10 Months at Lightspeed: Delivering Value Through Bank Advisory Services

After 6 years working as a Commercial Banker at BNZ, I was looking for a new challenge that utilized my banking and finance background and provided lots of opportunity for professional growth.

When the opportunity arose to join Andersen, I wasn’t sure how transferable my skill set was, but after meeting the team and hearing about future plans, I was very keen to give it a go with very little arm twisting.

I joined Andersen in July 2022, and my primary responsibility was to set up the Banking Advisory team that would be responsible for empowering clients to confidently engage with Banks and help them access the funding they need to support and grow their businesses.

Establishing the Banking Advisory capability involved developing an end-to-end process, building an internal risk appetite framework, completing a client engagement model and documentation, and establishing a credit committee.

Since July, the team and I have successfully worked through a significant number of banking advisory engagements with both new and existing clients. The engagements have included seeking bank support for short-term working capital funding through to a full non-bank funding solutions and everything in between. Fundamental to the process has been developing a deep understanding of our clients’ businesses and their funding requirements, then pitching the financial and non-financial story to Banks and private investors to obtain the necessary funding.

The complexity of the business and their funding relationships has often resulted in the initial bank advisory engagement evolving into a much broader piece of work. In turn, this has meant that the job of running the Bank Advisory function has developed into an end-to-end consulting advisory role and I now spend a significant amount of my time working with our clients on various engagements including:

• Working with advisory boards to help businesses develop clearly defined strategies and plans to achieve them.
• Working with leadership teams on the development of performance and accountability frameworks
• Developing financial reporting and budgeting capabilities to monitor and improve business performance
• Complete organisation restructures with the aim of improving oversight, efficiency, and accountability.
• Complete executive remuneration reviews, benchmarking, and dividend policies in order to incentivize and retain key personnel plus improve tax efficiency.
• Succession planning
• Develop business information memorandums to take businesses to market and working with external advisors and potential buyers through the sale process.
• Management buy-ins and buy-outs
• Business acquisitions

The work I have been involved in during the last 10 months has been varied, complex and challenging and I reckon I’m only just scratching the surface.

I joined Andersen because I wanted to work with smart capable people in a nimble business environment that would push my banking and finance skills and provide plenty of opportunity for professional growth. So far, I haven’t been disappointed.