The Nifty 50 Websites and Resources for StreetSavvy Business Executives

My business partner, Brian Newton, and I were talking about resource for business executives.  Since I host a segment of a business cable TV Show called EYE on Business (Time Warner/Spectrum) and my section focuses on StreetSavvy Business (from my days growing up on the streets of New York, hence the image to the left), we decided to develop a "Nifty 50" list of those sites and resources that would be ideal for the StreetSavvy Business Executive.   StreetSavvy Business is aimed at finding solutions to complex business problems and by so doing executives are leading their companies in new thoughts, directions, and opportunities.   StreetSavvy Business is a way to prevent companies from regressing to the mean - and worse, mediocrity.

There more than 750 million URLs for websites in the US and around 200 million that are “active.” There are certain sites because of their breadth, content or unique perspective that can help entrepreneurs and executives alike in understanding the business environment, changing behaviors of different segments of the population, the economic environment, and the political environment. C-Level Partners put together a selection of sites that they have found to be useful to business leaders of all kinds.

We divided these sites into categories but clearly there is overlap among the websites. Based on the collective wisdom of C-Level Partners and its advisory group of more than 60 C-Level Executives, these are the sites that are used time after time by those queried.

Much of the information is free while there are premium services or subscription services. Even if there is a fee for premium services, signing up for the blogs or free newsletters will help the executive get and stay ahead. A word of caution: A website is only as good as the information that it provides for an intended purpose.

General Business

www.businessweek.com Originally called Businessweek and now called Bloomberg Businessweek, this magazine provides information and opinions on what is happening in the business world. It focuses on issues shaping markets, technology and politics, and provides options on developments which affect the business world.

www.ceo.com CEO.com is a resource for executives seeking out the latest in business news and leadership strategy. Our editors probe the web and handpick the most relevant content for the site that will help you become a more effective business leader.

www.cfo.com Targeting corporate financial executives this site offers information on Accounting & Tax, Banking & Capital Markets, Risk & Compliance, Strategy and Technology. Their content includes articles on current topics, white papers and links to other relevant content.

www.cio.com For this site’s content the “i” means “Information” so much of the content is related to technology topics. When visiting the site in January 2017 I noticed a piece on European privacy regulation which, having lived in London for 14 years, can be a minefield. Given the current state of flux in these regulations, a firm with activities linked to Europe would be well-served to remain compliant. Of course, there were many technology related items on this site which has extensive content.

www.forbes.com Published bi-weekly, Forbes features original articles on finance, industry, investing and marketing topics. Forbes also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science and law.

www.fortune.com Fortune Magazine competes with Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek in the national business magazine category and distinguishes itself with long, in-depth feature articles.^[2]  The magazine is best known for the Fortune 500, a ranking of companies by revenue that it has published annually since 1955.

Economic/Financial/Political/Technical

www.ft.com The Financial Times is the cornerstone of international business news, analysis, market data and company information. It provides perspective on global business issues and provides clarity in a complex business world. Also, as it is UK based, the points of view presented are less US-centric than many other publications in this list. 

www.money.cnn.com Purportedly the largest business website, CNN Money provides information on business, markets, technology, media, luxury, personal finance and a section on small business.

www.theeconomist.com The commentary makes it a requisite for any business professional. You need to stay up to date on all news to cultivate partnerships and understand the new realities of both the political and economic climate to be successful whether you are an entrepreneur or a corporate executive. Like the FT mentioned above, The Economist is UK-based and the point of view is less US-centric and thus useful for US executives to better understand communications with overseas partners or customers.

www.reuters.com Reuters.com brings you the latest news from around the world, covering breaking news in business, politics, entertainment, technology, video and pictures.

www.research.stlouisfed.org.  The St Louis Fed offers an outstanding range of publications and data on economic, financial and policy issues. Their FRED service is the data service and they make available an Excel Add-in that allows you to download historical data including thousands of series covering the entire world.

www.gartner.com, www.forrester.com, www.idc.com We lump all these together and you can add others as well. These sites provide market research, analysis and advisory services on a range of technology and Information Technology that is critical for the Chief Information Officer, Marketer and even other executives to understand.

Investment/New Technology

www.yahoofinance.com Yahoo Finance provides one of the most complete sites for business, finance and stock market news including quotes on stocks, options, and portfolio management.

www.investors.com One of my favorite sites with news and information that moves the markets and a complete tool for analyzing stocks and financial markets. It has a new America section which focuses on technology trends and companies that will change the economy.

www.motleyfool.com This is Dave and Tom Gardner’s site which became famous for its investment insight, and analysis of stocks. You can also find out which stocks and industries will make the most changes to our economy during the coming years.

www.marketwatch.com MarketWatch operates a financial information website that provides business news, analysis, and stock market data. It is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp.

www.seekingalpha.com Seeking Alpha is a crowd-sourced content service for financial markets. Articles and research cover a broad range of stocks, asset classes, ETFs and investment strategies.

Leadership/Management

www.bain.com Bain is a top management consulting firm that advises companies on strategy, marketing, organization, operations, IT and just about every aspect of business. They have a tab called Insights which is their blog that can help executives find new ideas that generate results.

www.mckinsey.com In the same vein as Bain, McKinsey and Company is a global management consulting firm that serves leading businesses, governments, non-government organizations and non-profits and helps them realize their performance goals. Their blog provides stories about people and research which might be useful to find and implement new ideas.

www.strategy-business.com Business strategy news articles for CEOs, corporate executives, and decision makers who influence international business management.  Their prime focus is to highlight the complex choices that leaders face — in strategy, marketing, operations, human capital, governance and other domains — and the impact of their decisions.

www.enpinstitute.com Executive Next Practices Institute is a research, collaboration, and thought leader forum composed of several thousand C-Level executives from Fortune 5000 companies, including those from C-Level Partners. Their focus is on first look innovations, beyond the current best practices.

www.cebglobal.com CEB (formerly known as the Corporate Executive Board) is a best practice insight company with several subspecialties in HR, IT/Operations, Marketing and other functional areas. It develops its programs in partnership with leading organizations around the globe and shares solutions to drive corporate performance and to effectively manage talent, customers and operations.

www.hbr.org Harvard Business Review is one of the cornerstone magazines for new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation, leadership, technology and marketing from the world’s best management and business thinkers.

www.linkedin.com Everyone should be on LinkedIn, the largest professional database. You can find people, new opportunities, and through groups engage in dialogs on trends, technology, marketing, business, economics and almost everything else. By participating in posting articles or sharing information you will also encourage others to find you and that can lead to business deals. Everyone likely knows that Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016.

www.edgar-online.com EDGAR Online is a leader in helping professionals uncover intelligence from financial disclosures. EDGAR Online offers distribution of company data and public filings for equities, mutual funds and other publicly traded assets. Check out the 10k filings of publicly traded companies to get a good understanding of the business climate and insight into their business strategy.

www.marshallgoldsmith.com Marshall Goldsmith is a leadership coach with some of the key corporate, public and non-profit leaders of the world. His books include What Got You Here Won’t Get Your There are insightful and offer many useful suggestions for motivating and energizing your teams. Also, his subscription service provides weekly 3- to 5-minute videos which offer useful suggestions for better handling challenging, or even very obvious, situations.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

www.cbinsights.com This venture and start-up website contains a private company financing and angel investment database. It also provides excellent infographics on technology trends and shares eco-systems of market categories.

www.slideshare.net Authors, writers, and companies share their information through presentations, infographics, and documents. Owned by LinkedIn, you can now link your presentations to your LinkedIn account.

www.techcrunch.com. TechCrunch is a leading technology media property, dedicated obsessively to profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news. Check out its companion site, www.crunchbase.com, which provide an excellent database on innovative companies, their funding, and the people behind them.

www.ted.com TED Talks are inspiring and revealing. While the site talks about new ideas and trends, it is more than a site for entrepreneurs as it has a strong community. Information from these talks is beneficial to both entrepreneurs and successful corporate business people. Check out www.mashable.com as well, as these two are nice complements to each other.

www.fastcompany.com Fast Company provides a breath of fresh air as it inspires new innovative and creative thought leaders who are inventing the future of business. While aimed at the younger generation and start-ups, Fast Company provides good information on leadership and management that is applicable to the corporate executive as well giving them an edge in business.

http://www.eofire.com This is a platform and podcast for entrepreneurs and marketers. Founder, John Lee Dumas, interviews inspiring Entrepreneurs.

www.quora.com Leaders and entrepreneurs in the tech industry share their information and answer questions from the reader base.

www.entrepreneur.com This site provides the latest in news and advice for the startup entrepreneur. And the information is also useful for those in the corporate world who delve into innovation.

www.inc.com Find out the latest in tips, news, management, leadership and other resources for entrepreneurs from one of the most reputable magazines in the industry.

Marketing

www.chiefmarketer.com Chief Marketer serves marketing professionals at consumer and business-to-business brands, as well as their agencies, with rich, detailed information on measurable marketing strategies, tactics and techniques. Marketing executives discuss marketing and technology challenges, how to understand the relationships, and how to determine which tools are most effective, and the role of data and content.

www.hoovers.com Hoovers has one of the largest databases for use by business people, sales people, marketers and others and which provides in-depth information on more than 85 million companies. You can use this for targeted mailing lists and depending on the subscription you choose, you can get industry information and competitive information as well.

www.advertisingage.com Advertising Age has been around for a very long time and this website helps marketers understand advertising as part of the overall marketing mix. Many marketers still are behind in digital marketing knowledge and this site can help by sharing ideas on what others are doing. As part of Advertising Age, www.btobonline.com provides specific information for the B2B marketer including news, advice, trends and technology.

www.avention.com Avention is the new name for OneSource, a database of companies that marketers can use to find information on companies in their industry, competitors and even use it as a lead source for direct marketing campaigns.

www.marketingtoday.com Marketing Today is a combination marketing magazine and blog covering such topics as general marketing, digital marketing, social media, advertising and public relations.

www.marketo.com Marketo is basically a marketing automation site and a good one at that. It provides through its webinars, events and blogs a host of useful information that marketers can use to generate sales and partners.

www.hubspot.com Hubspot has a fantastic blog covering a range of sales and marketing topics, including A/B testing, content marketing and e-mail marketing.

www.econsultancy.com Econsultancy shares the latest digital marketing and ecommerce insight from a team of analysts and experts.

www.kissmetrics.com The KISSmetrics blog aims to help you track, analyze and optimize your digital marketing.

Miscellaneous/ Specialty

www.apple.com/education/itunes-u The iTunes U app gives you access to complete courses from leading universities and other schools — plus the world's largest digital catalog of free education content — right on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

www.businessinsider.com This site has spent the past few years providing free articles and reports on a wide range of business, technology and policy issues. Quite recently they have begun to charge fees for many of their reports, which are, in fact, well researched. However, whether they’ll be considered value-for-money has yet to be determined.

www.instantcheckmate.com This is a relatively new yet interesting site which claims to have the ability to find out background information on most people. You can use it to verify people you want to hire or partner with.

www.lynda.com This site contains over 2,000 video courses on a wide range of topics which are led by industry recognized instructors. For an introduction to a new area of interest, or to dig deeper on a topic than you already are, this site likely has courses to meet your needs. This is available for a small registration fee and offers a 12-week free trial so you can assess whether this is right for you.

www.mashable.com Mashable is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company with a focus on the intersection of technology and culture. Check out its YouTube channel as well.

www.wired.com Wired probably needs no explanation. Everyone is connected in some way to something or someone. The content is current, often leading edge material that typically is reliable. If you are unfamiliar with it, check it out. Likely you’ll be impressed and use it going forward.

If you are interested in becoming a StreetSavvy Business Executive, call me or Brian to find out how you can qualify for a complimentary 45 minute appraisal.   My telephone is 949 4394503 and email is dfriedman@clevelpartners.net.  Brian's email is bnewton@clevelpartners.net.  

How Successful Leaders Prioritize - When Less is More

An old Russian Proverb says:  If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. Think about

that in the context of priorities at work and the resources companies need to employ to chase those priorities. How many of you have worked for a company where the boss indiscriminately piled on projects that sounded just too good to pass up? CEO said that the company is not doing enough and her desire was to see how many more projects can be handled? 

One of my colleagues, Dennis Drent, was a new CEO of a specialty insurance company. It was an operational turnaround situation and much needed to be done to correct course. With the best of intentions, Dennis tried to fix all the problems in his first year! Needless to say, nothing got done in that first 12 months. In year two, Dennis directed the management team to choose the three top priorities after rigorous debate. All three initiatives were completed and the results began to improve immediately.

When I worked for US Cellular, a new CEO came on board and while I did not subscribe to everything he said, I did like his approach to strategic initiatives. He told us that we will focus on doing one thing well and when that is complete we will move on to the next priority.

I personally believe that there is a middle ground whereby the resources and competencies of a company determine how many projects can be handled simultaneously. Yet even with multiple projects, when a critical need arises, resources are refocused on the top priority.  So how do you know what is really a priority?  How do you set priorities?  How do you manage priorities?  And how do you incorporate their prioritization results into a "business battle rhythm?” 

Here are 6 steps to setting and managing priorities.  If you want copies of these tools, please write to me at dfriedman@clevelpartners.net and I will send them to you.

 Clearly define the project or initiative. Make sure there is clarity of the end results and the metrics for success. One tool we use is the Opportunity Template, a picture of which is located here. 

Note that each project has a clear owner, i.e. the person defined as “A” on the top line and has the basic tasks and metrics laid out.    

      Develop and use a process to rate and score the various, and perhaps disparate projects. One tool we use is called the Analytical Hierarchical Process. It ensures that the evaluators and decision makers agree on the way the projects are evaluated. 

In this case, I show a one level system and the key areas of evaluation are strategic, financial, competencies, and operational. Each area is weighted and a score can be given on how well the project meets that criteria.  A total score is then developed and an ordinal ranking of the projects can be determined.  If there is a legal or regulatory requirement that must be completed in the planning cycle, that automatically goes to the top of the list.

While many executives don’t like a mechanical process, the exercise enables all projects to be evaluated in a consistent manner based on what the organization or company wants to achieve.  If there are lots of projects, the executives can see what is on top and what is on the bottom and can debate which project is to be staffed with the right resources. The goal is to help the decision making, not to let a mechanical process determine the answer.

Resource the project with the right people.  Develop a strong team. This sounds so simple yet sometimes is hard to do. At C-Level Partners, one of the tools we use is called RACI. This enables projects to be resourced correctly. Eventually, depending on the number of projects, companies will run out of the right resources as those resources will become a limiting constraint. RACI stands for:

• Responsible:  who will be assigned to work on the project
• Accountable:  who has the authority to make a decision and whose head will roll if something goes bump in the night?
• Consulted:   who are the stakeholders that will be consulted before a decision is made
• Informed:  who has to be kept updated on the project e.g. those whose work depends on the project?             

      Track progress through a dashboard and make the project part of the organization or businesses “battle rhythm.”A business battle rhythm is a way the organization manages its business activities, processes, decisions and control points.  If these projects are priorities, in my opinion, they should be part of the executive dashboard where the results are measured, tracked, and adjustments made to the plan. We use a stop light tool on the overall project as well as on the subordinate tasks.  Each task or project is given a Green light (things are on target and going well, a Yellow light (the project is in for some turbulence and this is an early warning of potential issues), or a Red light (we are missing milestones and metrics and need to put more resources on the project, change course, or abandon the activity). 

       Note on abandoning projects. Abandoning projects is something that is difficult. Many companies never kill a project because there is too much politics in admitting failure. At one company we worked, executives were brutal. If a project was off course and in retrospect they made a mistake the executives killed the project.  When I was a VP at Ameritech I publicly made a special award to people who made the right business decision and one award was to a director for killing a favorite project.  The person who received the award did not want it because he perceived it would kill his career.  It did not! People were in shock at first. But abandoning projects for the right reason yielded some discipline to the company as people knew if a project they were on didn’t perform there would be accountability.

      Proactively manage risks.  We believe in managing risk and the impact of those risks on any project especially those that are strategic, revenue oriented, or operationally critical. One way to do this is through a tool called the Risk Impact Matrix which lays out the risks to a strategic objective, a project, a product or other priority.  Once the risks and potential impact is specified, the person in charge of the opportunity or project will work with the team to determine ways to develop contingency plans.  These contingency plans will be put into place if the overall project or even some of the tactics veer off course. See Brian Newton’s blog on ways to measure and manage at http://clevelpartners.blogspot.com/2016/02/defining-ways-to-measure-and-manage-risk.html.

      Conduct post mortems. Every organization is a learning organization. What this means is that we learn from our successes but sometimes we learn more from our failures. After a project is completed or terminated, the team lead, the person accountable, should provide a post mortem debriefing to determine what went well, what did not go well, and share the learnings of the project with other executives and team leads.

An Example

Let’s see how one fictionalized company handled priority setting.  Let’s look at a fictionalized company called HyperCorp.  The executives developed a list of projects prior to an executive off site that each thought would be important to the company and their functional area.  The initial list of 25 projects was winnowed down to 7 based on their determination that these projects met their financial, operational, strategic goals and they had the competencies and skills to resource these projects.  Some projects would have high priorities for the executive team itself, others for HR, others for IT and still others for Marketing and Sales.

This executive team concluded that of these 7 projects, two – integrating a newly acquired company and updating operating systems to conform to a new regulatory compliance requirement had to be accomplished.   These two initiatives consumed a substantial amount of IT resources; yet the good news was that integrating two companies used operational IT resources whereas updating the operating system required application development. 

The Marketing and Sales team had to make a choice as it did not have the resources to perform more than one initiative and because IT resources were consumed on the two higher priorities, Marketing and Sales had to forgo launching a new product at this time. 

The team decided to focus on only four projects:

1.       Updating the operating system for compliance

2.       Integrating the newly acquired company

3.       Redesigning and updating the website to remain competitive and to improve customer acquisition

4.       Designing a new sales compensation plan to retain and engage the sales team

One executive was given primary responsibility (the “A”) for each respective initiative, was required to develop a detailed project plan using the RACI system, and was obligated to report the status in monthly operations reviews.    The initiatives were announced to the entire company with the CEO stating that if anyone is ever in doubt about priorities, these initiatives get “fed first” in the order listed.  Case closed.

If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority!!!  Accordingly, this blog provides some structure and tools to be used by corporate executives to manage their priorities.  The number of priorities may vary in different organizations. Yet, in my estimation, at the top level of each company or organization, there should be a clear focus on no more than 2-4 priorities which are properly resourced. As one priority is finished, then the company can move on to the next one. We, at C-Level Partners are here to help you and your company with determining your priorities and advising on managing these projects.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at dfriedman@clevelpartners.net.  Also please like this blog and feel free to share it or forward it to your colleagues and friends who might have an interest. 

Risk Management as a Competitive Edge

Managing Risks in Small to Mid-sized Firms

I’d like to pick up where I left off in my last post concerning risk management. In that piece, the context was set in larger firms, although the core issues apply regardless of firm size. Let’s put a little more specificity on this issue for smaller firms. How should these smaller companies manage and mitigate the risks to which they are exposed?

Recall our earlier discussion on identification and evaluation of risks. Small and mid-sized firms also need to do this and focus on the relevant risks (those of higher expected impact) to their businesses.

First, they’ve got to identify the risks that warrant their attention. From where do they source their inputs? How tightly do they manage inventory? What contractual obligations do they have with their customers? Are their workers highly skilled and thus difficult to replace on short notice? These can then be mapped into a table exemplified by the above. And the list may be quite long, but let’s go through the following fictionalized case.

Consider a maker of consumer products that require three types of inputs, two of which are widely available at the desired quality level. The third, however, is sourced from the lone supplier in the area. What happens to their business if that supplier can no longer deliver? The company needs to evaluate the risk level (low, medium, or high) and the potential risk impact (which in this case is very high). The company needs to develop mitigation plans now or prepare a plan in case of non-delivery. Clearly planning now is preferred.

If they know of alternative suppliers outside the area then they may only need to contact two or three of them and arrange a cost-effective substitute input. Or they can develop a plan for a dual supplier relationship with contract terms that include delivering a multiple of the requirement within a specified period of time. This will affect their margins in the short term but likely will be manageable and allow them to deliver to their customers. Keeping tabs on their supply chain, having relationships with possible alternative suppliers and having a game plan (e.g., shipping alternatives) for obtaining the input will be critical should a negative event occur. Also, opening supplier discussions may facilitate their firm’s expansion into new markets. This is not just risk management activity – arguably it is also business development activity. The value created from implementing this plan is very high.

When a negative event occurs that impacts the firm’s ability to deliver to their customers, timely and effective communication is key for managing the situation. A point person accountable for contacting customers should be nominated and that person carries out all direct communication to clients. That same person also vets any other communications and message platforms to be distributed (press releases, blog posts, website updates, the lot). The same message needs to be delivered to all recipients to eliminate confusion. The last thing the company wants to hear is that customers that have spoken with each other after the direct communications have been delivered and now some are calling to complain.

If a firm has highly skilled and experienced staff this may prove to be difficult and potentially a liability. There are ways to hedge this risk (cross-training, detailed and up-to-date procedures, key-man insurance) but not all are cost effective, especially for smaller firms. Of course, we’ve all heard the excuse that documentation prevents progress and costs too much. Well, no documentation may well have led to some period of better bottom lines. But, when that key person contracts a serious case of the flu, the operation may grind to a halt. Customers not receiving their orders timely may opt to find an alternative supplier. And if your operational stall is lengthy, those lost customers will not necessarily choose to be exposed to your company’s delivery risk to them! Documentation and training to facilitate better handling of negative events, as well as vacation time for your staff, is an investment that will pay continuing dividends. This is not limited to risk events, but can be used to demonstrate a competitive advantage to prospects. A tight ship presents fewer risks for any potential customer.

Oh yes, we live and work in southern California, so we have at least two risks that are given by our location: earthquakes and fires. And actually, when we experience the latter, the next time (perhaps years down the road) we are blessed with rain, the problems of land movement and flooding are relevant. All of these events have different probabilities and several are unlikely. Yet the implications of not planning for how to adapt may be the difference between surviving and going out of business.
In passing we point out that there is no industry link to these risks – whether you produce some type of consumer product, are in the supply chain of another producer, or provide services for the community in which you operate – all firms are exposed to these events and their consequences.

An example comes to mind. A friend and small business owner sources tissues from global tissue banks. He then processes these samples to produce inputs used in medical research laboratories around the world. His operation is quite small and critically dependent on freezers to preserve the tissue samples he uses as inputs.

The first time he showed me around his business, I asked whether he had a back-up power generator. A bit to my surprise his response was no. He had asked the landlord about it some years ago but the issue dropped off the radar. So his business, located in a relatively rural location but clearly exposed to both earthquakes and fires, was at risk if there was a power disruption. The cost of a back-up diesel generator with sufficient capacity for keeping his freezer units operating was about $4,000 when I checked. And diesel is a much safer fuel than gasoline and the technology itself is more than proven.
One last point. While head of risk and compliance at a major investment firm in London, I heard the story of a much larger sister organization in California that had acquired a back-up generator. Then when the parent’s risk team visited to confirm their risk management was up to scratch, one visiting person asked to see the back-up generator and found it had not been connected! The key takeaway is that regardless of your risk plan, companies should test and perform disaster scenario planning on at least a yearly basis depending on the type of company.

When you deal with risk issues, the questions one asks typically are not industry-specific but rather are almost generic. What are the supply chain issues? What are the downstream issues? Does the firm have a business continuity plan? Does the firm have a calling tree? Does the firm conduct unannounced tests of both the calling tree and business continuity plan? If so, what have been the results of the most recent tests? Who are the key staff and are any at risk of leaving?

Answers to these questions likely will expose gaps that need to be assessed for impact and, if appropriate, steps taken to fill the gaps. The PRASE Methodology that C-Level Partners employs in working with clients is a natural for moving a business from the current higher-risk operational state to the desired lower risk state with known and understood remaining risks to be managed going forward.

All companies want to know the cost. Our rule of thumb is that that a firm should be spending about 2% of its budget on risk management. This includes insurance premia (with these policies you are offloading the risk, but you have to take care to understand what coverage you have [recall those Farmers’ ads!]), staff and management time to create and maintain documentation, monitoring firm activities, etc. So a company with a budget of $50 million should be spending about $1 million on risk management – relevant, but not huge. And a company has to ask the flip side of that question: What would it cost if something went bump in the night and your operations went down? Can you recover? Will your customers remain loyal or would they shift to a competitor and never return. All these questions can be addressed in a risk audit.

If you have a different view, please let me know as I’m always interested in others’ views. And if you would like a copy of our risk checklist feel free to contact me at bnewton@clevelpartners.net or on (949) 445-1080 x301. I look forward to hearing from you and discussing how we can help improve your business and enhance value creation.