S Venkat HIEF financial officer service providers have emerged as a boon to mid-sized pharmaceutical companies keen to scale, professionalize, and build enterprise valuations. Today, pharmaceutical companies have grown by revenue and profitability-wise. They have also expanded their product portfolios, adopted GMPs (good manufacturing practices), ventured into new geographies for distribution, made 'overseas acquisitions, developed new products, and made a global impact. Chief financial officer service providers have helped small and mid-sized pharmaceutical companies to improve revenue, optimize costs, raise equity and debt funding, and manage cash flow better. Why mid-size pharma cos enlist CFO services? Mid-size pharmaceutical companies are mostly driven by relatively younger owner-managers keen to professionalize, scale, and improve their enterprise's valuation. They look for a chief financial officer (CFO) when they need to switch from a proprietor-run enterprise model to a professionally managed one. Also, the need to attract external equity for reduced debt contributes to the need for a chief financial officer. Exits of key stakeholders, including a private equity fund, are usually powerful motivators for mid-sized companies to hire How CFOs unlock growth in mid-sized pharma cos by unlocking financial potential an outsourced chief financial officer. Listing on the bourses is another strong reason. The right time for an outsourced CFO A mid-sized pharma company needs a chief financial officer when the business demands that the finance team broadens its contribution beyond bookkeeping, basic reporting, tax filings, and raising funds from banks, etc. Owner-managers need a chief financial officer to provide them with accurate, complete, and timely financial reports for budgeting and business planning, equity fundraising, implementing enterprise solutions, establishing predictable and scalable business processes, managing debt and inventory levels, and making commercial decisions, particularly for costing and pricing. This can help attract a credible and independent Board of Directors. The outsourced chief financial officer, with direct ownership of the Finance and Accounting functions can add value in sales, marketing, production, planning, purchases, as well as HR. Some of the ways in which chief financial officer services add value: Timely business analytics Monthly closing of books is significant for robust business analytics. Chief financial officer services ensure an accurate and complete book closure, basis the accrual system. It ensures provision for all expenses, retirement benefits, depreciation, deferred tax, etc. These expense/liability heads, usually handled at the year-end by smaller companies, provide a complete picture when accounted tor during month closures. It facilitates obtaining accurate real-time analvtics tor various parameters, such as revenue and EBITDA (EFammings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation & Amortisation), by channel (own sales vs distributors), geography (by country or state), therapeutic category (oncology, dermatology, gastro, respiratory, cardio, neurology, immunology, dermatology, ophthalmology, etc.), dosage form (capsules, tablets, injectables), brand ownership (own vs third party), production source (own vs third party), markets (regulated vs non-regulated), branding (generics vs branded), and customer segment (private vs government vs PPP). Product costing & pricing Accurate product costing is a critical business variable. Companies often use standard costing to define the target cost of manufacture and analyze variances between actuals and standards to drive efficiencies. A good chief financial officer services firm will aim to gain a horough understanding of how the company's product range is manufactured. It will analyze the input-output equations in process manufacturing environments, Bill of Material (BOM), product routing, and machine and labour utilization at every stage of the manufacturing process. A chief financial officer will work closely with the production and purchase teams to study material usage variances, material mix variances, and labour and machine usage variances to enable a more efficent handling of productivity, efficiencies, and costs. A scientific pricing model is a logical extension of sound costing. Companies functioning as intermediaries for large pharma brands generally operate on a cost-plus model. The ability to understand cost trends in key raw material ingredients can help them to determine how much and when to transmit the effects of price movements. In a situation of rapidly increasing prices, as seen during the recent supply chain challenges with China, failure and delays in passing on increased costs can severely dent margins. Several mid-size pharma companies implement enterprise s0lutions, but their implementation of the product costing and MRP (maximum retail price) modules may be found wanting. Outsourced Chief Financial Officer's pay special attention to the 'Go Live' of these modules. Purchasing efficiencies Expanding vendor bases and utilizing reverse auctioning tools, including Ariba, Procol, etc., can enable cost reductions in raw materials, packing, freight, and other expenses. Standardizing specifications and trade terms (Freight-on-board, Costinsurance-freight, etc.) form the foundation for a successful reverse auctioning programme. Material requirement planning Chief financial officer services can help pharma companies optimize their inventory holdings, thereby releasing cash flows. Balancing raw material levels involves considering long lead times tor critical or imported materials, strategic buying in a Jowprice environment, and maintaining buffer stocks for sudden orders or market surges while managing funding. While these decisions are routine, the absence of an objective and data-driven lens hampers the decision-making process. Outsourced chief financial officer services can help owner-managers resolve trade-offs faster and with greater efficiency. A good chief financial officer services firm actively monitors shelf life and expiry dates of products to critically reduce instances of obsolescence and write-offs. Chief financial officer services can also bring an exponential improvement in the RoCE (return on capital employed ratio of EBITDA to capital employed. Capital allocation decisions Over the medium to long term, a pharma company's enterprise valuation will be determined by the quantum of surplus cash it generates year-on-year and efficient allocation of surplus capital. An outsourced chief financial officer assists managements in understanding payback periods and appreciating net present value of future cash inflows against the current cash outflows in capex or research. CONTINUED ON p | +F CONTINUED FROM p | 2 I For instance, a chief financial officer services firm developed a framework for capital allocation calls at a COMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation) company to allow its management to decide and communicate suitably when budgeting for expenditure. Compliance and risk management Good chief financial otficer service providers will implement risk control matrices to eliminate, avoid, contractually transfer, or insure financial, regulatory, operational, market, reputational, IT and fraud risks. For instance, at a company manufacturing Alprazolam, the chief financial officer, in consultation with the production and compliance heads, implemented stringent frameworks for defining standard operating procedures, responsibilities and timelines, check-offs, internal and external audits, and How CFOs unlock growth in mid-sized... quarterly reporting of compliance status at the Board level. The said initiative ensured full compliance with various regulations. It ensured that the company avoided any adverse remarks during routine onsite FDA (food and drug administration) inspections of the company's facilities. These remarks could, otherwise, have resulted in shut-down of manufacturing operations, lost sales, and importantly, a tainted reputation. By deploving chiet financial officer services, manv listed pharma companies have delivered a 12 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in revenue growth over the last 5 years, a 24 per cent CAGR in profit growth over the same period, a 17 per cent RoCE over a 3 years period, and a 2.67 per cent growth in earnings per share over the last five years. Given their relatively low revenue base, mid-sized pharma companies can reap greater dividends in the future. (Author is Founder of Practus)