The Stress Test Every Business Needs: A Capital Agenda for Confidently Facing Digital Disruption, Difficult Investors, Recessions and Geopolitical Threats - Hardcover

Greene, Jeffrey R.; Krouskos, Steve; Hood, Julie; Basnayake, Harsha; Casey, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1119417945 ISBN 13: 9781119417941

Publisher: Wiley, 2018

Synopsis

Future-proof your business today for stronger performance tomorrow

The Stress Test Every Business Needs: A Capital Agenda for Confidently Facing Digital Disruption, Difficult Investors, Recessions and Geopolitical Threats provides a comprehensive approach to creating value and flexibility in an increasingly volatile business environment that presents both great risks and opportunities every day. The authors extend the banking “stress test” concept to a company’s Capital Agenda — how executives manage capital, execute transactions and apply corporate finance tools to strategic and operational decisions. Having a static Capital Agenda, however appropriate for your current market position, is not enough in today's uncertain world. Long-term success comes from building resilience into each element and in the way those elements interact.

The book uses a broader definition of business stress that includes traditional macroeconomic and geopolitical risks, as well as technological disruption, hostile takeovers and activist shareholders. Companies that make poor strategic decisions or underperform operationally will likely find themselves facing great stress. And that stress is symmetric; threats come from downside risks and from missed opportunities.

The chapters address the how and why of essential issues such as:

• Formulating corporate strategy in a digital world
• Pre-empting activist shareholders
• Restoring distressed companies to operational and financial health
• Ensuring effective collaboration among strategy, finance and operations
• Getting the most out of your advisors
• Proactively managing intrinsic value
• Rigorously allocating capital across the enterprise
• Acquiring and divesting for optimum value
• Syncing financing decisions with business strategy and capital market conditions
• Incorporating tax planning throughout the Capital Agenda
• Liberating excess cash with leading working capital management practices
• Aligning strategic goals and metrics to reach your company’s full potential

Companies that develop strategy and set operational priorities with a balanced Capital Agenda are best positioned to control their own destiny. The Stress Test Every Business Needs provides a roadmap to future-proof your business today for stronger performance tomorrow. 

About this title

From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR THE STRESS TEST EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS

"The authors have distilled decades of specialized experience into compelling recommendations for executives striving to create value in a volatile world. One reason why I've worked with EY over the years is the depth of its bench, and I see a similar depth in the practical advice covered in this book."
—Robert Nardelli, Founder, XLR-8, LLC, Former Chairman and CEO of The Home Depot and Chrysler

"The book's clarity and comprehensive coverage make it an excellent practitioner's guide to strategic capital management, especially for CEOs and CFOs who usually have to learn these lessons 'on the job'."
—Richard S. Ruback, Willard Prescott Smith Professor of Corporate Finance, Harvard Business School

"The authors expertly and succinctly detail how companies need to work, think and act differently to align their capital agenda to ensure profitable, sustainable growth–both organic and inorganic."
—Nicholas Fanandakis, Executive Vice President, DowDuPont; Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, DuPont

"This insightful book deserves to be read by a wide audience. For C-suite executives it is a salutary reminder and checklist to analyse and adapt to the dynamic ways investors and competitors argue for and deliver shareholder value. Conversely, this is a substantial resource for finance professionals seeking to understand the common disparities between market and internal views. Highly recommended."
—Andrew Baum, Managing Director and Global Head of Healthcare Research, Citigroup, Inc.

"Strategic capital allocation is the key to long-term value creation and this book provides actionable insights into how to drive returns from high priority activities like complex acquisition integration and synergy capture."
—Mark Long, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Western Digital Corporation

"This collaboration has the potential to be the rarest of books—an instant classic. The authors have produced what I consider to be a significant contribution to the discussion of all matters capital. In a world of transformative surprises a resilient Capital Agenda must be the goal of every C-suite."
—Professor Tasadduq Shervani, Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University

This vital resource synthesizes lessons from thousands of client engagements by EY's Transaction Advisory Services. Companies that formulate strategy and set operational priorities with a balanced Capital Agenda are best positioned to control their own destiny. The Stress Test Every Business Needs provides a roadmap to future-proof a business today for stronger performance tomorrow.

For more information, see ey.com/capitalagenda

From the Inside Flap

The Stress Test Every Business Needs: A Capital Agenda for confidently facing digital disruption, difficult investors, recessions and geopolitical threats is a comprehensive approach to creating value and flexibility in an increasingly volatile business environment that presents both great risks and opportunities every day. The authors extend the banking stress test concept to a company's "Capital Agenda"—how executives manage capital, execute transactions, and apply corporate finance tools to strategic and operational decisions. Long-term success comes from building resilience into each element and in the way those elements interact.

The book considers traditional macroeconomic, sovereign-risk, and commodity-related shocks as well as how to deal with technological disruption, hostile takeovers, and activist shareholders. Companies that make poor strategic decisions or underperform operationally—even in a benign economic and geopolitical climate—will likely find themselves facing great stresses, not only from downside risks but from missed opportunities as well.

Drawing upon the experience of an international group of EY Transaction Advisory Services colleagues, the book challenges readers to think differently about many of the issues facing company executives today, including:

• Setting corporate strategy in a digital world
• Pre-empting activist shareholders
• Using advisors wisely
• Proactively managing intrinsic value
• Allocating capital across the enterprise
• Acquiring and divesting for optimum value
• Liberating excess cash
• Integrating strategy, finance and operations to realize a company's full potential

Time and time again, EY's Capital Agenda framework has proven to be a valuable tool to help boards and management teams make better, more informed decisions in today's ever-changing markets.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1119417945
• ISBN 13: 9781119417941
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272