How to Spot Trouble Ahead of Time

The New Year is a good time to take a fresh look at your company’s income statement. When business owners look at their monthly profit-and-loss statements, they may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg. It’s what looms underneath — that may cause enough damage to sink the ship — six or nine months down the road. Spotting trouble ahead of time takes more […]

What It Means to Marry Into a Family Business

When a family business negatively impacts a courtship, strongly consider how it could destroy a marriage relationship by reading a recent blog post by Platinum’s Bill English, “I Can’t Marry Into This.” Bill says, “This story is a compilation of three different calls I received last year that were remarkably similar. All three found me via this web site and called me for advice: two […]

Manufacturing and HR Specialists Join Platinum Group to Advise Business Owners

Platinum Group, a management consulting firm that advises business owners, private equity funds and family offices, announces that two new Executive Consultants have joined the firm: Greg Backlund brings 35 years of experience to Platinum in the areas of manufacturing operations, process improvement and Lean manufacturing. Jennifer Strom helps business owners develop human resources (HR) strategies in the areas of talent, compliance, payroll technology and employee engagement.

Supporting the Needs of Local Youth & Families

A Donation to Banyan Community Many of you and your families give of your time, talents and treasures throughout the year to worthy nonprofit organizations that make a difference in our community. To honor this commitment, Platinum Group is making a donation this holiday to Banyan Community on behalf of its clients, trusted advisors and friends. Platinum’s Tom Hubler is chairman of the board of […]

Building a Great Culture in Your Business

Everyone talks about culture. Everyone believes that a good culture is necessary to success in business. Yet, our understanding of what it takes to build a great culture is amazingly immature because, in part, we don’t know how to define what culture is. Consider these definitions that a quick Google search will give you:

“In other words culture can be defined as an evolving set of collective beliefs, values and attitudes. Culture is a key component in business and has an impact on the strategic direction of business. 

Best Practices to Proactively Track Business Performance

“How is my company performing and what, if anything, should I be doing to keep on track?”

That’s a common question owners should ask themselves daily. Just like going on a trip, they know their desired destination — sustainable profitability and working capital sufficiency. Yet without a series of early warning indicators, they begin to lose altitude and can be headed for a crash before they have a chance to make a course correction and save themselves.