`MY BRIEFCASE IS MY DESK'
Shared executive finds fertile field in New England
By Davis Bushnell Special to The Globe
Shared ownership has been appplied effectively to data processing and real estate. Now the time-shared executive is making his mark, serving small firms that can't afford a coterie of senior officers.
Bradlee T. Howe, 43, of Lexington represents the new breed of business person who divides his work week between several small companies. "My briefcase is my desk," said Howe, explaining how he keeps straight the different assignments given him by clients.
"These people," he said referring to clients, "neither have the office space nor the sales level to accommodate a person such as myself on a full-time basis. But like all companies, they have complex financial problems requiring solutions."
Howe is a time-shared chief financial officer for a half-dozen firms in the Boston area. He and his wife, Anne, also 43, are the sole owners of Financial Managers, which was converted two years ago to a Massachusetts business trust. The predecessor firm, Financial Managers Inc., had been started in 1979 by Graham R. Briggs, 45, who is now the full-time chief financial officer of Charles River Data Systems of Framingham.
Briggs founded Financial Managers, he said, "because of experiences I had had with Computer Identics of Westwood. The company had gone through various financial stages and, based on what 1 had learned, I felt that 1 could advise owners of small businesses on issues that they hadn't been exposed to. Also, a friend of mine had done something similar in the area of small business strategic planning."
Initially Howe assisted Briggs part-time with the marketing of Financial Managers and then, when Briggs departed for Charles River Data Systems in the spring of 1983, he took over the consulting business.
Although Financial Managers now has a mail-drop and telephone answering service in Cambridge, Howe and his associate Eileen Prashker, 33, who has a background in timeshared bookkeeping, adhere to business-on-the-run routines. Evenings, at home, Howe plays out cash flow charts on his Apple IIe computer.
Between them, Howe and Prashker serve 14 small firms whose annual sales or fees range from $200,000 to $5 million, Howe said. "Any company with sales over $5 million really needs a full-time controller or chief financial officer," he said.
Financial Manager's total billings last year were about $150,000, Howe said, and the 1985 tally is more than $200,000.
His style, Howe said, is to evaluate clients' office environments. "It's important," he explained, "to get a good sense of what's going on [in the offices] and, above all, to understand the personnel and personalities. Knowledge of these things is vital when preparing cashflow and other financial projections."
Former mentor Briggs described Howe as "having a good 'bedside manner.' " Added Howe: "I find that if I really get to know the clients, they'll ask my advice on other matters."
But it is financial strategy that most clients seek, Howe said. He gave two minicase studies as examples.
The first involved a former client, Concept Development of Wakefield. "When I first worked with Concept Development in 1983 the company was publishing two successful nursing journals," Howe remembered. "But the firm's sponsorship of seminars was draining earnings; the cash flow was terrible. So, I convinced the president to sell the publishing ventures, which was achieved as a result of the total marketing effort. The president then had money he never thought he'd have for another venture."
Ben Oklen Inc. of Cambridge a 50-year old retailer and distributor in the Northeast of imported bicycles, required an orderly financial transition from the senior Olken, Benjamin, to his son, Richard, and to sales manager Bernard Kotlier. "With the advice of an attorney," Howe said, "I set up a preferred stock recapitalization plan that protected Ben's interest and provided equity for his son and Kotlier."
To Benjamin Olken, Howe's value was his ability "to provide another 'voice' and a more sophisticated way of looking at things. We had been used to a seat-of-your-pants philosophy; Howe brought analytical thinking to the running of our business."
Analytical thinking was not behind Howe's entrance into the time-shared consulting business. After graduating from Harvard University's business school in 1969 he remained at Harvard for 12 years. He was associate director of admissions for the college, manager of the Harvard Student Agencies and, later, director of fund-raising at the business school.
"I'd gotten to the point," Howe recalled, "where everybody above me was faculty. I was also turning 40 and, because of my background in academia, I was disqualified from getting a substantive corporate position.
So, he "Jumped feet first," he said, into what turned out to be an ill-fated adventure, the daily management of the Cambridge Express, a weekly newspaper that suspended publication a year ago.
Meanwhile he had linked up on a part-time basis with Briggs for what he thought would be interim employment. "I thought that I could spend two or three years at Financial Managers and build a resume that would look like I had been in senior financial management for seven or eight years, instead of having those 'lost' years at Harvard," Howe said.
"But I now have a great satisfaction and no desire to look for one full-time position. I plan to stay with it
From The Boston Globe, February 11, 1985
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