Robert Decusati - Finding the Best Investment Solutions

When Robert Decusati bought Premier Top Solutions, an old manufacturing company, he adopted the strategy of investing capital where it could do the most good – improving manufacturing productivity, smoothing throughput and getting productsto the client faster. He worked on the replacement of an outdated IT system and developed a way to report the profitability per customer. This gave him the insight to improve pricing procedures, and increase prices where it would benefit the company the most without losing any customers. He sought ways to improve the staff where possible. All his efforts resulted in him being able to profitable sell Premier Top Solutions after 27 months of buying it.

This did not happen by chance. Robert had been honing his ability to choose from among the various investment opportunities that present themselves throughout his career. As Director, Production Inventory Control at Rubbermaid, he introduced new products and implemented Kanban, while getting rid of 750 SKUs that were no longer justified by customer demand.
At Eastern Seaboard Packaging, he negotiated a joint venture to secure a national distribution footprint and conducted due diligence on ten possible acquisitions before selecting the two that were best for the company.

And at Klockner Pentaplast as Corporate Controller America, he concluded four more acquisitions, as well as implementing a SERP and managing a successful transition to SAP 6.0.

All of this was excellent preparation for the successful reconstruction and sale of Premier Top Solutions, company owned by Robert Decusati.
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Robert Decusati - Working with Consultants

During the time that Robert Decusati was Corporate Controller America at Klockner Pentaplast, private equity company The Blackstone Group initiated four separate consultancy studies – byErnst &Young, by Alix Partners, by McKinsey and by Proudfoot. Managers may see consultants as potentially helpful, as obstructive or in any position between those extremes, but when the investors demand it, the only possible route is cooperation. Robert Decusati took charge of the financial side of each study.

Consultancy studies give the chance to examine in depth processes that may have been looked at rarely. The disadvantage is that the consultant will rarely have direct experience that precisely matches the company. However, this can be a benefit at the same time asthat means that things are looked at in a new light. The manager explains to the consultant how things are done and why they are done that way. On occasion, just the process of explaining will cause the manager to think, “That was the way to do it when we started, but maybe it isn’t the way to do it now”. Or perhaps the new set of eyes and ears sees things from a different perspective and throws out suggestions on how processes can be improved.

Robert Decusati used the consultancy process at Klockner Pentaplast to the company’s benefit, because he implemented a factoring program that released $60 million in cash. Since that happened immediately before a severe credit crunch, the benefit to the company was immense.
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Robert Decusati - The Importance of Lifelong Learning

When Robert Decusati graduated in Finance as a Bachelor of Science, he knew that this was in many ways the beginning and not the end of the learning process. No one ever knows everything that he/she needs to know. Even at the end of a long and full life, you cannot expect to have gained all the knowledge that you might have found useful. But you can, as long as your mind is open to the idea, acquire through the years a lot of knowledge that you didn’t have at the beginning.
Robert identifies a number of ways to learn.
Formal Education
The manager may lack either the desire or the financial capacity to study full-time for an MBA. There are programs that allow you to gain the qualification while working. It might be study at home or in the classroom. It might be during the day or in the evening and at weekends. The right program is there for everyone.
Mentoring
Especially, but not only, in the earlier, more junior stages of a career most people find themselves working for and with experienced managers who are willing to share wisdom and expertise. Robert Decusati recommends taking full advantage of those opportunities.
New Software and Processes
When installing (or even thinking about installing) new software or business processes, there will probably be training courses and literature you should consider. Robert Decusati advises paying close attention not only totraining courses and literature, but also to what others who have already been through the implementation process have to say.
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