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All Articles by Bruce Werner
About Bruce Werner
Bruce Werner is the Managing Director of Kona Advisors LLC and served as an outside director on private company boards for the last three decades. Kona Advisors LLC provides advisory services to the owners, investors and CEOs of private and family-owned businesses. With deep experience in governance, succession planning, finance, strategy and management issues, Kona Advisors brings a broad perspective to developing solutions for its clients.
Warren Buffett Speaks Out on Independent Director Performance
Warren Buffett’s annual letter is critical of independent directors of public companies—but can their bad behavior influence private companies as well? Read More
That’s SOC, Not SOX: SOC Reports Audit the Safety of Company Data
An SOC report tells business owners, buyers and fiduciary directors if their data is being safely managed by a service organization. Should you request one? Read More
Recognizing Special Situations in Private Companies
“Special situations” affecting stock price, (i.e. bankruptcy or a spinoff company) can be more complicated for private companies, which tend to be illiquid. Read More
Sleep Better with Reps & Warranties Insurance
Understanding Representations, Warranties and Indemnities in M&A Transactions When boards are deliberating the purchase or sale of a business, they need to consider the long-term risks of the decision. Understanding the representations, warranties and indemnifications being made is essential to executing fiduciary duty, since the risks do not go away after the deal is done. […] Read More
A Tale of Competitive Bidding and Pre-emptive Bids
An owner selling his business gets 3 high pre-emptive bids. Should he take a deal or allow the competitive bidding process to continue? Read More
Can Seeking Help from the Lender Fix Distressed Companies’ Woes?
Turnaround Financing: How to Secure a Borrower Recently, bad practices caused a client’s accounts receivable to get extended well past 90 days. In fact, the client had 20% of its receivables dated further back than 120 days. Company staff knew that much of that would prove to be uncollectible, but no one really knew the […] Read More
Without Good Governance, Family Businesses Go Nuclear
3 Case Studies on the Importance of Good Governance To put it bluntly, proper governance does not come naturally for most private and family businesses. It requires leadership to understand that good governance protects the business, and is worth the sometimes substantial time and effort required to achieve it. Families will never be perfect. Which […] Read More
Lessons on Family Governance in Business
The Cornell/Loyola Family Business Roundtable brought together thought leaders to discuss business and family governance. Here are the key takeaways. Read More
Don’t Wait to Sell the Company
A business owner refused to sell the company amidst a changing market and growing debt. Here’s why waiting too long to sell hurt his business exit. Read More
An Alternative Exit Strategy for Distressed Business Owners
What happens when a family business with debt and no exit strategy faces a crisis? Read about their alternative solution: a distressed debt investor. Read More