• June 29: Raising Early Equity Money

Kick-off speaker: Brad Sterl, CEO of Rustic Crust

REGISTER

• September 12: Hiring into the Senior Team

Kick-off speaker: Todd Blount, CEO of Blount Fine Foods

REGISTER

• September 26: Lean Manufacturing: Cultural Change to Become a Company of Problem Solvers

Kick-off speaker/presenter: Grant Bennett, CEO of CPS Technologies

REGISTER

• October 9: Join kick-off speaker Paul Nardone, CEO of Immaculate Baking Co

• November 7: Join kick-off speaker Pete Lescoe, CEO of Food Should Taste Good

• December 5: Getting a Return for Stakeholders

Kick-off speaker: Eric Giler, CEO of WiTricity

Contact ClaireS@JohnstonCompany.com for more information.

• Location: Element Hotel, Lexington, MA
• Time: 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
• Cost: $340, in advance.
• Read about Brad Sterl

Register for May 29

Discussion Questions:

• What difference does it make if I raise equity, and do I have a choice?
• How important is the team?
• How do I raise money when my current story is good but financial results are not great?
• How can I position raising money as a positive, even if I am in survival mode?
• What are the pros and cons of different types of investors?
  • Friends and Family
  • Angels
  • Small VC firms
  • Socially-oriented investors
  • Traditional VC firms
  • Private Equity firms
• Selecting investors, why it’s good to be picky
• How does my first equity raise affect my ownership share and my exit possibilities?
• If I can get expensive debt, should I prefer that over equity?
• What about exotic funding sources like state agencies, grants, factoring, and royalty-based deals?

• Location: Element Hotel, Lexington, MA
• Time: 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
• Cost: $340, in advance.

Register for Sept 12

Discussion Questions:

• Presentation about search firms / process by Jim Johnston
• When do I bring in outside senior talent? When do I grow my own?
• How will my senior homegrown people feel about an outsider being hired in?
• Should I use a search firm? Contingent or retained?
• What are the pitfalls of hiring senior managers?
• How do I hire an agent of change without destroying my existing company? (Or: how do I move my ship forward without sinking it?)
• How do I design the new role, and who do I get input from – Board of Directors, investors, existing management?
• What are some ‘tips’ for conducting the search – testing, homework, presentations, format, interviewees, etc.?
• How can adding new talent to my team strengthen my hand with investors?
• How should I structure the new person’s first six months?
• How long will it take from start to finish, and what’s the first step?

About Todd Blount

Todd serves as President of Blount Fine Foods, a 5th generation company headquartered in Fall River, MA.  He has gathered and enabled a team of entrepreneurs to position the company for today’s competitive environment.  Blount Fine Foods is a Food Processing and Marketing company that has won awards in the areas of Quality, Marketing and Business Growth.  The company produces gourmet refrigerated & frozen soup for restaurants and retailers nation-wide.

As Blount has grown, so has the owners’ need for a professional team to lead the business, This was done through a combination of the development of internal staff and hiring from the outside. Blount successfully developed its EVP of Sales from the inside, and hired a VP of Operations from the outside. They are currently engaged in a search for a CFO.

Johnston Co. CEO Gathering with kick-off speaker Grant Bennett, CEO of CPS Technologies

• Location: Element Hotel, Lexington, MA
• Time: 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
• Cost: $340, in advance.

Register for September 26

This event will feature a case study presentation by CPS Technologies CEO Grant Bennett, followed by a discussion among CEOs.

Discussion Questions:

• How do I assess my company’s readiness to take the plunge into lean manufacturing? Will there be resistance?
• In what ways do people resist the implementation of lean manufacturing?
• Are there hard-dollar benefits to lean manufacturing?
• Should I hire new management talent, an outside consultant, or neither?
• What does it mean to be a company of problem solvers?
• What does it take to be a vendor to companies who have adopted lean manufacturing?

Johnston Co. CEO Gathering with kick-off speaker Paul Nardone, CEO of Immaculate Baking Co.

• Location: Element Hotel, Lexington, MA
• Time: 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
• Cost: $340, in advance.

Registration available soon

Contact ClaireS@JohnstonCompany.com for more information.

Johnston Co. CEO Gathering with kick-off speaker Pete Lescoe, CEO of Food Should Taste Good

• Location: Element Hotel, Lexington, MA
• Time: 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
• Cost: $340, in advance.

Registration available soon

Contact ClaireS@JohnstonCompany.com for more information.

• Location: Element Hotel, Lexington, MA
• Time: 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
• Cost: $340, in advance.

Register for December 5

Discussion Questions: Coming Soon

Contact ClaireS@JohnstonCompany.com for more information.

January 2012 – Kick-off Speaker: Jerry Shafir, founder and CEO of Kettle Cuisine (Chelsea, MA). After 25 years of doing every job and building the business, last month Jerry achieved a brilliant culmination, in a deal with the Arlon Food and Investment Program, the investment arm of Continental Grain.

Discussion Points:

• Should I build my company with the explicit goal of selling it?
• Impact of a board of directors with outside members
• M&A intermediary’s role
• Preparing for a sale—five years, two years, one year, and six months beforehand
• Choosing when to sell
• Fielding unsolicited inquiries from acquirers and intermediaries
• Navigating the intense phase of buyer vetting and deal negotiation

At our CEO events, everyone sits at one table. We begin with mingling and dinner, and then have two hours of candid discussion. Events are held on selected weeknights from 5:30-8:30 pm and are moderated by Jim Johnston, founder of Johnston Company in Lexington, MA. Read about Jim.

Food CEOs: Building Branded Sales through Retail Chains

September 2011 – Kick-off Speaker: Brad Sterl, founder and CEO of Rustic Crust (Pittsfield, NH). Brad’s Rustic Crust brand par-baked pizza crusts are now available in 5,900 retail locations. His American Flatbread brand frozen pizzas are available in 2,700 retail locations. He also has significant private label business.

Discussion Points:

• Pros and cons of branded vs. private label. Can I do both?
• Slotting, coupons, manufacturer charge-backs, sampling, consumer events, and advertising pros and cons. How much should I spend? Any keys to tracking all this spending?
• Gross margin targets
• Managing brokers
• Expanding beyond the first region or type of retailer
• Identifying the influential retailers for my product
• Trading horror stories.

Selling Your Company

June 2011: Our kick-off speaker for the event was Salvatore Lanuto:

Sal joined JJWild, a small manufacturing rep firm with revenues of under $1M, in 1991. He became President in 1996 and CEO in 2000. Upon joining the company he directed major strategy shift to leverage its long standing relationship with Meditech Information Technology, one of the top Hospital Information Systems in the country. Refocusing the company on healthcare IT integration, the company became Meditech’s largest integrator, growing top line revenue to over $90M at the time of its acquisition by Perot Systems in 2007. Perot has since been acquired by DELL. Just one year before, he orchestrated a company recapitalization, partnering with private equity firm Advent International, and GE Capital. Prior to joining JJWild, Sal was Vice President of Marketing for Esprit Systems Inc., a leading manufacturer, seller, and distributor of computer terminals. Sal also worked at Hazeltine Corporation, a defense contractor and developer of high tech systems for the government. Sal earned his B.S. from Columbia University.

Sal has recently come out of retirement to direct start up company Service Heartbeat. Heartbeat provides software that enhances the use of mobile technology to improve communications among healthcare providers in order to drive better healthcare delivery.

The roundtable focused on these discussion topics:

• Systematically find buyers
• How to get the best deal
• Managing stress and risk of a transaction
• Life after the sale
• Pros and cons of building a business with the explicit, constant goal of selling it
• How far ahead should you plan a sale?
• What makes an owner ready, personally, to sell?
• What makes a business ready to sell?
• Should you try to predict who will buy and why?
• How can you deal with an offer you didn’t seek, or expect?

Running Your Project-Oriented Business

March / April 2011:

Johnston Company offers CEO events throughout the year. Only presidents and CEOs attend. Everyone sits at the same table. We begin with mingling and dinner, then have two hours of candid discussion. Events are held on selected weeknights from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.

Contact us for more information: ClaireS@JohnstonCompany.com