Next Meeting

Date: 
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Keynote Speaker: 
Dan Ruchman
Title: Talking the language of business: Financial Concepts for the Non-Financial Executive in Transition During the course of what will be looked back on as the Great Recession, jobseekers need every advantage to differentiate them from their Brand X competitors for a limited number of available jobs. One way to do this is not only to demonstrate the knowledge required for the specific position, but to show by your comments and your questions that you understand the broader context in which the position and the business operate. If you understand the language of finance - finance being the lingua franca of business - you will be more effective in the employment mating dance and more effective in your job itself. Said another way, you will impress the company in the interview process, you will learn more about the company and you will move up faster in the company.

During the course of what will be looked back on as the Great Recession, jobseekers need every advantage to differentiate them from their Brand X competitors for a limited number of available jobs. One way to do this is not only to demonstrate the knowledge required for the specific position, but to show by your comments and your questions that you understand the broader context in which the position and the business operate. If you understand the language of finance - finance being the lingua franca of business - you will be more effective in the employment mating dance and more effective in your job itself. Said another way, you will impress the company in the interview process, you will learn more about the company and you will move up faster in the company.

In this session, you will learn:

What is business? - defining mission and success The language of business Measuring success P&L Balance sheet Shareholder stuff Numeric but non financial things Financial milestones, traffic lights and alarm bells Key metrics and how to talk about them Bringing it all together BIO Summary:

Dan Ruchman is President of Ruchman & Associates, a business and financial consultancy helping early stage businesses develop a plan for their business and raise money, and helping later stage companies going through a transition - acquiring or being acquired, struggling to survive or breaking through to a higher level. He is also Managing Director (San Diego) for MJF & Associates, a young tax, audit and consulting firm with an operating philosophy refreshingly different from the "Big 4". He is passionate about helping companies plan their growth, model their business, control operations, analyze and solve problems and increase profitability, and believes that a firm's outside auditors, tax advisors and operations consultants should give their clients an intense level of customer service, maintaining an outsider's level of objectivity with an insider's dedication to serving the company. His style, whether as a consultant or a CFO, is to work closely with the CEO and other members of the management team. With 25+ years of experience in both large and small companies, his background includes strategic and operational planning, financial reporting, venture and bank financing, financial analysis, systems implementations, human resource management, investor relations, corporate governance and other areas. He was VP finance and administration at Phyton Biotech, director of financial planning and analysis for Bausch & Lomb, group controller at Computer Consoles, and CFO at Inslaw, a software firm. He graduated from Princeton University, and holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management. He resides in San Diego, is active in a number of professional organizations, contributes time pro bono as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at SD Connect, and is on the liberal arts advisory board of the Rochester Institute of Technology. And when goaded, Dan can also play some mean blues and rock 'n' roll on the piano.