dlb consultants

Company Mission

DLB Consultants was founded in 1987 to provide management consulting, coaching and advisory services to clients in the broad areas of:

• Strategic and Operational Planning and Management
• Business Plan Development and Execution
• Mergers and Acquisitions, Including Due Diligence Investigations
• Accounting Systems and Financial Reporting
• Financial Planning and Analysis
• Cost Systems and Cost Analysis
• Determining and Acquiring Optimal Financing
• Production and Operations Management
• Turnarounds and Financial Reorganizations
• Human Resource Management
• Recruitment of Key Management Staff

Clients Served

We have been involved with clients in a wide variety of industries and technologies, such as:

• Chemical Process Industries
• Plastics formulation and molding -- thermoset and thermoplastics
• Aluminum smelting and fabrication
• Biotechnology research and development
• Medical device development and manufacturing
• Aquaculture and agricultural products
• Electronics test and measurement equipment design and manufacturing
• Software development and marketing
• Internet-based marketing
• Real-estate development and construction
• Real-estate property management
• Machine shop metal fabrication
• Personal transportation vehicles for the physically challenged
• Travel services
• Wholesaling and retailing businesses
• Fast food franchises
• Direct mail marketing
• Warehousing, transportation and distribution services
• Stainless steel truck accessories manufacturing and marketing

We have also had experience working in both small and large company environments in a variety of corporate cultures and with a broad range of management personality characteristics, such as:

• Fortune 500 Companies
• Foreign corporations (multi-national)
• Multi-plant and multi-divisional corporations
• Small and closely held businesses
• Family owned businesses
• Start-up and emerging businesses
• Individual investors and entrepreneurs
• Venture capital firms
• "Angel" Investors
• Higher Education institutions
• Not-for-Profit Organizations

What We Do

Although the individuality of each client's business and the uniqueness of each client's circumstances, needs and corporate culture determine the specific approach to take and the services to be performed, typically our engagements might involve such services as:

• Developing a business plan to obrtain financing and to provide a "road map" for managing the business.
• Developing an annual operating budget to provide management with a tool to control spending and to achieve profitability objectives.
• Developing a "business model" for the enterprise to be used to evaluate decision options.
• Preparing a private placement memorandum to be used for soliciting equity investors.
• Developing loan requests and locating sources of debt financing.
• Providing valuations for the sale of a business and locating prospective buyers.
• Assisting in the development of criteria to identify and select businesses to acquire.
• Assist with evaluating a business to be purchased and assisting in the negotiations.
• Performing financial analysis of a business to identify opportunities for profitability improvement.
• Designing a compensation system (salary administration) with appropriate salary grades and administrative procedures.
• Recruiting key management and professional personnel.
• Coaching individual executives or management teams to achieve greater goals or to implement significant organizational changes.

Past Engagements

Some of our past engagements, projects and accomplishments have been:

• Re-engineered an accounting system and implemented GAAP procedures to be able to successfully pass independent accountant audits with no proposed adjustments.
• Spearheaded the effort of a company sale through a "first time" audit and a comprehensive "due diligence" that led to gaining the shareholders a payment of over 6 times EBITDA.
• Implemented business segment reporting, cost center responsibility accounting, and comprehensive financial reporting that contributed to company growth from $20 million to $46 million in revenue with profitability improvement from 3% to 8% of revenue.
• Developed a comprehensive, operations-based business planning model to assist management in evaluating alternative strategies and in the preparation of budgets and forecasts.
• Assisted in the selection and implementation of Hyperion Enterprise consolidation and financial reporting system, and successfully brought up one division on the system.
• Assisted a client in pursuing an acquisition by developing the purchase strategy, preparing a letter of intent and planning the due diligence investigation.
• Negotiated with various companies that were infringing upon an electronics and software client's patent, initiating litigation proceedings leading to successful settlements and signing of license agreements.
• Developed a turnaround financial plan, negotiated with creditors and coached management through the successful avoidance of filing bankruptcy, improving profitability, and paying off all creditors.
• Performed a statistical analysis of incoming order flow patterns and developed a business model to accurately predict incoming orders of a direct marketing catalog company.
• Prepared loan application documents and loan requests that resulted in satisfactory financing.
• Developed a strategic plan to transform a small company to a high-growth company and implemented and staffed the organization plan.
• Created and managed a Human Resources function to accommodate growth.

How We Work

We will confer with a potential client free of charge in an initial meeting to gather information necessary to make a formal proposal.  In some cases, where a situation or a problem appears to be extremely complex, an initial meeting may not be adequate to determine the proper approach.  More time may be required to gather sufficient information for a more thorough understanding of the problem or situation in order to determine the appropriate technique or methodology.  Such additional consultations will be conducted confidentially on terms agreed to by the client.

We will accept only those engagements that we feel we are well qualified to perform, and which we feel will be of real benefit to our client.  However, we cannot guarantee any specific results, such as an exact amount of cost reduction or an increase in revenue.

We present our qualifications on the basis of our competence and our experience.  We perform our engagements to provide information, methodologies, practices, procedures and recommendations for courses of action or of policy.  When requested, we will carry out implementation of the practical solution for the client.  We can function as a business advisor and coach, or an associate can become a contracted member of the management team, acting in the capacity of a temporary professional or executive.

We agree with the client in advance on the fee basis for the engagement.  This is done in the form of a letter agreement which presents our proposal and requires client authorization in order for us to proceed with the engagement.  Fee schedules, terms and conditions are described in attachments to the letter agreement.

Qualifications

Donald L. Buchman, Principal Consultant, has over thirty years of experience in engineering, business and finance.  Mr. Buchman founded DLB Consultants in 1987 while serving as Vice President, Administration and Treasurer, of Ash Medical Systems, Inc., a start-up, high-tech medical device manufacturer in West Lafayette, Indiana.

While engaged in management consulting, Mr. Buchman also served as President and CEO of INventure, Inc., a high-tech business incubator owned by Purdue Research Foundation and three other high-tech companies in West Lafayette, and as Director of the Greater Lafayette Small Business Development Center.  He then served as Vice President, Finance and Administration, of QuikPak, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of NewRoads, Inc.) in Lafayette, Indiana.

Before founding DLB Consultants, Mr. Buchman held positions as Vice President, Finance, of Rostone, a subsidiary of Allen-Bradley Company of Milwaukee; as Assistant Corporate Controller of Consolidated Aluminum Corporation in Saint Louis, Missouri; and as Manager, Planning and Development, for a division of Monsanto Company in Saint Louis.

While serving in these various positions, some of Mr. Buchman's significant contributions were:

• Implemented accounting sytems and procedures with appropriate internal controls that consistently led to "clean" audits (no audit adjustments).
• Developed and implemented strategic planning in a division of a major Fortune 100 company and in a large subsidiary of a Fortune 100 company.
• Prepared comprehensive, accurate financial plans and budgets for both small and large companies.  One large company had 27 manufacturing locations in 13 states that "rolled up" into 7 divisions, for which a computer model had to be designed in order to effectively and efficiently prepare budgets and financial reports.
• Implemented a comprehensive "point system" wage and salary administration program.
• Developed accurate position descriptions and job evaluations, with performance review and merit/promotion pay increase procedures.
• Implemented standard cost accounting system and procedures in two subsidiaries of large companies -- one with 27 decentralized accounting locations.
• Developed and implemented sophisticated capital budgeting and project/business evaluation methods in a Fortune 100 company.
• Prepared the first SEC filings (10K and 10Q Reports) for a company.
• Recruited top executives and professional employees.
• Introduced the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in  a division of a large multinational company.

Mr. Buchman currently serves as Secretary and Director of Radian Research, Inc. a high-tech manufacturer of power and energy test and measurement equipement and has served on the board of Irvine Travel Service, Inc, a full service travel agency.  He has also served on such non-profit boards as Civic Theater of Greater Lafayette, and New Directions, Inc,, an alcohol and drug rehabilitation organization.

Mr. Buchman received a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from  the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Associate consultants are employees or affiliates having backgrounds, experience, skills and abilities in specific areas that are required for certain engagements.

Code of Professional Ethics

A basic principle of professional ethics in management consulting is to put the interest of the client ahead of the consultant's own interests, and to serve the client with honesty, integrity, loyalty, diligence and competence.  As professional management consultants, our associates strictly adhere to this principle.

We realize that we are engaged to provide independent judgment and objectivity, technical expertise, analytical skill and concentrated attention to solutions to our clients' problems.  We will diligently provide these things.  We will be objective and impartial.

We pledge to carefully guard the confidentially of all information provided to us by our clients and also all information and data that we develop specifically for our clients that are proprietary and directly related to the client engagement.  We pledge not to take financial gain or any other advantage based upon inside information that we are privy to during any engagement.  We will not serve two or more competing clients on sensitive issues without first obtaining the approval in writing to do so from each client.  We will inform and disclose to all clients any circumstances that might influence, or appear to influence, our judgment or objectivity.

We do not accept commissions or pay them to others for client referrals.  Nor do we accept fees or commissions from others for recommending equipment, supplies, or services to our clients, as this would obviously adversely affect our impartiality.

Professional References