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Client Results

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Testimonials and Case Studies

The personal deliverables throughout the engagement were delivered by the contract CFO (Kerry) to a very high level. He understood the business well and was able to offer a number of significant benefits to us, particularly in understanding the financials of the business and how best to report them through to the Board.

Don McCracken, Chief Executive Chief Executive, Aviation Group

Kerry Ludlam has provided outstanding services to our organisation and has skilfully introduced disciplines into the organisation and provided a strategic approach which we value.  As a Board we now have much greater insight into our business than was possible in the past and the systems created by Kerry should allow for this to continue. We have had the benefit of Kerry’s strategic analysis and approach during a critical period for the organisation and his input has helped our board as we fulfil our governance responsibilities.
Gail Munro, Workbridge Board Chair, Employment Services for People with Disability
“I worked very closely with Craig while he was the contract CFO and relied heavily on him for both financial and broader commercial advice and guidance. While he has left the business now, I still call on him for support from time to time”.
Keith Jackson, Executive Chairman, Cooks Coffee Company
Rhys delivered results on time, professionally, and ensured that the level of communication was suitable to our entire organisation. I highly recommend him to any organisation that requires assistance with any change process – his clear thinking, professional approach and calm demeanour ensures that the expected outcome will be achieved, and more than likely, exceeded.
Human Resources Manager, Industrial Storage and Racking Systems Manufacture
We approached Kerry Ludlam to provide an experienced CFO to work through a short-term handover with our Financial Controller of 20 years and to continue in the role. We had worked with Kerry previously which gave us confidence that he would find the right person for us. Contract deliverables were agreed, and we engaged an experienced CFO to take on the role. Our requirements expanded within a very short timeframe to a broader remit of improving trading performance, freeing up liquidity to repay debt by revitalizing the debt collection process, restoring the confidence of our bankers in our business and addressing a number of complex tax issues. The contract CFO set about completing the required remedial work in a professional and timely fashion, kept us fully briefed and established a very good rapport with our bank, lawyers, shareholders, and external CA firm as well as our staff. Kerry acted as Project Lead, operating in a Quality Assurance role, and maintaining regular contact with us. Kerry’s previous involvement with our business and considerable knowledge of the industry provided context and a valuable escalation point in the event that we needed it. Our only regret is that we didn’t engage their services earlier.
David Hills, Director, Hills Flooring
With the sudden departure of our existing Financial Controller, and with a lot going on in our business at the time, we needed someone urgently to come in and take over the finance and administrative part of our company. The contract Financial Controller (Craig) was highly recommended by our auditors and he didn’t disappoint, exceeding our expectations.
NZ Managing Director, Commercial Real Estate (Multi-National)
(Richard) Thank you for being the inspirational leader that this company has needed and for giving us a focus and direction.
Staff Committee, Engineering Consultancy– Survey, Civil and Structural
Craig and Richard have been consultants to Ergo for almost 10 years (a bloody long time!). During this time the company has been through a demerger, more than doubled in size, implemented a practice management system, moved to Xero and implemented a successful succession plan.
Chris Turney, Founder, Ergo Engineering Consultancy Services
Andrew helped us accelerate commercialisation of a new service and upskill a new team member. He quickly understood our needs and established an effective programme of support to assist us. Andrew then helped us finalise development of the service, refine the go-to-market plan and to get it out in front of prospective customers.
Kevin Oldham, Director Navigatus Consulting

While we have many strengths in our team, we don’t have deep financial modelling and business advisory experience. Acknowledging this gap and our desire to get a significant funding proposal right I contacted Kerry Ludlam at Management Response.

Bringing Kerry into Pillars to help us out is one of the best decisions I’ve made. From day one Kerry was very keen to understand our organisation – our culture, our people, our strategy, and our financials.

I was impressed with his openness and willingness to work with us as a true partner, it felt like Kerry was one of our team who was 100% committed to helping us succeed.

Kerry’s vast experience and great questions helped both him and I understand better where we are today and where we want to go. I loved that he asked the sometimes tough and uncomfortable questions to ensure we weren’t being too optimistic and that we had considered all possible scenarios.

The end result – a comprehensive financial model that gives us 100% confidence in our proposal.

The beauty of this work with Kerry is that I have reused this model for other funding proposals so we can support whānau in the community. I highly recommend Kerry and sincerely hope we can do more work with him in the future.

Tuhi Leef, Tumu Whakarae / Chief Executive Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou

(Richard) Thank you for being the inspirational leader that this company has needed and for giving us a focus and direction.

Staff Committee, Engineering Consultancy– Survey, Civil and Structural
Rhys delivered results on time, professionally, and ensured that the level of communication was suitable to our entire organisation. I highly recommend him to any organisation that requires assistance with any change process – his clear thinking, professional approach and calm demeanour ensures that the expected outcome will be achieved, and more than likely, exceeded.
Human Resources Manager, Industrial Storage and Racking Systems Manufacture

While we have many strengths in our team, we don’t have deep financial modelling and business advisory experience. Acknowledging this gap and our desire to get a significant funding proposal right I contacted Kerry Ludlam at Management Response.

Bringing Kerry into Pillars to help us out is one of the best decisions I’ve made. From day one Kerry was very keen to understand our organisation – our culture, our people, our strategy, and our financials.

I was impressed with his openness and willingness to work with us as a true partner, it felt like Kerry was one of our team who was 100% committed to helping us succeed.

Kerry’s vast experience and great questions helped both him and I understand better where we are today and where we want to go. I loved that he asked the sometimes tough and uncomfortable questions to ensure we weren’t being too optimistic and that we had considered all possible scenarios.

The end result – a comprehensive financial model that gives us 100% confidence in our proposal.

The beauty of this work with Kerry is that I have reused this model for other funding proposals so we can support whānau in the community. I highly recommend Kerry and sincerely hope we can do more work with him in the future.

Tuhi Leef, Tumu Whakarae / Chief Executive Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou

Craig and Richard have been consultants to Ergo for almost 10 years (a bloody long time!). During this time the company has been through a demerger, more than doubled in size, implemented a practice management system, moved to Xero and implemented a successful succession plan.
Chris Turney, Founder, Ergo Engineering Consultancy Services
Andrew helped us accelerate commercialisation of a new service and upskill a new team member. He quickly understood our needs and established an effective programme of support to assist us. Andrew then helped us finalise development of the service, refine the go-to-market plan and to get it out in front of prospective customers.
Kevin Oldham, Director Navigatus Consulting

The personal deliverables throughout the engagement were delivered by the contract CFO (Kerry) to a very high level. He understood the business well and was able to offer a number of significant benefits to us, particularly in understanding the financials of the business and how best to report them through to the Board.

Don McCracken, Chief Executive Chief Executive, Aviation Group

Kerry Ludlam has provided outstanding services to our organisation and has skilfully introduced disciplines into the organisation and provided a strategic approach which we value.  As a Board we now have much greater insight into our business than was possible in the past and the systems created by Kerry should allow for this to continue. We have had the benefit of Kerry’s strategic analysis and approach during a critical period for the organisation and his input has helped our board as we fulfil our governance responsibilities.
Gail Munro, Workbridge Board Chair, Employment Services for People with Disability
Craig and Richard have been consultants to Ergo for almost 10 years (a bloody long time!). During this time the company has been through a demerger, more than doubled in size, implemented a practice management system, moved to Xero and implemented a successful succession plan.
Chris Turney, Founder, Ergo Engineering Consultancy Services

While we have many strengths in our team, we don’t have deep financial modelling and business advisory experience. Acknowledging this gap and our desire to get a significant funding proposal right I contacted Kerry Ludlam at Management Response.

Bringing Kerry into Pillars to help us out is one of the best decisions I’ve made. From day one Kerry was very keen to understand our organisation – our culture, our people, our strategy, and our financials.

I was impressed with his openness and willingness to work with us as a true partner, it felt like Kerry was one of our team who was 100% committed to helping us succeed.

Kerry’s vast experience and great questions helped both him and I understand better where we are today and where we want to go. I loved that he asked the sometimes tough and uncomfortable questions to ensure we weren’t being too optimistic and that we had considered all possible scenarios.

The end result – a comprehensive financial model that gives us 100% confidence in our proposal.

The beauty of this work with Kerry is that I have reused this model for other funding proposals so we can support whānau in the community. I highly recommend Kerry and sincerely hope we can do more work with him in the future.

Tuhi Leef, Tumu Whakarae / Chief Executive Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou

With the sudden departure of our existing Financial Controller, and with a lot going on in our business at the time, we needed someone urgently to come in and take over the finance and administrative part of our company. The contract Financial Controller (Craig) was highly recommended by our auditors and he didn’t disappoint, exceeding our expectations.
NZ Managing Director, Commercial Real Estate (Multi-National)
“I worked very closely with Craig while he was the contract CFO and relied heavily on him for both financial and broader commercial advice and guidance. While he has left the business now, I still call on him for support from time to time”.
Keith Jackson, Executive Chairman, Cooks Coffee Company
We approached Kerry Ludlam to provide an experienced CFO to work through a short-term handover with our Financial Controller of 20 years and to continue in the role. We had worked with Kerry previously which gave us confidence that he would find the right person for us. Contract deliverables were agreed, and we engaged an experienced CFO to take on the role. Our requirements expanded within a very short timeframe to a broader remit of improving trading performance, freeing up liquidity to repay debt by revitalizing the debt collection process, restoring the confidence of our bankers in our business and addressing a number of complex tax issues. The contract CFO set about completing the required remedial work in a professional and timely fashion, kept us fully briefed and established a very good rapport with our bank, lawyers, shareholders, and external CA firm as well as our staff. Kerry acted as Project Lead, operating in a Quality Assurance role, and maintaining regular contact with us. Kerry’s previous involvement with our business and considerable knowledge of the industry provided context and a valuable escalation point in the event that we needed it. Our only regret is that we didn’t engage their services earlier.
David Hills, Director, Hills Flooring

Testimonials and Case Studies

B2B Stationery and Office Supplies

Successfully implemented a new Business Market model on time, within agreed financial parameters and with minimal disruption to existing customers which delivered material cost savings and a significantly improved EBITA % to Sales.
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Import and Sale of Natural Foods

Re-engineered the business to focus on its core competency of buying and selling natural foods, exited its transport fleet and packaging operation and completely rebuilt the Management Team.
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Apparel Retailer Australasia

Successfully implemented significant change across several functional areas in the business resulting in improved focus, performance, and trading results.
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Aviation - Sales and Service

Improved system performance and General Ledger interface, delivering timely, high-quality information, and collaborated with Management and the Board to address key business issues and opportunities for a sustainable model.
Read More >

Children's Footwear and Outerwear

Served as a commercial finance advisor in negotiations with a new Asian export customer. Designed and implemented a Budgeting and Cashflow Forecasting model. Introduced a Balance Sheet reconciliation process, ensuring full transparency with no hidden issues.
Read More >

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