regarding the economy are recovering at a snail’s pace rather than roaring back.

Another sentiment we see in this poll is a mixture of views on the availability of funds to save for retirement. A majority say they could save more on a monthly basis but, at the same time, a majority also thinks the top reason Americans struggle to save for retirement is the pressure of day-to-day bills. There are two realities people are dealing with as our country moves forward,” said Joe Ready, director of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust.

The survey of 1,009 investors was conducted November 14-23, less than a month after the midterm elections.

Investor Wariness about Financial Markets Is Easing More than three-quarters of those polled (78%) currently own stocks, versus 22% who do not. A little more than half (56%) of investors say that “now is a good time to invest” in the financial markets, up from 52% at the start of 2014. As recently as November 2012, the majority of investors said it was not a good time to invest. Notably, all of this quarter’s heightened confidence in the markets comes from retirees, 54% of whom say it’s a good time to invest in the markets, up from 44% last quarter. Non-retirees’ views virtually didn’t change, with 56% in the fourth quarter saying it is a good time to invest.

In a separate question, a minority (45%) of investors rate the financial markets as an “excellent” or “good” way for average Americans to grow their assets,

although this is an increase from 37% a year ago. A majority (55%) still rate the markets as “only fair” (38%) or “poor” (17%) for the average American.

“We are still living in an environment where there is much skepticism about whether investing in the stock market is a good way to grow assets. But, at the same time, we know that investors are in the market and they are actively contributing to 401(k) savings plans. Investors realize they control their retirement outcome, which is in part linked to stock market investing over the long term,” said Ready.

Investors Value the Autonomy of a 401(k) plan More than six in 10 (69%) non-retired investors have access to an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan, and 96% of those with access are actively contributing to their plan. Eighty-six percent say that their employer matches some part of their contributions, and 81% say this is “very important” in helping to save for retirement.

In a new question, non-retired investors were asked whether they prefer a “a 401(k)-type plan that you control and invest in, and which the company may contribute to, with the payout dependent on your plan’s performance” or “a company pension plan that provides you with a guaranteed income in retirement, with the payout dependent on your salary and how long you worked for your employer.”

Fifty-two percent of non-retired investors would choose the 401(k), versus 46% who would rather have the pension.

“I find this response to be one of the most enlightening of the study. In the world we live in today, the balance has shifted in terms of people viewing the 401(k) plan as the preferred vehicle for saving over a pension. Yes, it requires more work from the participant, but people like the flexibility and the autonomy the workplace plan provides.”

Non-retired investors say that after healthcare benefits, a retirement savings plan such as a 401(k) is the most important benefit their employer provides (61%), exceeding paid time off or sick leave (23%), life insurance (5%) and stock options (4%).

Investors make it clear that they do not want to cede all control over certain actions involving a 401(k) plan. While three-quarters would be in favor of a new employer automatically enrolling them in a 401(k) plan at the start of their employment, and 66% would want their employer setting up automatic increases for their contributions, fewer than half would favor their employer automatically rebalancing their investments each year (44%) or automatically making age-appropriate investment choices for them (41%).

Most employed investors with a 401(k) plan do rely on advice for the plan but are finding it from outside sources. About one in four (27%) say they rely on a professional advisor outside of work, and another 39% rely mainly on themselves or a friend or family member for help. Just 22% say most of their advice comes from the financial firm that runs their 401(k) plan, and 11% say they seek advice from their company’s benefits department or another financial professional where they work.

“People seek advice about their 401(k), and the industry needs to make it easier for participants to access advice. Investors rely on these plans and want to talk to people who can help them understand a proper savings rate, investment diversification, and concepts like longevity risk and income management. We have to be much more proactive as an industry in helping them make the right choices for their future,” added Ready.

Most Investors Could Save More, but Day-to-Day Bills Are a Major Pressure The poll also offers insight into whether people are saving more. About a third (32%) of investors says they have increased their savings for retirement in the last 12 months, while about two-thirds have not.

At the same time, 9% of non-retired investors — including 14% of those aged 18 to 39 – are not saving for retirement.

While about a quarter of non-retired investors say they could not possibly save any more each month, 69% believe they could save more. Among this group, the median additional amount they estimate they could save each month is $250, with 31% estimating they could save an additional $400 or more each month.

Among those who are saving, the average age non-retirees say they started saving is 29 — a decade into adulthood, and a good five or more years after most college graduates start working. Four in 10 (45%) non-retirees started saving at age 30 or older.

According to Ready, “It is heartening that about half of investors embraced the discipline of saving in their 20s, and I’d like to see that number increase.

We cannot emphasize enough the value of starting early to save for retirement — even if it is a small amount. Delaying savings will have negative consequences to the outcome of a retirement nest egg.”

Who’s to Blame for Lack of Retirement Savings?

When asked how much they blame various factors for why Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement, a majority (80%) of investors say it comes down to Americans “delaying” the process of saving for retirement and that Americans are having a hard time paying the day-to-day bills.

In addition, many investors are clearly counting on Social Security to supplement their personal savings and investments in retirement. When asked if they would be motivated to save more if they knew they would not receive Social Security money when they retire, more than half (54%) say they would be motivated to save either “a lot more” or “a little more.” Just 44% say that scenario would not make a difference in how much they save.

A lack of savings can’t necessarily be pinned on people taking out loans or withdrawals from their 401(k) plans. Relatively few workers who participate in their employer’s 401(k) report that in the past five years they have taken out a 401(k) loan (16%). Even fewer, 9%, have taken an early withdrawal from the plan. However, 21% of investors with a 401(k) have done at least one of these things, including 5% who have done both.

December 2014 • CorporateAmerica • 5

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News

Only Half of Workers Think US Corporate Leaders Are Effective Other leadership qualities received mixed reviews in the Global Workforce Study by Towers Watson Workers’ trust and confidence in US corporate leaders has increased modestly over the past four years, but the number of workers who think top management provides effective leadership overall has slipped slightly, according to research from global professional services company Towers Watson. Further, while a majority of US employees give leaders high marks for promoting a positive image and understanding what drives success, barely half say leaders inspire employees, understand how their actions impact them or are open to new ideas.

According to the Towers Watson Global Workforce Study, more than half (55%) of all US employees surveyed said they have trust and confidence in their senior leaders. That is an increase from 2012, when 49% said they had trust and confidence in their senior leaders, and from 47% in 2010.

The survey also found that only half (55%) of the respondents agree their top management provides effective leadership, up slightly from 50% of employees who responded that way in 2010.

“Given the complexities of today’s changing global economy, the need for strong and effective leaders has never been greater,” said Marie Holmstrom, director, Talent Management and Organization

Alignment, at Towers Watson. “And while we are pleased to see that more employees trust and feel confident in their leaders, and that many give high marks on certain leadership qualities, it’s disappointing many see their leaders as falling short, especially in their overall effectiveness.”

employee stays with a company. Those organizations that are able to develop strong and effective leaders will be much better positioned to enhance worker productivity, improve employee engagement, and attract and retain key talent,” said Laura Sejen, managing director, Rewards at Towers Watson.

According to the survey, employees give leaders the following high marks: • Eight in 10 (80%) for promoting a positive image of the company to the outside world • More than two-thirds (68%) for displaying an appropriate sense of urgency in accomplishing important business goals; 68% for being clear and consistent about company priorities for driving business success; and 68% for understanding factors that lead to success • At the same time, only half the respondents agree that leaders are flexible in their approach to new situations (47%); are aware of how their actions impact the thoughts and emotions of other workers (52%); and inspire employees to give their best (54%).

HR’s Role in Developing Leaders The survey also found that only four in 10 respondents (41%) agree that senior management at their organization does a good job developing future leaders, putting in doubt their ability to maintain the culture they need to continue to deliver on their strategic priorities in the long term. This is one of the lowest scores respondents gave when asked to rate the job their leaders are doing.

“The results of our study show that organizations and senior leaders themselves need to work on improving their leadership skills. We also know from our ongoing research that leadership is the top driver of employee engagement, and trust and confidence in senior leadership is among the top five reasons an

“Developing strong, effective leaders is not something that just happens on its own. In fact, HR plays a critical role in building the right set of leaders for an organization. To start, HR must articulate the key capabilities required for their organization’s top management and evaluate how leadership is positioned for the organization’s near-term and future success. HR can build the profile of success, assess leaders based on their demonstration of those requirements and clarify the path needed to get the right leaders in place today while building the next generation of leadership,” said Holmstrom.

Senior Finance Executives Say Accounts Payable is Top Priority for Improvement in 2015 Executives responding to Canon survey revealed that AP represents their organization’s most timeand labor-intensive finance function, as well as the most manual and paper-intensive A majority of senior finance executives say that their top priority for improvement in 2015 is the accounts payable (AP) function, according to a new survey report issued by Canon Business Process Services. The executives revealed that AP represents their organization’s most time- and labor-intensive finance function, as well as the most manual and paper-intensive, which among other challenges is why AP is such a high priority for improvement.

The Canon survey, “Finance Executive Survey: Priorities, Challenges and Technologies for the Year Ahead,” was designed to help clarify the greatest pressures and highest concerns of CFOs, Controllers and other senior finance executives. In one key finding, executives specified that errors are the AP department’s biggest challenge, closely followed by two other major concerns: lack of visibility into invoices and payables and difficulty handling, managing and finding invoices.

To help solve these challenges, organizations are planning to increase their investments in accounts payable automation in 2015 (compared to investments during 2014). They have also made automating accounts payable and leveraging the benefits of outsourcing the function a priority. Taking these and other survey findings into account, there are three best practices that senior finance executives can leverage to help advance their AP function during the coming year.

Recommendations to Help Improve AP One practice is to strategically consider in-house and outsourced support. Finance executives and AP practitioners generally are much more concerned with such issues as accuracy, compliance and supplier relationships than about optical character recognition software, data extraction, workflow and automation. The latter tasks can be better managed by delegating them to a managed service provider and team of experts. Previous research by Canon indicates that companies that at least partially outsource their AP operations reap numerous benefits including lower cost per invoice and shorter invoice processing cycle time.

Another approach is to centralize invoice receipt.

Implementing a process in which suppliers send

invoices directly to the AP department adds a layer of control to the entire AP process—and also provides the ability to save significant time and money.

Canon has found that when AP departments adopt this centralized structure, the cost and time taken to process an invoice are reduced significantly. The efficiency with which invoices are processed also increases, as does the percentage of invoices that are processed in touch-less manner.

A third strategy is to leverage AP automation. AP process automation involves capturing and extracting data, routing invoices for approval, matching invoice data and resolving discrepancies. Advancements in workflow automation technologies are continuously improving the AP process. This gives enterprises the flexibility to put tasks like setting up and maintaining AP process automation into the hands of an experienced managed services provider.

Besides improving the AP function, Canon’s survey spotlights another untapped opportunity for senior finance executives in 2015. According to survey respondents, few organizations are using performance management systems to measure key performance indicators and many companies are reviewing reports only monthly rather than in near real time.

December 2014 • CorporateAmerica • 7

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Personnel Profile

The Face of

Online Payments In the billion-dollar world of online transactions, one firm is leading the way. Allied Wallet, which today serves more than 100 million users globally, is the brainchild of Andy Khawaja, whose own rags-to-riches story is a lesson in how to build a thriving company in an extremely competitive environment. We caught up with Khawaja to hear about his journey to business success and what he has planned for the future.

A survey conducted by Parade Magazine reveals that nearly 85% of internet users are also frequent online shoppers. Only 61% of these users felt that their personal information was safe.

12 years ago, Andy Khawaja saw this as an opportunity to build the e-commerce experience around safe and secure payment technology. His global online payments gateway, Allied Wallet, was born.

Allied Wallet, which now has over 100 million users around the world and has processed over a billion dollars globally in 164 currencies, provides a secure online payment system, as well as peer-to-peer transfers and smartphone card payments. Khawaja, who is often referred to as the “messiah of e-commerce” for his pioneering advances in the industry, aims to make sure all online transactions are carried out safely – providing Allied Wallet is the service provider. He has grown Allied Wallet by employing an elite staff of processing veterans and innovative thinkers to uphold security, deter fraud, and assure users that their financial information is safe.

Khawaja’s rise to the summit of the business world has been nothing short of amazing. Born in war-torn Beirut, Lebanon, he moved as a child to Europe.

He later moved to the US, attending college and working a number of jobs, including flipping burgers in a fast food restaurant and serving customers in a supermarket.

8 • CorporateAmerica • December 2014

Those jobs were certainly a far cry from his current lofty position as CEO of a global technology firm. But they were a vital part of his development as a businessman, he says, because they put him in a position where he was face to face with customers. “I love to understand what people need, what makes them happy or upset,” he says. Those early jobs instilled in him an understanding of what customers need, he says, and what they like to buy.

Khawaja later opened a men’s fashion boutique in Los Angeles, CA, which grew into a chain of stores. Running his stores was, again, a formative experience, he says. “People want to look good. And that gave me a PR-type lifestyle. I had to find out what people are like, in order to be able to provide them with what they want. You need this contact with people,” he says.

“Face-to-face contact is vital.”

Soon afterwards, after spotting a gap in the market, he moved into online commerce.

“When the internet first began to really take off, I realised that something was missing. Websites were being created, but it was impossible to reliably pay for things online. “I thought to myself: ‘Why not build the capacity to transact online?’”

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Personnel Profile Andy Khawaja, Allied Wallet

December 2014 • CorporateAmerica • 9

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Personnel Profile The challenge in those early days, when he needed an injection of cash to get his idea off the ground, he says, was convincing banks to work with him. After seeing fraud take place previously online, they were sceptical, he says. “They kept saying to me: ‘How do you know the customers are real?’”

Khawaja says.

He set out to create a fraud detection gateway, a means of checking whether fraud had taken place during a transaction carried out over the internet. It took around five years to put the system in place, he says.

He went back to the banks with his project, which he called Allied Wallet.

“But they said there was no appetite for the business,” he says. “Back then, banks weren’t interested in technology. Having witnessed the collapse of numerous dotcom businesses, they would say: ‘The internet is just a bubble’.”

But Khawaja’s payment gateway just grew bigger and bigger. And as it grew, he went back again to the banks to ask for help with handling credit card payments. But, as he was a relative newcomer in the business world, the vast majority of them still wouldn’t give him a chance. “Many startups have the same problem,” he says. “The banks won’t work with them.

But when they get big, then the banks want them.” It was this sense of frustration that inspired him to create Allied Wallet, Khawaja says. Now, to help startup businesses get off the ground, he says Allied Wallet devotes 70% of its time to encouraging new businesses to use Allied Wallet to process online payments.

“When you get rejected, you just work harder,” he says. “My advice is this: Never give up. Hope is all around you. Believe in yourself and keep on your dream.” And in the world of business it’s usually when people are on the final straight that they fall, he says. “People who fail have only given 90%. When you’ve almost achieved your goal, you can feel you’re almost drowning in problems.”

He was one of the fortunate ones, Khawaja says. “Somewhere down the road we got lucky with a couple of banks, and we managed to get started.”

Allied Wallet is different from other payment platforms – with PayPal probably the best known of its competitors – because it is a truly global payment processor, able to handle payments on all websites, both domestically and internationally. “There’s a need to protect consumers all over the world,” he says.

“

My advice is this: Never give up.

Hope is all around you. Believe in yourself and keep on your dream.

“

10 • CorporateAmerica • December 2014

A major issue in payment processing is, of course, security. Khawaja has built an online security system which offers level 1 PCI compliance, a secure service which hosts credit card numbers and other fragile information. Level 1 PCI is difficult to obtain, and offers the best security possible. Everything Allied Wallet does is stored on site, in multiple locations across the world.

Data is encrypted using tokenization (the process of substituting a sensitive data element with a non-sensitive equivalent, or token, which has no extrinsic or exploitable meaning or value). This makes it impossible to get into the server because everything is turned into numbers and letters.

All this means that Allied Wallet has a fraud rate of just 0.02% – the lowest in the industry.

Khawaja says he has learned a lot from examining other companies, notably rival PayPal, about the issues facing online payment processors – how to avoid being the victim of hackers, for example.

As for what clients should be looking for in a payment processor, Khawaja says “Someone who’s always ready to answer questions,” he says. “Someone who understands their business structure.” Customers should have access to support 24/7, he says. “Lots of payment processors have maintenance periods,” he says, “but they never give an honest answer about when it will happen and how long it will take,” adding that Allied Wallet is always frank with its customers about scheduled maintenance periods.

In almost any business, to provide the very highest level of service, it’s vital to maintain a strong and productive – but also friendly and fun – working culture. And Allied Wallet has an “outstanding” working culture, Khawaja says.

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Personnel Profile

I love to understand what people need, what makes them happy or upset

“

December 2014 • CorporateAmerica • 11

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“

We’re winning the race,” he says. “We’re the master in global processing. Today, we’re

“

changing the future of transactions

12 • CorporateAmerica • December 2014

Personnel Profile

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Personnel Profile This year, the company was rated one of the best places to work by Great Rated!, a division of the Great Place to Work Institute Inc, the global research, consulting and training firm that identifies, creates and sustains great workplaces by developing high-trust workplace cultures.

Allied Wallet showed superior workplace culture in areas like professional development and training, company atmosphere, benefits, and rewards, with 96% of its employees saying they enjoy special and unique benefits by working for the online payment processor, citing free team lunches every Friday, on-site massages, and awards of up to $25,000 for adoption costs.

“We never call our team “employees,” says Khawaja. “The team are like family.”

At many other companies, such as PayPal, he says, employees are known by a number, rather than their name. At Allied Wallet, he says, staff aren’t required to arrive at 9 and leave at 5, and they can take breaks whenever they like. As long as the work gets done, Khawaja says he doesn’t mind.

“We don’t want staff to be on the clock. That’s what leads to stress,” he says. “At Allied Wallet, they feel like they work for themselves, not for me. We want an environment where you can think outside of the box. Allied Wallet is about being creative.”

Within Allied Wallet, Khawaja is a motivator, he says. “In staff meetings, I ask them: ‘Who do you see in the mirror? If it’s you, then you believe in yourself.”

In a recent list by global human resources consulting, research and training firm Great Place to Work, Allied Wallet was named the 3rd best company to work at for Millennials (Google was number five). And it’s a working culture that has clearly yielded results: Allied Wallet was recently named for the 2nd time, as an INC 5000 Company, meaning it is one of the fastest-growing companies in the US. On an international level, earlier this year, the company acquired CloudAsia, one of the largest Chinese payment processors in Hong Kong. The move will give Allied Wallet more access to consumers and local banks in all regions of Asia including Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and mainland China.

Allied Wallet has also opened an India base in addition to its UK headquarters overlooking Trafalgar Square in London and offices in the US, Germany, Hong Kong and Macau. Another recent development came this year when Allied Wallet was granted the licence to issue MasterCard and Maestro cards in various European regions.

MasterCard has strict regulations for any financial institution that seeks to issue payment cards. But upon review, Allied Wallet has been deemed a licensed issuer of MasterCard or Maestro cards, servicing various regions of Europe including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Spain.

This issuing licence will allow Allied Wallet to issue payment cards to its members, giving them the opportunity to spend the money saved in their “eWallet” (which lets you store, send, and receive payments from anywhere you have internet access) at any storefront that accepts MasterCard or Maestro.

Looking forward, Khawaja says the next big thing in payment processing will take the shape of a reloadable keychain, which is already in use in Japan, and which is completely fraud-proof. Allied Wallet is currently working on bringing the first similar system to the UK. Asked what challenges are facing Allied Wallet, Khawaja is unequivocal in his response: he says there are none. “We’re winning the race,” he says. “We’re the master in global processing. Today, we’re changing the future of transactions.”

Khawaja and Allied Wallet have thus far been highly successful. But how does he define success? “It’s when you start to achieve your goals,” he says. “But don’t let it get to your head, because it’s also about maintaining that success tomorrow.” A business can’t be successful if it isn’t growing, he says.

“I don’t believe in bad luck,” he says. “I just believe in one thing: that if you give up then you’re a loser. If you get knocked down, then you learn from it. You must always be moving forward.”

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Features

How to prepare for transatlantic

expansion

By Grace Garland, writer for ExpertMarket.us

Expert Market is a resource for learning more about setting up a business and purchasing products and services.

Expert Market has everything you need to make informed purchase decisions for your office, both in the UK and US. Expert Market provides free services to give customers the tools for sourcing the best business services and office equipment.

“England and America are two countries divided by a common language”. This often quoted observation from George Bernard Shaw can seem very pertinent, especially when planning to expand your business across the Atlantic. Despite the fact that we share many cultural similarities, there are key differences to the way business operates in the US and the UK, and many things to consider to ensure your business is a success. As a company working both sides of the water, it is something Expert Market knows well.

International relocation specialists MoveHub.com estimate that almost 37,000 workers are relocated to the UK by their employer each year, and 25,000 to the US, meaning our businesses are becoming more symbiotic than ever, and it is important to make sure your business is equipped to thrive in both markets.

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Company: ExpertMarket.us Name: Grace Garland Email: grace.garland@ mvfglobal.com Web Address: www.expertmarket.us

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Features Get a native speaker. Even if you have the best copywriters in the business, there is nothing like local knowledge. Lexicon differs between the UK and US dramatically and it is surprising how often this will come up in business. Cell phone vs mobile phone, highway vs motorway, sidewalk vs pavement are all obvious stumbling blocks, but there are other more subtle differences in the use of language that only a local could know. In both the US and UK arms of our business we have mixture of British and American employees and that way we ensure both offices are integrating the needs of the other at all times.

If you are planning on launching any media campaigns, getting the language right is even more important as any mistakes could alienate your audience before you even begin. Michael Horrocks of Expert Market’s US branch comments: “We find that tone of voice is more subdued for the British audience – the high-paced inyour-face style that works in the US doesn’t resonate with audiences in the UK.” Build a hub there before you move. Make sure you have a presence overseas before planning expansion. It is much easier to develop a new stronghold if you have some allies there already. We reached out to businesses we thought we could work with to develop a relationship in the year before we opened our new offices and that gave us a network before we even arrived.

Michael Horrocks observes: “The American market is notoriously difficult to crack for foreign companies so we wanted to make sure we had really explored every element of the business market before setting up shop. Using contacts we had made over the years, we set up meetings with key companies and laid the groundwork for our American arm of the business early on.”

For companies looking to expand to the UK, the UK Trade and Investment department can help to develop reciprocal relationships and put you in touch with a like-minded business. It can also be useful to attend business conferences or schedule networking events, but if you don’t have the budget to fly over regularly, reaching out to companies over LinkedIn can prove a good way of connecting.

View it as a cultural exchange. Embrace the fact that your business is American, as this could lend you authority and a unique perspective in the UK. Each country has different strengths and you can play upon your differences to gain an advantage when connecting with other businesses. Don’t lose any of your company identity as the elements which have made you successful in the US will undoubtedly ring true in the UK.

Choose your location carefully. When expanding to the UK the most obvious option would be to choose London as a base, but just as New York is not the only place to do business in the US, London might not offer the best opportunities in the UK. Research up and coming places, such as Manchester, Birmingham or Leeds, as cheaper rents and overheads could allow you to spend more on the best staff or technology.

New rail connections coming in the next couple of years will make the UK a much more connected place for business so northern cities are likely to grow and grow as huge house prices in the capital force talent out of London. Establishing your company as a big name in one of these regions could stand you in good stead in the coming years.

Slow and steady wins the race. Don’t move too many parts of the business over at once. Work out the key people who need to be there to get the business off the ground, then others can work remotely, or join once the business is bedded in. If a lot of your staff are trying to settle into a new city and a new working environment, chances are that no one will be working as efficiently as they could.

By sending over an initial crack team, you can optimise your productivity and ensure that there is someone there who knows their way around to help new starters settle in at a later date.

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England and America are two countries divided by a common language

“

As Michael Horrocks explains, your ‘otherness’ can often be your USP: “Since setting up in America, I have learned so much that I can bring into the UK arm of the business and it will undoubtedly work the same way for US companies coming to the UK. There are certain things about the American can-do attitude that really accelerated our growth in the US, but conversely, many of our American colleagues appreciate the British diplomacy and attitude to handling difficult working relationships, so it’s a mutually beneficially sharing of expertise and practices”.

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Features

Loneliness Epidemic Amongst Leaders

– Strategic Business Advisory May Hold the Cure With the responsibility to make critical decisions on a daily basis, intense pressures and a scarcity of peers to confide in, not only is it tough at the top, but it’s often stated that it is also an incredibly lonely place to reside.

According to a recent survey by RHR International of 83 CEOs at public and private companies with annual revenues of $50 million to $2 billion, half of the top executives reported feeling a sense of isolation that could potentially hinder their ability to do their jobs. First-time CEOs are particularly susceptible to this sense of isolation, as they are often dealing with the realization that the stakes are higher and the role much more demanding than they could have anticipated.

However, when it comes to reaching out for support, many chief executives are still choosing to go it alone – potentially to the detriment of their effectiveness, wellbeing and ultimately the performance of their company. A study conducted by the Center for Leadership Development and Research at Stanford Graduate School of Business found that nearly two-thirds of CEOs in North America do not receive coaching or leadership advice from outside consultants or coaches, and almost half of the population of senior executives are not receiving any either. The perceived stigma of admitting the need for strategic advice or access to a support network is compounding the sense of isolation suffered by CEOs today.

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Features About the author: Dr. Anton Franckeiss, Global Business Development and Practice Director, Acuity Global Development (www.acuitygd.com) Spearheading the worldwide launch of the Acuity Global Development consultancy brand, Anton is an experienced leadership consultant who has worked at the most senior levels both in-house and in consultancy. Anton has more than 25 years’ hands-on experience of delivering change, leadership and talent management initiatives that underpin business growth.

Prior to his appointment at Acuity Global Development, Anton was MD & Global Practice Director at a number of other international leadership consultancies and has supported clients throughout Europe, North America, the Far East, the Middle East and Australasia.

Unfortunately, no-one is immune to the mental and physical stresses of heavy responsibility or from suffering a crisis of confidence. Finding the self-awareness to accept that we all have room for personal growth and that there’s an alternative to struggling on alone, no matter how capable or high-status we are, can be a huge relief for those in senior positions. Whilst trust issues and concerns about exposing vulnerabilities to those with a stake in the company might make CEOs reluctant to choose a confidante from the board for instance, there is a strong case for them to seek external leadership advice to help them gain a clear perspective and permit access to a valuable sounding board from the outside world when faced with difficult decisions or challenges.

On the issue of concerns over the ‘stigma’ of reaching out for support, the same Stanford Graduate School of Business Survey quoted above also found that mentoring and executive coaching is largely a private, confidential affair, with more than 60% of CEOs responding that the progress made in their coaching sessions is kept between themselves and their coach. Only a third chose to share this information with the board of directors, however choosing this more transparent approach can have a beneficial effect on CEO/board relations. Best reviewed on a case by case basis of course, but at least the door and the mind should be open to the benefits of sharing to a wider senior audience.

Three key areas CEOs should consider when reaching out for external support: Establish Trust When seeking the best possible counsel, it can be argued that the health of the corporation is best protected if this comes from an external, highly specialized source to provide an objective outside perspective. Specialist external business mentoring advice can overcome blindspots and provide unbiased open and honest feedback when required. Establishing trust between the CEO and the advisor is essential, as not only must the CEO feel able to express concerns openly, but they must also be confident that they are receiving reliable, unvarnished advice. Through this collaborative approach, the CEO can gain perspective, assess and align priorities and adapt or transform their management practices. Furthermore, on a human level, being able to accept honest and at times critical feedback from a trusted third-party can only help to make them a more resilient leader.

Check Background & Compatibility The background of the chosen external support must resonate with the business operation and there should be excellent chemistry between the CEO and the advisor to allow a successful collaboration. Their level of experience should also be on a parallel with the CEO to enable them to fully appreciate the pressures faced and understand just what is required to run a successful, major organization. At Acuity Global Development, our Strategic Advisors have strong backgrounds in HR and Business Consulting at a range of executive levels in large corporations. This enables them to offer crucial advice and insights and assist by designing specific interventions that deliver the required results.

Consider Personal Development In the Stanford Graduate School of Business survey mentioned above, 43% of CEOs rated “conflict management skills” as the biggest area of concern for their own personal development. Alongside having access to strategic business advice, CEOs should also consider receiving coaching on a personal level, to improve their delegation skills, ability to handle negotiate conflict and to improve their team building and mentoring abilities. Less ‘tangible’ areas for personal development, such as the ability to motivate and have a sense of compassion, to honing skills of persuasion and influence, can also be useful in reinforcing the CEO’s sense of competence, whilst also enhancing the effectiveness of the company and its people. However, coaching for these more sensitive areas can be viewed as more intrusive, as the individual must be prepared to self-reflect and deal with constructive criticism on aspects of their personality.

Two factors determine just how lonely CEOs feel whilst performing in their high pressure roles. Firstly, the sense of isolation already discussed, where they feel that they have no one that can be confided in without questioning their ability to cope, and secondly losing the unshakable confidence that they can deal with whatever difficult and unpredictable circumstances may arise. By accessing a reliable sounding board, with no vested interested in the company, they have the opportunity to sense check any decisions or strategies that they may have doubts over. Having someone to understand the stresses at the top who can provide support will also help the CEO to feel less alone.

As a business decision, investing in external support is a wise decision, as leaders owe it to themselves and their organizations to ensure sure that a sense of this loneliness does not impact on their ability to perform. In today’s high-stakes business environment, leaders cannot afford to ignore doubts and anxieties that risk adversely impacting their entire organization. Now is the time for leaders to acknowledge these feelings and work proactively to overcome them, knowing that if you seek in the right places, help is at hand.

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Pension funds over

the past 6 years have been responsible for a significant percentage of positive net flows to the hedge fund industry

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Features

Hedge Funds:

A Stronger System?

Don Steinbrugge, Founder and Managing Partner of global hedge fund consulting and marketing firm Agecroft Partners, asks what will happen to the hedge fund industry if we experience a 2008-style market decline.

With interest rates and credit spreads near historic lows and equity valuation above historical averages, many people are concerned that the Federal Reserve, by artificially keeping rates low, has created a 2007-type asset bubble in the capital markets where many securities are priced to perfection.What happens to the financial markets when the Fed begins to raise interest rates or there is some other economic shock to the financial system, and what impact will this have on the hedge fund industry? We recently saw a glimpse of this from mid-September to mid-October when we experienced a slight tremor in the capital markets which saw asset prices decline and volatility spike. This was followed by an onslaught of negative articles from the mainstream media relative to the hedge fund industry.

Agecroft Partners believes there is a low probability of another 2008 type market selloff in the near future. However, if it were to occur, the outcome in the hedge fund industry would be very different than what was experienced in 2008. The hedge fund industry is structurally much more stable today than in 2008. As described below, such stability would result in significantly less redemptions and an avoidance of a complete seizing of inflows.

1. The make-up of the hedge fund investor base is very different from 2008.

Pension funds over the past 6 years have been responsible for a significant percentage of positive net flows to the hedge fund industry. These institutional investors are much more long term oriented and stable. This trend could actually be enhanced by a market decline as pension funds strive to reduce their unfunded liability by enhancing returns and reducing downside volatility. Pension funds need to generate a return equal to their actuarial assumptions which typically are in the 7.5% to 8% range. This is difficult to achieve when the fixed income portion of their portfolio is yielding around 3%.

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Features Endowments and foundations, which were criticised for their redemptions after the 2008 market correction, have repositioned their portfolios to better withstand “liquidity” events. These liquidity issues were primarily driven by the private equity portion of their portfolios, where common practice was to over allocate to private equity in order to maintain a targeted allocation. This caused significant issues when capital calls increased while return of capital came to a halt. Most of these liquidity issues have now been resolved. Going forward endowments and foundations will be much more active allocators to hedge funds given a similar sell off.

Finally, the fund of funds market place is much more stable. These organisations are using less leverage and their investors are better educated on what they are buying. Before 2008, many fund of funds were selling their funds as a t-bills plus 400 basis point product. Many investors did not realise that they could experience material negative returns.

When investors’ experience is dramatically different than their expectations, they are much more likely to redeem.

2. Significantly less leverage utilised by hedge fund investors and managers. In 2008, a majority of the highly leveraged fund of funds either went out of business, suffered heavy withdraws, or had their leverage reduced by their lenders.

This in turn led to significant redemptions from the underlying hedge funds. Today there is much less leverage used by fund of funds. In addition, the average leverage used by individual hedge funds has declined, which should help their performance in a down market and reduce the amount of withdrawals.

3. Better alignment of liquidity terms and underlying investments. Back in 2008, there was less regard for the mismatch in liquidity terms of a fund and its underlying investments. It did not matter if the fund strategy focused on asset based lending, distressed debt, or some other type of illiquid investment as long as the fund allowed for monthly or quarterly liquidity. This mismatch worked fine as long as there were positive flows to the fund; however, the large redemptions at the end of 2008 led to many funds raising gates and suspending redemptions. This also reduced confidence in the hedge fund industry and unfairly penalised liquid strategies by turning them into ATM machines for many investors who needed liquidity. Since then there has been a much greater focus among investors on liquidity terms and their alignment with the underlining investments. Investors are much more willing to accept longer lock-up provisions for less liquid strategies and are avoiding those funds with mismatches in liquidity terms. In addition, those managers who investors perceived as self-serving by employing a gate provision at the end of 2008, have been mostly banished from future consideration. We should see significantly less use of gates and suspension of redemptions in the future.

4. Lower probability of another Madoff. The Bernie Madoff fraud caused a ripple effect throughout the industry which led to massive redemptions from investors in fund of funds that had Madoff exposure. It also temporarily reduced investors’ confidence in the hedge fund industry, leading to further redemptions and reductions in allocations. Since that terrible event, there has been a significant enhancement in the due diligence process of many investors to reduce the probability of fraud, including a greater focus on transparency, operational due diligence and the quality of service providers.

5. Lack of good investment alternatives. Contrary to mainstream media reports of investors giving up on hedge funds, the recent spike in volatility of the capital markets has not led to large redemptions. This is because of a lack of investment alternatives for investors. Money market funds are yielding close to zero and generating a negative real return. The 10-year US treasury is yielding approximately 2.5% and could sustain a large market value decline if interest rates rise. Investors obviously don’t want to increase their equity holdings if they expect a major decline in the equity markets. We believe institutional investors view hedge funds as more attractive if they are concerned about a market sell-off. In addition, once the market actually does sell off, investors’ emotional response is the market can always go lower, which again makes hedge funds look attractive.

Market sell-off will create winner and loser hedge fund organisations Although we believe the hedge fund industry net-flow will hold up much better given a 2008 type sell-off in the capital markets, the impact relative to each individual hedge fund firm will be dramatically different. Instead of assets leaving the industry we will see a large rotation of asset flows within the industry creating winner and loser hedge fund organisations. How each firm does will be highly dependent on 1. their investment strategy 2. how they performed verses similar funds and 3. how they performed compared to investors’ expectations.

Investment Strategy: The hedge fund industry is very dynamic relative to what strategies are in demand and large market sell-offs tend to be a catalyst for major changes in the relative demand for various strategies. For example, after the market sell-off of 2008, long short equity strategies declined from approximately 40% of the hedge fund industry’s assets to 25%, while allocations to CTAs and structured credit expanded significantly. We expect to see similar shifts in demand, although not necessarily affecting these particular strategies.

Relative performance compared to peers: Volatile markets cause significant deviations in performance across mangers in similar strategies. Those managers who significantly underperform their peers will experience larger withdrawals compared to other managers who successfully navigate through the difficult markets by better protecting their investors’ capital.

Performance compared to investors’ expectations: Hedge fund managers that have been truthful with their investors, done a good job of educating their investors on their investment process, along with how it does in different market environments, and treated their investors fairly relative to gates and other restrictions of liquidity will have a much easier time holding on to their investors.

In conclusion, if we experience a major market correction, net flows will be negative, but nowhere near the extent that was experienced in 2008. Most of the redemptions will be recycled within the industry creating winner and loser hedge fund organisations. Hedge fund organisations’ actions and quality of communications with their clients can have a major impact on which category they experience.

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Features

Contrary to mainstream media reports of investors giving up on hedge funds, the recent spike in volatility of the capital markets has not led to large redemptions.

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Features

Is your business

too slow to react

to changing trends?

Adapt or perish; that’s the mantra that businesses need to follow if they are to be successful.

One of the biggest threats to businesses, regardless of the sector in which they are based, is complacency. Just because you’ve had a particularly profitable 2014, that doesn’t necessarily mean whatever you’ve done this year will be a winning formula in five to ten years’ time. The most successful companies are those that always endeavour to stay one step ahead of the curve, honing their services and internal infrastructure to ensure they are working as efficiently as possible and continuing to meet the needs of the ever-demanding consumer.

Many companies live and die by their ability to adapt to new trends, and huge sums of money are spent on researching potential developments, allowing firms to steal a march on their rivals. It’s also worth keeping tabs on new reports published by respected organisations in the technology industry, especially at this time of year, as a plethora of ‘Top new trends for 2015…’ type articles are already doing the rounds.

One example is this interesting piece by Gartner, which suggests live video broadcasting will be “the new selfie” by 2017. In the report, Gartner advises businesses, specifically product managers, to tailor their visual strategies in order to accommodate this trend within the next two to three years. You only have to look at the incredible success of Samsung’s Oscar selfie campaign to see how it pays to be down with the kids, as it were. Again, this is a great example of companies identifying popular trends and planning ahead to maximise their chances of success.

Knowing where trends come from I’ve already mentioned that businesses in certain fields rely on changing trends more than others, and this is certainly true of Graham & Brown.

As a leading supplier of wallpaper, wall art and décor, we have no option but to have a clear idea of what’s in and what’s out. But where do these everchanging trends come from? With interior design being such a subjective thing, who decides what you should and shouldn’t have on your dining room walls?

From our perspective, it’s always important to stay abreast of what Pantone is doing. The so-called “world-renowned authority on color” recently announced its Color of the Year for 2015, which happens to be Marsala. “Why should I pay a blind bit of notice to what Pantone says?” you may ask. While it would be easy to dismiss the authority of this organisation, we’ve already seen a number of esteemed fashion designers incorporating Marsala into their Spring 2015 clothing collections.

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Trends generally start small and more often than not are seeded by industry influencers or celebrities. In this case Pantone has got the ball rolling, and the demand for Marsala-colored clothes, wallpapers, paints and any other fashionable products will eventually snowball.

We could turn a blind eye to this trend, instead opting to push a completely different color of our own, but think of all of the potential business that we’d ultimately be missing out on. The key point is that you need to give people what they want, and it’s a fact of life that consumers’ needs are constantly changing.

Why social media has been a game changer A few years ago, many brands looked upon social media in the same way they would an alien that had just landed outside and walked into their building.

We didn’t really know whether social networking was a passing trend or, as it has turned out, an almost irreplaceable part of our everyday lives.

Those companies that were on the ball were able to recognise the marketing potential of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter straight away, while more sceptical or less forward-thinking businesses were left to play catch up.

For the record, as many as 99 percent of top brands now use Facebook and 97 percent utilise Twitter.

Social media has undoubtedly brought businesses closer to their target audience and you could argue that this has made it easier for us to find out when new trends are brewing (Twitter even has the courtesy to tell us which topics are “trending”). From an interior designer’s point of view, the more visual social networking channels such as Pinterest and Instagram have made a real difference, as they have given people a unique platform to share images of their own inspirational and creative work.

The way in which social media works means that one simple photograph posted by one person can soon become viral and encourage people to do things in very different ways. One example of a quirky, creative website that has made real waves is Ikeahackers.net, which is all about modifying and repurposing Ikea products. The idea took seed in 2006 and has gone on to become a phenomenon.

As well as demonstrating the power of the web, this also shows that trends can start from absolutely anywhere. As a business owner, you may think an idea is too bizarre or unlikely to prove popular while it’s in its infancy, but we’ve seen on countless occasions that you should never be too quick to dismiss something out of hand.

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One of the biggest threats to businesses, regardless of the sector in which they are based, is

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complacency

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Features What goes around, comes around Any business that operates in the fashion or design fields will be well aware that trends often recycle themselves.

Never underestimate the importance of nostalgia. Just take the Rubik’s Cube for example. Designed in the 1970s and popularised in the 1980s, this iconic puzzle is once again being sold in huge quantities across the globe.

Consumers have a real appetite for vintage fashion items, so as a business, you should never forget about a particular trend once it starts to run out of steam - there’s every chance it will make a triumphant return some time in the future.

At Graham & Brown, we’ve developed an extensive range of wallpaper that harks back to bygone eras. Whether it’s funky orange and brown swaying patterns from the 1970s or a rustic design from the 1990s, the demand for products that apply a modern twist on a classic style has never been greater.

A lot of the time, trends develop off the back of hit TV shows or movies, a good example being Boardwalk Empire, which has catalysed an unlikely renaissance for 1920s fashion and design in the US. The same is happening over in the UK, as people have attempted to recreate scenes from popular drama Downton Abbey.

Never blindly assume you are doing things right - things change Graham & Brown has been in existence for nearly 70 years, but we’d never take anything for granted. Just when you think you’ve mastered the art of identifying consumer trends, something comes out of the blue to completely throw you off your game.

Complacency is the greatest foe of all businesses. You might have been trading for 100 years, but are you completely sure you that you know your customers? I chanced upon this piece of research by Box Shack, which highlighted the results of a recent survey on when people want to move house. It showed that more than half of people, if given the choice, would rather move between April and June, while very few people would opt for a winter move.

Are estate agents, removals companies and any other business involved in the common process of moving house aware of these trends? You’d think so, but it’s amazing how many companies get the timing of their marketing drives completely wrong because they have failed to react to changes in people’s behaviour and have become set in their ways.

If you can’t be a trend setter, invest in a trend spotter If you’re viewed as an industry influencer, you can start your own trends.

However, only a select few businesses are fortunate enough to be in this position.

Business owners are busy people, and as such can be forgiven for failing to pick up on trends that are generated by social media or TV shows.

That said, it’s imperative that you employ somebody who has a knack for identifying potentially lucrative fads while they are still in their earliest stages. It doesn’t matter what industry you are from, every company has the ability to make serious money if they are able to identify a trend quickly and then take advantage of it before it runs out of legs.

Timing is everything in the business world. If you come to the party too late, you’re more likely to annoy potential customers, rather than sell to them. Form a marketing point of view, you don’t want to be that organisation that is still tweeting GIFs of the Crazy Frog. From a retail perspective, you need to be flexible enough to stock the right products exactly when people want to buy them. Once you’ve found a particular product or range that is currently on trend, you’ll naturally find it far easier to drive sales, and over time you will build a positive reputation for constantly giving consumers what they want.

By being adaptable, investing in your workforce and taking the time to meticulously research past, current and future trends, you can ensure your business will continue to be successful for many years to come.

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If you’re viewed as an industry influencer, you can start your own trends.

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Personnel Profile

Helping Clients

Win

Olson, which in November was acquired by ICF International, the management, technology, and policy consulting firm, focused on driving engagement for its clients, creating content and experiences through a mix of media relations, digital, social, and experiential work. We spoke to John Partilla, CEO of Olson, to find out more about the company and where it’s headed in the future.

With a digital core and deep expertise in digital, advertising, loyalty, CRM, PR, social and mobile, Olson, based in Minneapolis, MN, builds community and creates advocacy for some of the world’s most respected brand marketers.

Within ICF, Olson and its 545-strong staff will continue to operate under the same name and under current management led by Partilla, and the agency’s offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Austin, TX, and Los Angeles will continue to operate.

Olson’s clients include such household names as Target, General mills, Pepsico, MillerCoors, Saucony, Sharp Electronics and Gopro, as well as a number of more local clients.

Partilla, who has 27 years of media and agency experience, has been the CEO of Olson since January 2013. Prior to that he was, from 2011, based in New York as the COO of Dentsu Network West at Dentsu Inc, a Japanese advertising and public relations company. Before Dentsu, Partilla held a number of positions at several different companies, including President of the Global Media Group and Senior Vice President of Time Warner Inc, and served as President of Global Marketing Group of Time Warner Inc.

Outlining the company and its aims, CEO John Partilla says Olson is an “integrated, next generation agency.” Olson’s work is focused on driving engagement for its clients, creating content and experiences through a mix of media relations, digital, social, and experiential work. “We aim to revolutionize engagement between clients and the public,” Partilla says.

In November, ICF International, the Fairfax, VA-based management, technology, and policy consulting firm, acquired Olson, including its Chicago-based PR arm Olson Engage, for $295m in cash.

Based in Washington, DC, ICF International specializes in customer engagement, e-commerce, and system integration. Its strategic communications and marketing group, ICF SCM, focuses primarily on public affairs, government, and the energy and healthcare sectors. ICF has more than 70 offices worldwide including three in the UK, while Olson’s business is concentrated in North America.

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The advertising business, Partilla says, is not an overly complicated one.

Simply put, he says, “We’re here to help clients win.” Clients value Olson’s partnership approach, Partilla says, as well as the company’s straight-talking way of doing business. They don’t want a preacher, he says – they want a partner, someone who is willing to listen twice as much as they speak. “Ideas are in service of the mission,” says Partilla.

The “next big idea” in advertising, Partilla says, is convergence. This allows one media outlet to take advantage of features and benefits offered through other media outlets – and, he says, will be key over the coming years.

“Convergence is the next digital,” he says. “Everyone’s spilling into everyone else’s business.”

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Personnel Profile John Partilla, CEO of Olson

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Personnel Profile In 2013, to highlight the firm’s commitment to this integration, Olson rebranded its PR and social media unit as Olson Engage. (The agency’s other groups include Olson, which handles brand and digital work, and Olson 1to1, which focuses on loyalty marketing.)

company’s website. “This approach is unique because it’s grounded in human relationships and produces more emotional and authentic loyalty, which we’ve found is longer-lasting and more profitable. We call this approach Olson Brand Anthropology.

The creation of Olson Engage allowed staff to specialize in various divisions – such as creative, multicultural, media relations, emerging media, consumer, corporate, and public affairs.

“Brands win when they enhance and facilitate the relationships that matter to their customers— when they make their everyday lives easier, more enjoyable or richer. In this respect, brand loyalty is entangled with interpersonal loyalty.”

“Today, it isn’t enough to just relate to the public,” reads Olson Engage’s online mission statement.

“Communicating to an audience delivers awareness, but true engagement is what drives action. It breeds loyalty. It encourages purchase. And it enables and rewards advocacy.

“The tools are ever-changing; technology and media are constantly evolving. But what remains consistent is the need to create and deliver relevant, compelling content to the communities that will embrace your brand and go to work for it. These people not only demonstrate their own loyalty through purchase, they also engage their own communities and networks, acting as brand champions.

So, by definition, our job goes beyond simply communicating to audiences. We have to inspire, involve, listen and, above all else, engage.”

Partilla has been at Olson for around 18 months now. During that time, the high point, he says, has been seeing the company grow organically, both enriching the existing client base and gaining more clients.

As an example, he cites a recent pitch to Wet n Wild cosmetics. Olson didn’t just satisfy the client’s demands – they “shattered the glass,” as Wet n Wild executives put it.

Over the next 12 months, Partilla says, Olson will continue to strengthen innovation.

One particular area of focus, he says will be on continuing to strengthen the company’s “anthropological strategic planning efforts”.

That may sound a little grandiose – but such efforts are an integral part of the Olson philosophy. In 2010, Kate Sieck, a doctor of anthropology who spent nine years teaching in the anthropology departments at Stanford University and Emory University where her research addressed the links between motivation and behavior, and her findings informed policies and practices affecting the relevant communities, left academia to become an associate director of cultural anthropology at Olson. Working within the Olson 1 to 1 division, she now develops Olson’s methods and conducts academic and in-field research for client projects and internal initiatives.

Sieck’s work spans topics as diverse as American families, health care, non-profits, and CPG brand development. Her particular interest lies in integrating disparate data points to locate opportunities for strengthening organisations and brands.

“At Olson 1to1, we approach every consumer challenge from the same starting place: with people in their everyday lives,” explains Sieck on the 32 • CorporateAmerica • December 2014

Olson is entrepreneurial as a company, Partilla says, adding that the company’s attitude could be described as “positively aggressive” – adopting a can-do attitude, to make sure Olson wins for the client. It’s a great environment to work in, says Partilla. Current employees talk about a “college-style” atmosphere within the office, which is spread out over 125,000 square feet of space on the top four floors of the renovated, 11-story Ford Center in Minneapolis. With free coffee, and sometimes beer, as well as numerous events like catered lunch and dodgeball, as well as views of the Twins’ Target Field, it’s not surprising that many employees, who had left the company to take up another job, have later returned to Olson, saying that they missed the working culture there.

To nurture creativity within the company, and drive those all-important results, Partilla says, Olson sets the bar high. “It’s important to let everyone know the standards they have to meet.

You have to inspire them, also.”

As CEO, Partilla of course plays an important role in building and maintaining the agency’s corporate culture. To do this, Partilla, who is known around the office as JP, says he has adopted the philosophy of the “servant leader.”

While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in “The Servant as Leader”, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said: “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

“The leader establishes the mission,” explains Partilla. “He sets out strategies to help the client succeed. He sets goals. These are duties that you cannot delegate.

“The servant part is more difficult. I also see myself as working for everyone in this company.

They can look at me as a resource to remove obstacles. To find resources to work with. Magic happens when the team believes I work for them.”

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“

“

Personnel Profile

The leader establishes the mission

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Features

The 3 Ways

to Follow the

Markets

What should investors keep top-of-mind when evaluating the markets? Wells Fargo Advantage Funds’ three capital markets strategists give us their thoughts.

“We are not fans of following the herd but of following the news,” say Wells Fargo Advantage Funds’ three capital markets strategists. With that in mind, Brian Jacobsen, Chief Portfolio Strategist; Jim Kochan, Chief Fixed-Income Strategist; and John Manley, Chief Equity strategist offer some tips on what investors may want to focus on in 2015…

1. Following the flow of liquidity worldwide Look for diversification from geographically dispersed investments. Foreign investments could add some growth to a portfolio.

Ride out market volatility. Sell-offs will likely be followed by reversals, as investors learn that the Federal Reserve is genuine in being gradual with any rate hikes.

Be discriminating. Not all markets are going to rise and fall together.

“

We are not fans of following the herd but of following the

“ news

2. Following the shift from US to foreign growth Have some exposure to emerging markets. We think emerging markets have the potential to grow faster than developed markets over the next three to five years.

Invest in Europe. Europe’s economy has been understimulated, but that is beginning to change.

Look for opportunities in financials, energy, industrials, and technology.

3. Following the Fed and the global hunt for yield Focus on compounding interest income rather than holding low or no-yield investments such as cash equivalents.

Wait for higher yields and wider spreads in the international, municipal, and investment-grade markets before allocating more to those areas.

Diversify your fixed-income holdings in both developed and emerging markets to help manage unknown risks, but be extra careful within the energy-focused emerging markets.

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Features

The Formula for

Growth Valuing a company is the easy part – creating that value in the first place so you have something to measure is a much more formidable task. John Collard, turnaround professional and Chairman of Strategic Management Partners, Inc., tells us how creating a value equation can help build worth into a company.

Buyers and sellers look at the component make-up of a company differently, and therefore, place different values on these ingredients and on the whole. To enhance real company value, analyze company components as they relate to worth in the mind of potential buyers.

Typically, strategic buyers of closely held companies purchase at six to 10 times earnings and/or cash flow, while annuity buyers pay two to six times cash flow. The ultimate worth of the company depends upon who the buyer will be. These multiples are usually considerably higher in public companies, but the concepts of building value are the same.

From the start, plan to sell the business and put value creation into perspective. Free cash flow and the continued ability to produce it with reliable probability creates the greatest value.

Value Creation = Net Asset Value + Future Revenue Stream + Going Concern Value + Incentive to Purchase Net Asset Value (NAV) Sometimes called Orderly Liquidation Value, it is the cash net worth of assets less encumbrances if you were to liquidate these assets at a fair market price under orderly disposition conditions when liquidation is not necessary. This NAV can equal Net Worth on the Balance Sheet, but is often adjusted for value of intangibles.

Tangible assets can be appraised to establish their worth. Conversely, intangible assets are harder to value because they are subject to interpretation. Intellectual property is also hard to value, but filing more patents will generate value, particularly to those who can afford to protect them from infringement.

The real opportunity lies not in building asset base, but in building maximum return on that deployed capital. If assets sit idle, they are actually losing value, but if volume causes assets to work to produce output production, value is being created.

The closer the relationship of assets to realize $1 for each $1 dollar on the balance sheet the better. Cash and Securities fit this description. Accounts Receivable will be discounted as they age; focus on keeping the days outstanding low. Utilize percentage completion contracts when possible to keep receivables low and cash flowing.

Utilize just-in-time and consignment agreements to keep raw materials at low levels and minimize obsolescence. Produce in-process work expediently to cover shortterm needs.

Build finished goods for firm orders or reasonable short-term expectations of sale, don’t overproduce. Cover the risk with orders for goods. Seasonable businesses should cover production levels over the off-season with contracts for sale of goods just before the

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Features season. It may be better to have less than market demand if projections were off, compared to interest and carrying costs to hold artificial Christmas trees until next year.

Customer Lists, contacts, name recognition, trademarks, reputation, Web distribution channels and Internet presence are often not considered in asset valuation because they are not carried on the balance sheet. These assets, however, are often worth considerable value in the market place. These assets can be turned into cash; therefore, should equal the related value they could generate in return for their sale. These intangible assets can produce future sales, profits, and cash.

Future Revenue Stream Real value in any company starts with its revenue stream; the more you can count on it occurring, the more value it has. The value becomes the net present value of the after tax free cash flow stream of revenue under contract, plus repeat customer base. Contract backlog is worth much more than revenue that you must locate every year. The cost to recreate the sale each year is high in terms of time and human energy. Locate customers where multiple year contract environments can be set up.

Clearly growth in revenue volume is an indicator of valuation in a company that investors are willing to pay for. If customers flock at above industry levels to a company for the services that they provide, this is a good indication of the company’s ability to perform at above expected levels. A motivated sales force with the ability to generate new revenues year after year has more value than a company who has a poor selling reputation. A lack of growth indicates that the company does not have an abi lity to increase its value over time.

When a company has a believable prospectus for the future, the buyer will often plan additional capital investment to fuel growth. The buyer could be motivated to pay a higher valuation for the company and then invest on top of it.

Going Concern Value (GCV) Here is where the fun begins in all transactions. The going concern value and goodwill, or soft assets, will always draw the most controversy and discussion in terms of their valuation. These elements are most prone to differing interpretation by buyer and seller.

Here to is where you can build the most value into a company. Buyers and investors look more to the company’s ability to create additional value to enhance returns on invested capital as they hold their investment. Impart the elements that Future Buyers look for: Businesses that create value. Consistency is the key. You must demonstrate growth in revenue, profit, and cash flow.

High probability of future cash flows. A history of positive cash flow at increasing levels is very important.

Management team and human capital. Attract and motivate a marketing oriented management team with the ability to produce recurring profits, return on capital, and free cash flow as an annuity for the owners.

The ability to sell, compete, distribute, produce, develop products and thrive.

This stand-alone entity track record demonstrates the viability of the market relationship between the products/services offered to meet customer demand and need, ability of the company to compete, and company reputation in the marketplace. Remember, products do have a life cycle and require improvements to remain in demand.

Leadership’s role must be to build Going Concern Value. The GCV can be best maximized with stable leadership, setting and following sound strategies to consistently bring products and services to market, all the while nurturing resources and implementing processes to manage the company. Perhaps the greatest value resides here.

Conclusion Build on any one element in the Equation and you increase its individual value.

Build up all elements in the Equation and you realize an exponential creation of value to the right buyer. The buyer looking for a standalone entity to produce an annuity stream will place the highest value on the company when all components are strong and it operates with little owner intervention. Buyers looking only for parts of a business to augment their own, will want to invest less and only place value on some components, regardless of how strong they are.

Remember, as in Field of Dreams ... “Build it, they will come.”

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City Focus /Colorado Springs

City

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Focus

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City Focus /Colorado Springs Brought to you by:

Colorado Springs A new startup is launched every 72 hours in Colorado. Denver and Boulder have joined the list of the world’s fastest developing tech hubs, and business is also booming in Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs has long been recognized as on of the most innovative cites in the United States. It has a proud history, and can list among its achievements the development of the first floppy disk drive and GPS technology. Our guide to the coolest companies in Colorado Springs pays tribute to the city’s illustrious past, and its creative, exciting future. As always we’ve included a wide range of businesses from a variety of industries and sectors.

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City Focus /Colorado Springs

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is an organisation on a mission. Its aim is to be “a leader in conservation, captive breeding, and animal care” whilst simultaneously connecting visitors with wildlife by offering “experiences that inspire action”. It’s certainly succeeding. It was recently ranked as the 5th best zoo in the entire United States by TripAdvisor, and as America’s only mountain zoo it definitely offers visitors a unique and inspiring day out.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has been run for the people of Colorado Springs as a non-profit public trust since 1938. There are 224 accredited zoos in America, but Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is one of only nine able to operate without government funding. This is a very impressive achievement which all of the zoo’s employees should be extremely proud of.

Company: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Founded: 1926 Founded By: Spencer Penrose Industry: Leisure & Tourism Location: 4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Rd, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 Website: cmzoo.org

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Special Feature: Social Media Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is doing great things on social media. Take a quick look at the official Facebook page or Twitter stream and you will see loads of interesting and engaging images that do a great job of visualizing the excitement of the attraction.

The brand also does a great job of interacting with fans and visitors. The #FanPhotoFriday hashtag is a great way for visitors and fans to feel involved. Initiatives like this have helped Cheyenne Mountain Zoo create a warm and welcoming community feel that is present across all its social media channels.

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City Focus /Colorado Springs

The Bristol Brewing Company has become a massive part of life in Colorado Springs since it was founded by Mike Bristol in 1994. Mike and his wife Amanda were on a mission to create high quality craft beers using all natural ingredients.

Judging by the popularity of their creations it is mission accomplished. Their five flagship beers are available on draft and in bottles in bars and restaurants all over Colorado. They are also available in a number of liquor stores across the state.

Special Feature: Ivywild School The Bristol Brewing Company is about more than beer, and it has put a lot of focus on community work during its 20 year history.

Bristol Brewing was heavily involved in the concept and process of setting up the Ivywild School as a multi-use community space, and the company have been a huge part of the venue’s success since moving their brewery and pub into the old elementary school.

The Ivywild School is a venue full of character, but more importantly is a place where all types of people from the local community can meet, mingle and share ideas. Without the work of the Bristol Brewing Company it would not have been possible.

Company: Bristol Brewing Company Founded: 1994 Founded By: Mike Bristol Industry: Pub & Brewery Location: 1604 S Cascade Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80905 Website: bristolbrewing.com

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City Focus /Colorado Springs

Company: GE Johnson Construction Company Founded: 1967 Founded By: Gil Johnson Industry: Construction Area Served: United States Website: gejohnson.com

More than 90% of GE Johnson Construction Company’s $7 billion worth of completed projects comes from repeat clients, which is an amazing testament to the great work it does. The company has worked on some really cool local projects including the U.S. Olympic Committee Headquarters, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the Rocky Mountain Wild Exhibit at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. That’s a pretty exciting and varied portfolio.

GE Johnson Construction Co. was named one of the best places to work in Colorado Springs by The Colorado Springs Business Journal in their 2013 Best of Business review. Jim Johnson (President and CEO) also won the best boss award. With initiatives like company funded scholarships for children of current employees it’s easy to see why he won.

Special Feature: Social Responsibility As well as looking after its own employees the GE Johnson Construction Co. also gives a lot back to society.

Over the last year the company has supported more than 115 charities at local, national and global levels.

This includes more than 1,000 hours of volunteer work.

One of the company’s recent initiatives is the GE Johnson Therapy Dog Team. This gives GE Johnson employees and their family members the chance to work with Therapy Dogs Incorporated to earn therapy dog certification for their pet and visit hospital patients to help with their care and bring them some joy. It’s a great initiative to be involved in.

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City Focus /Colorado /Baltimore Springs

Company: Wild Fire Tees Founded: 2012 Industry: Charity Apparel Area Served: Worldwide Website: wildfiretees.com

The creators of Wild Fire Tees have managed to do something quite rare. They have combined raising money for an extremely worthwhile cause with a range of products that is genuinely stylish and cool in its own right.

Wild Fire Tees was created by a group of designers, marketers and printers working at a number of different companies in Colorado Springs. They were devastated to see the destruction caused by the 2012 Colorado forest fires and wanted to use their skills to raise money to support the relief effort.

At the height of the fundraising campaign Wild Fire Tees sold $300,000 worth of t-shirts in just one week, a remarkable achievement.

Special Feature: Group Action It’s great to see a group of creatives from different companies come together in a crisis to do all they can to help. It’s extremely impressive that Wild Fire Tees were able to design, print and publicize their work in such a short space of time.

Wildfire Tees continues to support wildfire relief efforts in Colorado. The company has created a fund with the Pikes Peak Community Foundation to ensure the funds are properly managed and that 100% of the profits will always go to charitable causes.

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City Focus /Colorado Springs

The burger market is about as competitive as it has ever been right now, so for Drifter’s Hamburgers to be excelling it must be serving up something special. The two Drifter’s restaurants in Colorado Springs serve unique California-style quick service hamburgers that are cooked to order. The chefs use high quality, all-natural ingredients that are sourced from local suppliers wherever possible.

Everywhere you look Drifter’s Hamburgers is getting great reviews. Its burgers always seem to feature on lists of the best eats in Colorado Springs, and across the state as a whole. Once you’ve tasted one it’s easy to see why. The company is currently looking for franchise opportunities and hope to take their burgers to the rest of America.

Special Feature: Callicrate Beef As more people begin to take notice of what’s in their food it’s great to see a quick-service company using the highest quality natural ingredients available. Callicrate Beef sells itself as the highest quality meat in the world.

It’s free of hormones and antibiotics, and the good management of the animals reduces stress in the herd.

All the animals are born and raised in the USA too, which is good for environmental sustainability.

It’s this focus on quality ingredients that sets Drifter’s apart from the competition. From the Callicrate Beef to the preservative free buns it’s a burger full of natural taste.

Company: Drifter’s Hamburgers Founded: 2008 Founded By: Rich Beaven Industry: Quick Service Restaurant Locations: 1485 Jamboree Dr. Colorado Springs CO 80920 and 455 Mark Dabling Blvd Colorado Springs CO 80907 Website: driftershamburgers.com

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City Focus /Colorado Springs

The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs is a AAA Five Diamond resort, and one of a handful of America’s classic grand resorts. It has everything you could want: amazing golf courses; Colorado’s only five star diamond restaurant and one of the first (and best) full-service spas in America. The Broadmoor has even won an award for the best public restrooms in Colorado Springs. Everything is first-class.

The Broadmoor has been synonymous with class and excellence ever since it was built by Spencer Penrose (who also founded Cheyenne Mountain Zoo) in 1918. Penrose was determined to turn the Pikes Peak region of Colorado into one of the world’s most diverse and interesting resorts, and the fact The Broadmoor is still held in such high regard to this day shows he certainly succeeded.

Special Feature: Continued Improvements The Broadmoor has been at the top for an amazing length of time. It has held the Forbes 5-Star ranking (formerly Mobil Guide) for 52 consecutive years, longer than any other property in the world.

No business could be successful for this length of time without making continued improvements and adapting to the times. The Broadmoor has always been ahead of its time, and in 2011 work began on a $90 million renovation and improvement project which includes the redevelopment of the newly acquired Emerald Valley Ranch, a set of stunning cabins set within the beautiful surroundings of the Pike National Forest.

Company: The Broadmoor Founded: 1918 Founded By: Spencer Penrose Industry: Leisure & Tourism Location: 1 Lake Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 Website: broadmoor.com

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City Focus /Colorado Springs

Company: Griffis Blessing Founded: 1985 Founded By: Buck Blessing and Ian Griffis Industry: Property Management Area Served: Colorado and Boise Website: griffisblessing.com

Griffis Blessing was founded in 1985 by two friends and graduates from Colorado College, and has grown to a point where the company now manages more than seven million square feet of property space. Griffis Blessing manages both commercial and multifamily property along the Front Range in Colorado and now Boise.

They offer clients comprehensive real estate asset management services with a primary focus on property management and investment services.

Griffis Blessing is one of only 6% of all management companies in the United States to hold Accredited Management Organization status, awarded by the Institute of Real Estate Management.

Special Feature: The Team Griffis Blessing has long been considered one of the best places to work in Colorado Springs, and it has won numerous awards to prove it. But perhaps the best testament to life as a Griffis Blessing employee is the fact that many of the current 250 employees have worked for the company longer than 20 years. A rarity in recent times.

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City Focus /Colorado Springs Company: Epicentral Coworking Company Founded: 2012 Founded By: Hannah Parsons and Lisa Tessarowicz Industry: Office Space Location: 415 N. Tejon Street Colorado Springs 80903 Website: epicentral.org

We always like companies that help others succeed, and that’s exactly the type of business Epicentral Coworking is. It is a workplace community space in downtown Colorado Springs where small businesses, entrepreneurs, creative and independents can go to get work done.

Epicentral Coworking offers home-based entrepreneurs a chance to escape isolation, and provides professional spaces such as conference rooms that cannot be replicated at home or in a coffee shop. It’s businesses like Epicentral Coworking that are helping Colorado’s startup community thrive. And with a daily rate of just $15 and a great value monthly membership option it’s accessible to all.

Special Feature: Regular Events Being able to rent desk space is nothing new, but Epicentral Coworking does it better than most. It’s “more than just a place where people get work done”, as the company website explains. Epicentral aims to cultivate Colorado Springs’ entrepreneurial community and bring people together to spark encouragement, creativity and to take projects to a higher level through collaboration.

Epicentral Coworking hosts several regular events to inspire entrepreneurs, and startups to have new ideas and take their business to the next level. These events include Startup Weekend, Innovate Colorado Springs and Go Code Colorado. It’s great to see Epicentral Coworking helping other businesses and entrepreneurs achieve their goals.

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Corporate America /Deals

Deals

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Here at Corporate America, we like to keep you up to date with what’s happening in your industry, giving you the lowdown on the need-to-know sales, mergers and acquisitions taking place across the US. Which is why we’d like to welcome you to our regular monthly roundup of the biggest, most newsworthy deals from the past month.

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Corporate America /Deals Industrials / Acquisition

Philips Buys Volcano for $1 Billion to Boost Medical Imaging The numbers: $1bn

Royal Philips NV (PHIA) agreed to buy Volcano Corp. (VOLC) for $1 billion to expand in catheter-based imaging of the heart and blood vessels as part of a wider refocus on more profitable markets such as medical gear.

Shareholders of Volcano, whose equipment enables minimally invasive diagnostics and treatment of coronary artery disease, will receive $18 a share in cash, Philips said in a statement.

Philips Chief Executive Officer, Frans van Houten said:

“We had been on the look-out for this company.

“In the summer there was heightened interest by competitors so we decided to engage”

The takeover comes after Philips Chief Executive Officer Frans van Houten’s announcement that the 123-year-old Dutch company will be split into two, separating the lighting unit as he focuses on health-care equipment and consumer goods.

Van Houten said rival interest from competitors and a decline in Volcano’s share price spurred Philips to make its move.

Industrials / Acquisition

Consumer / Acquisition

Partners Group Agrees to Take Stake in Dynacast International

Olam Buys Archer-Daniels-Midland Cocoa Unit for $1.3bn

Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, has signed an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Dynacast International on behalf of its clients. The transaction has an overall enterprise value of $1.1 billion and is expected to close in February 2015.

Olam International Ltd. (OLAM), the commodity trader controlled by Singapore’s state investment firm, agreed to buy Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM)’s cocoa business for $1.3 billion to become a top-three processor of the bean.

The numbers: $1.1bn

Founded nearly 80 years ago, Dynacast International is a global manufacturer of small, highly complex metal components. The company uses proprietary precision die-casting and metal injection molding (MIM) technologies to produce customized, high-volume components with complex shapes and tight tolerances. Dynacast is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has 23 manufacturing plants in 16 countries worldwide, which serve a diverse client base including blue-chip customers across the automotive, telecommunications, computing, consumer electronics, and healthcare industries.

Partners Group is acquiring Dynacast from exiting financial investors and is joined in the acquisition by Kenner & Company, an existing shareholder,

and the company’s management team, which will both roll over significant equity stakes into the new transaction.

Following the close of the acquisition, Partners Group and Kenner & Company will work closely with Dynacast’s management team to support the company in the next phase of its global growth plans.

Simon Newman, Chief Executive Officer of Dynacast, said: “Dynacast has a long and rich history of continuously refining our proprietary manufacturing technologies, in-house tooling expertise and innovative design processes to manufacture highly complex metal components in a fast, repeatable and precise manner to provide greater value to our customers.

“With the investment led by Partners Group, we have the strategic support and capital backing to enter into the next phase of growth for our company.”

The numbers: $8.3bn

The deal, Olam’s biggest acquisition, draws a line under the company’s program last year of spending cuts and reducing debt in response to short-seller Muddy Waters’s questioning of its finances. It follows Olam’s smaller purchase of U.S. peanut sheller McCleskey Mills Inc. for $176 million, including debt, announced earlier this month.

Demand for cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, has risen three times faster than population growth in the last 15 years, according to Olam. While the trader already has the world’s largest bean sourcing network, the addition of ADM’s unit will give Olam processing capacity, allowing it to sell directly to buyers including Nestle SA and Hershey Co.

Cocoa powder demand in emerging markets this year is set to match that of the traditional chocolate consumers of Europe and the U.S., Olam’s global head of cocoa, Gerard Manley, said at a briefing in Singapore.

Olam’s Chief Executive Officer, Sunny Verghese said: “This proposed acquisition represents a transformational opportunity for Olam.

“It’s bang in the center of where we are differentiating by building a top-three global position in a niche commodity.”

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Corporate America /Deals Consumer / Series D Financing

Phononic Grabs $44.5m Series D The numbers: $44.5m

Phononic, a consumer products company reinventing cooling and heating, has announced that it has secured $44.5 million in Series D funding. The round was led by Eastwood Capital Corp and the Wellcome Trust, along with a syndicate comprised of WLR China Energy Infrastructure Fund, Tsing Capital, Venrock, Oak Investment Partners and Rex Health Ventures. The funds will be used to drive sales of the company’s solid state solutions in Cold Products and Electronics Cooling, penetrate new market opportunities and expand manufacturing capacity.

Phononic’s disruptive approach to cooling and heating uses semiconductor — or solid state — technology to provide sustainable, distributed, convenient, and connected thermal management solutions. The company recently introduced its first-ofits-kind refrigeration product line for laboratories, research centers and medical facilities, complementing its residential commercializa-

tion efforts. Phononic’s technology is now also being applied to fiber optics, telecommunications and data server infrastructure cooling, with thermal solutions necessary to continue Moore’s Law.

Chief Executive Officer of Phononic, Tony Atti said:

“The last year has seen tremendous and exciting growth for Phononic as more people have become aware of the gamechanging nature of our solid state thermal management technology. This latest round of financing will enable us to deliver and expand comprehensive product solutions to our customers and partners.”

TMT / Fund Raising

TMT / Fund Raising

Educational App Platform Maker Clever Scores $30m The numbers: $30m

Clever, the maker of the educational app platform used by more than 30,000 schools has announced that it has raised $30 million in a third round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, existing investor Sequoia Capital, and new partners GSV Capital and Peter Thiel. Clever will use the new investment to accelerate growth and meet increasing demand for its app platform, and continue work towards its goal of giving students and teachers back 1 billion hours of class time per year.

Clever’s platform streamlines and accelerates the integration of new educational apps for school districts and helps teachers and students maximize classroom learning time with a simple one-click login to all of their apps.

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Clever’s Chief Executive Officer, Tyler Bosmeny said:

“Along with the many benefits the new world of digital learning offers schools, teachers and students; it also presents new challenges. Our mission at Clever is to build the modern learning platform that simply makes it all work.

“With this new funding, schools can count on Clever being around forever, as a trusted partner that understands their technology needs and always puts student learning first.”

TRACE Live Network Grabs $2.5m Seed The numbers: $2.5m

Live Network, developer of The TRACEr1 – a visually intelligent camera capable of following its owner almost anywhere and live-streaming captured footage to the web – announced today, the close of its oversubscribed seed round with a raise of $2.5 million.

The round was led by the principals of Salman Partners with participation coming from various private sources within the Business Instincts Group Network.

Using proprietary video-as-a-sensor technology, The TRACEr1 has been designed to self-operate a series of motorized vehicles which will follow users into action and capture video which can then be seamlessly live-streamed to the web from a smartphone via the TRACE App. The TRACEr1 represents an entirely new product category; an intelligent camera, able to “click-in” and “click-out” of, and control, several accessory vehicles designed to suit every user environment.

Once required imaging and streaming preferences have been selected within the TRACE app, all vehicles will carry out autonomous video capture and live streaming.

Vehicles in development include; the FLYr1 quad copter designed for aerial video capture, DRIVEr ATV for groundbased capture and the FOLLOWr Gimbal Tripod.

The Founders behind the TRACE Live Network include; Cameron Chell, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of several notable technology startups including, Slyce and UrtheCast, and Paul Beard, celebrated inventor responsible for the original creation of the DVR and Internet Radio.

TRACE Live Network Founder, Cameron Chell said:

“The success of companies like GoPro has proven without doubt the desire by people to record their own great adventures. With TRACE, we’re aiming to ensure they are a part of these epic moments, rather than just the one filming them.“

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Corporate America /Deals TMT / Series C Financing

TMT / Acquisition

Riverbed Agrees to Be Bought by Thoma Bravo for $3.3bn

Scale Venture Partners Leads $25m Series C Funding in OneLogin

Telecommunications-equipment company Riverbed Technology Inc. agreed to be acquired by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC for about $3.3 billion.

OneLogin, the innovator in identity management, today announced it has closed a $25 million Series C funding round, led by Scale Venture Partners, which will be used to accelerate research and development, sales, channel, marketing and support efforts to meet growing market demand for OneLogin’s solutions.

The numbers: $33bn

Riverbed shareholders will receive $21 a share under the deal, matching a previous offer from activist shareholder Elliott Management Corp., which said it supports the transaction.

Under the deal, expected to close in the first half of next year, Kennelly would remain CEO of the company.

The transaction requires shareholder approval.

Riverbed Chief Executive Jerry M. Kennelly said:

“Thorough strategic review, during which we assessed a wide variety of options to maximize value, the board unanimously concluded that partnering with Thoma Bravo was the best choice for Riverbed.”

The numbers: $25m

Rory O’Driscoll, Partner at Scale Venture Partners, will join the OneLogin Board. Previous investors CRV and The Social+Capital Partnership also participated in the current round. This latest investment brings OneLogin’s total funding to $44 million.

Launched in 2010, OneLogin is the leading provider of a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution, enabling enterprises to secure every application, user and device. The company is now working with more than 1,000 companies from nearly every major industry, including healthcare, financial

Elliott, which has an 11.1% stake in Riverbed, has been critical of the company’s operations and management and had been calling for a sale of the company. In October, Elliott affirmed its offer of $21 a share in cash to acquire the company.

services, high tech and retail, with users in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Co-founder and CEO of OneLogin, Thomas Pedersen said:

“This additional funding is a great vote of confidence in OneLogin’s vision of how companies will put identity first, as well as in the long-term potential of our company to fuel innovation and prepare our customers for a mobile cloud world.

“We plan to use this funding to further invest in strategic product development and further accelerate our growth.”

TMT / Series A Financing

PeerNova Closes First Tranche of $8.6m Series A Round The numbers: $8.6m

PeerNova Inc has announced that it has closed the first tranche of its Series A equity and debt funding round of $8.6 million, led by Mosiak Partners. The round also includes investments from angel investor Steve Case, Ashar Aziz (Founder and CTO of FireEye), venture capital veteran Pierre Lamond, Atiq Raza (CEO of CALIENT technologies), Crypto Currency Partners and others.

A blockchain is a cryptographically secure, immutable ledger of all transactions that are part of an application. It enables new classes of secure financial asset transfer and asset registry applications that do not need trusted 3rd parties and intermediaries, thereby reducing transaction costs significantly.

PeerNova will use the new funding to boost investments in research and development, accelerate the launch of its Software as a Service (SaaS) platform and expand its service delivery capabilities by growing sales, marketing and support teams.

“We are very excited about the enormous potential of block chain technology to serve as a platform to reduce friction, costs, and improve security in e-commerce financial and other transactions,” said Miles Kilburn of Mosaik Partners. “We could not be more pleased to partner with the team at PeerNova,” Kilburn added. As part of the investment, Mr. Kilburn will be joining PeerNova’s Board of Directors.

December 2014 • CorporateAmerica • 53

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Corporate America /Deals Support Services / Acquisition

Support Services / Series A Financing

Man Group to Buy Silvermine Capital for up to $70m The numbers: $70m

Man Group Plc (EMG), the largest publicly traded U.K. hedge fund manager, agreed to buy U.S. leveraged loan manager Silvermine Capital for as much as $70 million.

The hedge fund will pay $23.5 million in cash, with $16.5 million and $30 million after one and five years, respectively, depending on management fees, the London-based firm said in a statement today. Connecticut, U.S.-based Silvermine, which has $3.8 billion of funds under management, will be integrated into GLG, operating under Man GLG Silvermine.

The shares rose 1.5 percent to 146.90 pence at 8:54 a.m. in London. They have increased about 73 percent this year, giving the company a market value of about 2.6 billion pounds. The Bloomberg European 500 Index has decreased 0.5 percent.

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Invests in CHC Group The numbers: $100m

Funds affiliated with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC (CD&R) have completed the third stage of CD&R’s investment in CHC Group Ltd. (NYSE:HELI) through the purchase of convertible preferred shares in a private placement.

shares for a price of $384 million on Nov. 12.

CHC plans to use proceeds from the investment primarily to reduce debt and other fixed charges.

Consistent with terms of an investment agreement that CHC and CD&R entered into on Aug. 21, CD&R has purchased an additional 100,000 of the preferred shares for a price of $100 million. These shares represent all of the preferred shares that were available in a rights offering to existing shareholders of CHC, an offering that was cancelled when participation by the existing shareholders failed to meet the minimum threshold for completion.

Chief Executive Officer Manny Roman has been expanding through acquisitions since he took over in February 2013. The firm, which managed $72.3 billion at the end of September, said last week it will buy fund-of-hedge fund assets from Merrill Lynch Alternative Investments, after previous acquisitions of U.S. fund-of-hedgefunds manager Pine Grove Asset Management and Numeric Holdings, a Boston-based quant manager.

This purchase by CD&R follows the purchase of 116,000 convertible preferred shares for a price of $116 million on Oct. 30, and the purchase of 384,000 convertible preferred

Support Services / Investment

Boxbee Nets $5m Series A The numbers: $5m

Boxbee, an on-demand valet storage solution for urban dwellers in New York and San Francisco, today announced it has secured $5 million in Series A funding led by Metamorphic Ventures, with participation from Floodgate, Northgate and a home improvement giant, in addition to previous investors. Since its emergence from AngelPad in 2012, Boxbee has experienced 30 percent month-over-month growth and will use the funding to further the development of its superior backend technology, operations of deliveries, and propel 2015 expansion plans.

Additionally, Boxbee’s New York headquarters is currently in hyper-growth mode, and will leverage this fresh funding to aggressively acquire pivotal positions related to growth.

“At Boxbee we’re passionate about providing our customers with a storage solution that provides the best level of service, quality, trust and efficiency,” said Boxbee CEO and 54 • CorporateAmerica • December 2014

Founder Kristoph Matthews. “This recent round of funding will allow us to further our growth beyond our current bicoastal presence to other major metropolitan areas, and continue to provide this level of service at scale.”

Metamorphic Ventures Managing Partner, David Hirsch said:

“Boxbee is the clear category leader amongst the re-imagined traditional storage industry companies.

“Boxbee’s patented logistics and technology system caters to three key themes that are shaping our environment currently – mobility, demand based, and catering to urban dwellers.”

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Corporate America /Deals Health Care / Series A-1 Funding

Health Care / Acquisition

Annexon Bioscience Closes $34m Series A-1 Funding for Novel Approach to Neurodegenerative and Autoimmune Diseases The numbers: $34m

Emergent BioSolutions Acquires Evolva’s Anti-Bacterial Programme

Annexon Bioscience has announced that it has closed a $34 million Series A-1 to support the development of its lead candidate, ANX005, for the treatment of neurodegenerative and autoimmune disorders. The round was led by Novartis Venture Funds with participating investors Satter Investment Management, LLC, and Clarus Ventures, LLC.

Evolva Holding SA (ELVAF.PK) announced that Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) has acquired Evolva’s anti-bacterial programme, the EV-035 series. For Evolva, the deal is worth up to $70.5 million plus royalties.

ANX005 is a humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits early components of the classical complement cascade.

“Annexon has what we believe to be a uniquely elegant approach to neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. Campbell Murray of Novartis Venture Funds. “The important role of the classical complement cascade in antibodymediated autoimmune disorders has been known for some time, and the discovery that it contributes to loss of nerve connections in neurodegenerative disease is highly innovative.”

Doug Love, Chief Executive Officer of Annexon said:

“Patients and families worldwide are seeking answers for these debilitating disorders, and ANX005 has the potential to become an important therapeutic agent for these conditions.

“We look forward to executing on our clinical plan to rapidly validate our platform science in Huntington’s disease.”

Huntington’s disease is a well-defined genetic disorder characterized by nerve cell loss that results in severe motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms.

Energy & Resources / Acquisition

The lead compound in the EV-035 series is the broad-spectrum antibiotic GC-072, which is being developed with US government biodefense funding. Evolva and Emergent are working closely with Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the U.S. Department of Defense on the transfer of the funding contract to Emergent, and expect the process to be completed within the next few weeks.

of broad spectrum antibiotics further aligns the company with the U.S. government’s strategic objective of combating antibioticresistant bacteria, which the Administration considers a national security priority that requires continued development funding.”

Adam Havey, Executive Vice President and President of Biodefense Division of Emergent BioSolutions said:

“Emergent’s acquisition of the EV-035 series

Energy & Resources / Acquisition

Canadian Solar Completes Sale of RayLight Solar Power Plant to Concord Pacific Energy The numbers: $56m

Canadian Solar Inc., one of the world’s largest solar power companies, has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Canadian Solar Solutions Inc., completed the sale of the 10 MW AC RayLight solar power plant (“RayLight”) valued at over C$65 million (USD$56 million) to One West Holdings Ltd., an affiliate of Concord Green Energy Inc. (“Concord”). The RayLight 10 MW AC solar power plant is located in the Township of Tay, Ontario and uses Canadian Solar’s MaxPower CS6X300/305P panels made in Canada.

BowMont Capital and Advisory acted as financial advisor to Concord on the transaction.

The numbers: $70.5m

third of five projects executed under our sales agreement with Concord, we are particularly excited with our successful cooperation with Concord, and we look forward to providing the operations and maintenance for their solar energy investment opportunities within Ontario, while fulfilling our corporate mission of creating sustainable communities.”

Repsol to Buy Talisman Energy for Hefty Premium The numbers: $13bn

Spain’s Repsol has agreed to buy Talisman Energy (TLM.TO), Canada’s fifth-largest independent oil producer, for $8.3 billion as the drop in oil prices pushes energy companies to take the plunge on big M&A deals.

Repsol will also take on $4.7 billion of Talisman’s debt.

A near halving in the oil price since June has lowered price tags on producers such as Talisman, spurring renewed interest from Repsol, which had long been searching for oil and gas assets in North America and elsewhere.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, said:

But analysts said the Spanish company had paid a hefty price for the embattled Canadian company and in the long term it could have to consider a sale of its 30 percent stake in Gas Natural (GAS.MC), a move Repsol said was not in the works.

“We are pleased to complete the sale and transfer of this utility-scale solar project to Concord Green Energy. As the

The proposed acquisition will boost Repsol’s exploration and production arm and fill a gap left by the seizure of its Argentine business, YPF, in 2012. It

will also help to cut a reliance on highrisk oil-producing areas such as Libya and Venezuela.

Chief Executive, Josu Jon Imaz said:

“It’s the right moment because now our valuation of Talisman assets is higher than the price we are paying.”

December 2014 • CorporateAmerica • 55

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Out of Office

Perfect Manors

Inspired by the “grand manor” lifestyle of America’s Gilded Age, the St. Regis Aspen Resort, at the base of Aspen Mountain, is an opulent, yet homely, base for enjoying everything the city has to offer – both on and off the piste.

Address: 315 East Dean Street Aspen, Colorado 81611 Tel: +1 970 920 3300 Web: www.stregisaspen.com

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Out of Office An uncompromising base for arbiters of fine food and wine and connoisseurs of culture and adventure seekers, the St. Regis Aspen Resort delivers a benchmark of personalised service and attention to detail amidst the relaxed spirit of the majestic Rocky Mountains.

Inspired by the “grand manor” lifestyle of the late 19th century’s Gilded Age, when Americans who achieved wealth celebrated it as never before, the imposing red-brick building, which first opened its doors in 1992, underwent in 2011 a US$40m redesign to refresh its guest rooms and public spaces.

The hotel today boasts comfortable, well- appointed guest rooms and suites, fine dining options at the fabulous restaurant or Shadow Mountain Lounge, Remède Spa, over 20,000 square feet of function space and a variety of seasonal activities for all ages year-round.

There’s a rich sense of heritage that you’ll recognise in each and every detail of your stay. Cherished traditions such as fresh flowers, afternoon tea service and midnight supper are carried out as flawlessly today as they were a century ago. Likewise, the art of sabering a bottle of champagne – using a ceremonial sword to break the entire neck away from the bottle, leaving only the base of the bottle open and ready to pour – is still practiced, and cognac and hand-rolled cigars remain an after dinner staple.

Ideally located at the base of Aspen Mountain, The St. Regis Aspen Resort is situated between the mountain’s two primary base ski lifts and within walking distance to all of Aspen’s shops, restaurants and entertainment. The hotel is just 10 minutes from Aspen’s airport and offers convenient access to all four ski areas as well as area golf courses.

In addition to the 179 Guest Rooms there are five Junior Suites, 17 One-Bedroom Suites, two Loft Suites and three Presidential Suites. Suites also include the St. Regis Signature Butler Service to assist with packing and unpacking, laundry service, shoe shines, and many other services available 24 hours a day.

For dog lovers, the hotel offers canine-friendly rooms, for a US$100 flat fee. The St. Regis Pet Program also includes inroom pet beds, dog walking service and more.

Furthermore, the St. Regis Residence Club, Aspen offers 25 two- and three-bedroom luxury fractional ownership residences.

Guest rooms, which range from around US$450 for a standard Guest Room to around US$3,650 for the Presidential Suite, include marble bathrooms featuring double vanities, hair dryer, scale and telephone, a 40-inch flatscreen TV, Individual heating and air conditioning controls and High-speed broadband and WIFI access in all guest rooms, as well as a Bose stereo CD & AM/FM clock radio.

It’s a luxurious environment that, after a strenuous day on the slopes, will make you want to simply slip into one of the Frette bathrobes and pamper yourself with the complimentary Laboratoire Remède skin and hair care amenities.

The hotel offers complete concierge services, a ski valet service, twice-daily housekeeping service including evening turndown service, complimentary morning coffee service and newspaper, complimentary aspen airport transfers, 24-hour room service, valet parking and a fully-equipped business centre offering 24-hour service.

The hotel is proud to be youngster-friendly, with the fantastic Children’s Recognition Program, which includes an “Adventure Backpack” with gifts, child-sized bathrobes, children’s concierge and more.

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Out of Office

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Out of Office Flavours of Colorado The St. Regis has an extensive menu of food and drinks that are sure to excite your culinary palate. The hotel’s Executive Chef carefully selects seasonal ingredients that complement the seasons and bring forth the natural flavours of Colorado.

Chefs Club by FOOD & WINE at The St. Regis Aspen Resort, the flagship restaurant under the Chefs Club USA brand, brings the FOOD & WINE brand to life through their signature Best New Chefs awards platform honouring the country’s most promising up-and-coming chefs. Each year, FOOD & WINE selects from their coveted list of Best New Chefs to consult and curate new menu items in collaboration with the culinary team at the restaurant to create an epicurean experience beyond expectation.

FOOD & WINE Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle oversees the wine program, while Beverage Director Anthony Bohlinger creates the hotel’s innovative cocktail program.

There’s also the Shadow Mountain Lounge, which welcomes you with a roaring fireplace and custom designed furnishings influenced by the historic aspen area culture with a contemporary attitude.

Whether relaxing by the fire, hosting friends, or cozying up to loved ones, the Shadow Mountain Lounge offers cocktails, aperitifs, wines and a selection of domestic and imported beers. It’s the perfect place to partake of a nightcap, enjoy a sweet treat, or indulge in that most American of pastimes: roasting s’mores.

Treat yourself The Remède Spa at the St. Regis Aspen Resort, which was ranked as the #1 Hotel Spa in the World by Travel & Leisure Magazine, is open seven days a week and features a wide range of treatments, including aromatherapy, body treatments, chromatherapy, energy work and facials.

The spa also features an innovative new spa treatment: Farm-to-Massage-Table (FTMT). A twist on the already popular Farm-to-Table concept, FTMT uses locally-sourced and natural ingredients to fully seduce all the senses in a multi-dimensional five course spa experience.

FTMT allows the guest to taste what they’ve smelled, sensed and seen; to treat one’s body as a palate and to be scrubbed, massaged and fed. All of this may sound a bit pretentious, but take it from us: FTMT is a truly unique experience.

Or why not get in touch with your surroundings with the evocatively-named Rocky Mountain Ritual. Created to exfoliate, smooth, and hydrate, this full body treatment starts with an invigorating exfoliation and soothing aromatherapy bath.

Your body is then enveloped in a warm hydrating cream while you enjoy a foot and scalp treatment. The treatment concludes with a 30-minute massage using a warm moisturiser.

For some, Remède Spa is a state of relaxation and complete serenity; for others it is the essence of reviving and rejuvenating. However you look at it, individual attention, personal service and signature touches are just steps from your door.

Getting out and about If you’re in Aspen, then you’ve probably come with one thing in mind: hitting the area’s renowned ski slopes. But there’s plenty more to do besides carving up the pistes.

The St. Regis Aspen Resort is home to Aspen Outfitting, the city’s most knowledgeable and attentive guide service since 1969. Guests have full access to a selection of privately guided activities in the Aspen area, including, in winter, snowmobiling, snowshoe tours, winter fly fishing, ice skating, dog sledding and shotgun shooting.

And there’s no reason to stop having fun just because the snow’s melted. When summer rolls around, there’s tennis, fly fishing, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, horseback riding, hiking, hot air ballooning, paragliding, clay target shooting, rock climbing and off-road jeep tours.

If you’d rather stay around the hotel, the St. Regis boasts an amazing heated outdoor swimming pool, complete with sundeck and three heated outdoor spas.

During the summer season, lunch is served poolside.

And if it all gets a bit too much, why not sneak off to the Astor Library, a warm and inviting place to curl up by the fire and get lost in a good book, meet friends for pre or post-dinner cocktails or just relax and take in the scenery of the mountains.

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January 2015 / Planner

January 2015 / Planner 4 5 6 7 8 14 15 9 10 11 12 New Years Day

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American Economic Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA

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Martin Luther King Day

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17 18 International Economic Development Council Leadership Summit, Palm Beach, FL

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World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2015, Davos, Switzerland

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