Hannover Blog

Why Should I Study Corporate Finance?

Paper for Saint Mary’s University This is a question I am often asked, especially by students who are not finance majors but take Corporate Finance 643 as an elective. Perhaps they intend to go into other business areas: HR, Operations, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, or IT. For many of them, finance is a mysterious dark-matter hole

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Analyzing Project Feasibility Through Financial Mathematics

Analyzing Project Feasibility Through Financial Mathematics   by Professor R Don Keysser, DBA, CM&AA, Saint Mary’s University   “Never make predictions, especially about the future . . it hasn’t happened yet.”   (Casey Stengel)   Abstract   Companies regularly engage in large-scale capital projects to achieve growth and increase shareholder value.   These projects can include, among

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Financial Management Systems

Finance is a mission-critical function for any company. The financial pressures on companies are never-ending throughout their life cycle, whether they are in early-stage development, mid-stage growth, turnaround, or late-stage exit.  It is critical that any company has a comprehensive and detailed Financial Management System.  This will underpin all of the other management systems within

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How to Deal With the Perils of Litigation

Litigation may seem like one of the unavoidable risks of business life, but there are a number of ways that a business can reduce and mitigate that risk.  Given the significant costs, turmoil and distraction of litigation, and the possibility of losing in trial or settlement, it is important to understand some of the measures

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Money Money Money Makes the World Go Round: Accessing Capital

You already know that your company needs a constant infusion of capital, especially in a capital-intensive industry like manufacturing.  But let’s explore that issue further. Why Do You Need Capital? As a capital-intensive business, you will need capital for: (a) Working capital – routine on-going needs for materials inventory, financing works-in-process, marketing expenses and operating

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South of the Border – Why Outsourcing to Mexico Makes Sense

As a manufacturer, you periodically assess your needs and opportunities for outsourcing all or some of your manufacturing.   In the last couple of decades, the choice for many U.S. manufacturers has been Asia, first China and now increasingly other countries in SE Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.  But let’s not overlook our neighbor

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Struggling with Cash Flow in a Time of Crisis

Struggling with Cash Flow in a Time of Crisis As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on, it is clear that businesses need to change tactics in order to survive this crisis. With sales down, cashflow tight, and no end in sight, small business owners have to figure out how to get cash flowing back into their

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Anthology of Research Papers on Impact of COVID Pandemic

What is the long-term impact of the COVID pandemic on business, on our society, on our governmental systems?   A number of people have observed that this pandemic poses an international and existential threat to our society.  It is not enough to simply state that we are very possibly going to have a major economic

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Post-COVID Small Business Re-start

There has been a lot of discussion since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis on the need for small-medium size businesses (SMBs) to re-open and re-start.  However, there are some very difficult and complex issues to understand in this directive; it is not simply a matter of an SMB opening its doors again.     Current

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project management expert witness services

Closing the Deal – Project Management and Investment Banking

(this blog is excerpted from a book I am currently writing)   Introduction: The idea for this book came from a recent civil trial in which I was an expert witness, testifying about the ‘standards of care and practice’ among investment banks attempting to close a financing.  In researching the subject, I realized that while

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