Christopher Picone Named To The Advisory Board For K8 Ventures

(Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois)—Christopher L. Picone, owner and president of Picone Advisory Group, has been named to the advisory board for K8 Ventures, LLC.

Based in Chicago, K8 Ventures invests in early-stage companies that address the human condition. The consulting firm delivers capabilities across key business functional areas that accelerate growth by reducing time-to-market and improving capital efficiency. Its current portfolio includes bamm, the next generation travel and meeting management platform that offers affinity and travel programs to non-profits and enterprises; and P3rceive, a computer software company that enables executives to simulate their business based on results, capacity staffing, and revenue cycle.

“Chris is a great addition to our board for so many reasons,” said Kurt Johnson, CEO of K8 Ventures. “His expertise across industries and experience with a broad range of complex business challenges is an enormous complement to the K8 Ventures executive team.”

With an understanding of the financial intricacies of companies large and small, Picone has decades of real-world experience providing creative ways to support clients through a wide range of services. He is committed to championing healthy business in America.

In his role as an advisory board member, Picone will work to elevate K8 Venture’s company profile by attracting new customers, helping raise capital, providing strategic and financial advice and planning, and guiding the company in legal, business and real estate matters.

Based in Chicago’s western suburbs, Picone Advisory Group specializes in strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, operational enhancement, business turnarounds and restructurings, asset disposition, litigation support, neutral claim administration, real estate, and crisis management.

The firm provides consulting services to an international client base in a wide variety of industry settings including: financial services, manufacturing, aerospace, building and construction, food and food service, homeland security and first response, healthcare, energy, real estate, wholesale and retail services, technology, telecommunications, and transportation.

Tips To Creating A Balanced Work Force: There’s A Place For Both Baby Boomers And Millennials

In the race to recruit millennials to our companies, we often overlook older baby boomers who are readily available for employment and provide some important skills and character traits that millennials do not have.

There is a large pool of unemployed or underemployed baby boomers that were displaced by the last recession. As the economy has picked up steam, it seems that the collective corporate focus seems to be on doing everything possible to recruit millennials to the exclusion of older more experienced workers.

We have seen Google, McDonalds and a host of others relocate their corporate headquarters to city locations to be more attractive to millennials who prefer city life experiences to suburban ones. We have also seen corporate employee benefits specifically tailored to create a corporate culture that would be attractive to potential millennial recruits. While millennials certainly bring important skills to the workplace, baby boomers bring years of real world experience, logic and common sense and a work ethic that millennials have yet to develop. The value of these attributes should not be overlooked by your talent acquisition departments.

A company needs a balanced work force. Certain positions are better suited for millennial type workers (i.e. technology related positions); while other positions might be better filled by a more experienced baby boomer (i.e. finance/ accounting, human resources, operations/ production management). As you look to fill vacant positions in your own company, you will be well served to consider the many potential benefits of hiring from the baby boomer work force.

Paying Attention To Early Signs of Financial Distress Can Prevent A Long Term Crisis

Many times we receive calls from business owners/CEO’s that their companies are in serious financial distress and they are unable to pay their bills when they are due and/or unable to make the next payroll. When this occurs, we often wonder why they waited so long to get help. Serious financial problems rarely occur overnight and the early warning signs of financial distress often appear months and sometimes years before the crisis occurs.

It has been our experience that these business owners/CEO’s need to consider seeking professional help if their companies miss a quarterly budget. At this early stage, relatively minor adjustments can be made that could put the company back on track. The longer a company waits to address these problems, the greater the problems become, losses begin to mount and the solutions become more limited, drastic and costly.

Business problems rarely solve themselves. The key is to spot potential problems early and implement solutions quickly. Do not wait for the business fairy to come along and sprinkle magic dust on your company that will make all your problems disappear. If you aren’t sure if you have a problem or if you need help crafting a solution, get professional help quickly. Getting an experienced professional on your team at an early stage can make all the difference. Do not wait until the crisis is upon you.