Featuring: Warren Miller of Beckmill Research

Telephone Dial-In Audio Conference
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
10:00am-11:40am PDT/11:00am-12:40pm MDT/12:00pm-1:40pm CDT/1:00pm-2:40pm EDT

Presented by Business Valuation Resources, LLC
Earn TWO INTERACTIVE CPE credits for participating in this conference

PRICE: $249.00 for a single dial-in connection. Use your conference room and the whole office can listen in. Two CPE credits are available for each additional listener sharing the same phone connection - only $49.00 per person.

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Register for conference and Transcript for $339

Register for conference, CD, and Transcript for $429

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Why should you attend?

Consider this: “company effects” account for three times as much of the variation in rate of return as do “industry effects.” That means that the variation in rate of return is greater within firms than it is across them.  Has the profession paused to digest the implications of these statements about unsystematic risk? Warren Miller certainly has.

Modern portfolio theory (MPT) certainly hasn't. MPT assumes away the problem of unsystematic risk by positing that the portfolios of rational investors are fully diversified. But, for the business owner with 95+% of her net worth tied up in the illiquid equity of her closely-held business, MPT's assumption is a clinker. To paraphrase Vince Lombardi, for her, "Unsystematic risk isn't everything. It's the only thing."

Let's take it a step farther. In his book Good To Great, Jim Collins draws on Isaiah Berlin's famous essay about hedgehogs and foxes. Foxes, he says, are crafty, they are brilliant, they know lots of things, and they are fascinated by all the moving parts. Foxes are disposed to make things more complicated than they need to be. (Think of the valuation reports you've read!)

Hedgehogs, in contrast, have one big idea. They know one big thing. It is underpinned by tons of complexity, but it is simple and easy to understand. They know it inside out. They use simplicity to explain mind-boggling complexity.

But, as Collins says, the one big thing must be the right thing. A big thing that is the wrong thing is just the wrong thing.

Warren Miller says that the community of serious valuation professionals has many foxes, but few hedgehogs. For one thing, it takes very bright people to do valuation the way it should be done, so we should expect foxes. But it takes even brighter people--a few hedgehogs, if you will--to take the complexity of valuation, and simplify the most complicated aspects of it into a language that everyone (even foxes. . .and judges!) can understand.

His firm, Beckmill Research (www.beckmill.com), sets itself apart by using strategy concepts to explain the why behind a valuation conclusion. Wherever possible, it also works closely with clients to formulate and execute a strategy that increases a company's value.  By following the Beckmill example -- which he calls the "analyst-as-strategist" -- valuation professionals add value. That relieves price and margin pressure. It differentiates the service provider. And it enables the professional to spot and realize add-on consulting opportunities that usually produce higher fees than the original engagement.

Warren is nationally recognized as the originator of using strategy concepts in business valuation. Beckmill Research created the SPARC (Strategy, People,
Architecture, Routines, Culture) framework. It is fast gaining traction among professionals and clients alike as the most effective “hands-on” tool available for gauging unsystematic risk at the company level and, by extension, for adding value to valuation services.

By special arrangement for this Teleconference, Warren will describe his cutting-edge practices and help listeners understand how they can create an action plan to transform their business valuation services and begin to reap the benefits of value-added engagements.  You will walk away with a clear understanding of how important it is to differentiate your services from your competitors' – as well as how to increase value for clients.  You will be able to question Warren directly during the Q&A portion of this Teleconference.

Learning Objectives

• Learn basic strategy concepts
• Understand each of the components of the SPARC framework
• Learn how to apply the SPARC framework
• Understand how SPARC and strategy can lead to add-on consulting engagements

Program Outline:

• Slideshow presentation by Warren Miller
• Panel discussion of the application of the SPARC framework
• Panelist Q&A session
• Audience Q&A with the panelists directly

Featured Speaker:

Warren Miller, ASA, CPA, CMA, Moderator Spouses Dorothy Beckert and Warren Miller co-founded Beckmill Research (www.beckmill.com) in Tulsa in 1991. It is now headquartered in Lexington, Virginia, with a satellite office in Charlottesville. It limits its activities to mergers and acquisitions, value enhancement, strategic management, valuation, sell-side ESOPs, forensics, and research. The firm has been significantly involved in almost 300 valuations and transactions. Warren was the CFO in the successful turnaround of United Video Satellite Group, which later acquired TV Guide and then was itself acquired by Gemstar. He began his career as an internal auditor at Union Pacific Corporation. He was recently informed that he passed the Level III exam for the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is now classified as 'Charter Pending.' He holds an MBA and is a Certified Management Accountant. As an academic in strategic management in the 1980s, he completed all of his Ph.D. coursework before deciding a career in academe was not for him. With Eva M. Lang, he co-authored Advanced Research & Analysis , a required course in the ABV curriculum until 2003. He was cited as “Volunteer of the Year” at the AICPA's annual Business Valuation Conference in Las Vegas in 2001 and was named one of “ Virginia 's Best CPAs” in litigation support in Virginia Business magazine in 2004. Warren is an active speaker and researcher. He has made invited presentations at five national and eight state-level professional conferences. He keynoted Cargill Inc.'s triennial Asia-Pacific Management Conference in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia in 2001. His published work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Business Valuation Review, Journal of Property Economics, CPA Expert, Academy of Management Executive, and the business-and-industry supplement of CPA Letter. But the article of which he is most proud is “A Morning in the Life of America's Esquire,” which was the cover story in the Spring 1994 issue of the American Fly Fisher. He also wrote “Three Peas in the Business Valuation Pod: The Resource-Based View of the Firm, Value Creation, and Strategy,” a chapter for The Handbook of Business Valuation and Intellectual Property Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 2004). Along with Beckmill Research's proprietary SPARC Framework, that chapter is a precursor to the Value Enhancement Map, which Beckmill Research will roll out early in 2007. Among other organizations, Warren is a member of the Appraisal Issues Task Force, the Partners' Committee of the Briefcase Fund LP, and the Culver Legion. He has been qualified as an expert witness in business valuation in Virginia and Oklahoma. He proudly served an enlistment in the U.S. Marine Corps, from which he was honorably discharged. Between them, Dorothy and Warren have three children and three grandsons. Besides their passion for their work, the “Beckmills” also enjoy reading, travel, golf, keeping up with old friends, and living in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley.

Thomas Box, Ph.D., Speaker Thomas M. (Tom) Box is a Professor of Management in the Department of Management and Marketing at Pittsburg State University (Pittsburg, KS ). He was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated from John Adams High School in Cleveland. After a year at Hiram College, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and was assigned to intelligence/recon until the end of his enlistment. From 1969 to 1972 he was Vice President and Division Manager at Riverside Industries, and from 1972 to 1980 he was Vice President of Operations at Braden Steel Corporation. Thomas received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Tulsa in 1977 and an M.B.A. with a concentration in operations research from the same university in 1979. From 1980 to 1984 he was Senior Vice President of Operations at Southwest Tube Manufacturing Co. From 1984 to 1990 Thomas was on the faculty of the University of Tulsa. He joined the PSU faculty in the fall of 1990. He received his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University with a major in strategy/entrepreneurship in 1991. He has more than 75 journal and proceedings publications and five books. He is a member of the World Future Society, the Allied Academies, the Society for Advancement of Management, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He has appeared in “Who's Who in the Southwest.” He consults regularly for manufacturing and health care organizations, along with the federal government. His wife, Dr. Barbara Box, is a native of New Kensington, Pa., and is a Professor of Nursing at MSSU. They have three children: Anne is an attorney with Milberg Weiss in San Diego, Valerie is a psychiatric nurse at Freeman Health Systems (Joplin, MO ) and Tommy is a project manager with Perry Homes in Houston. Thomas' hobbies include reading, gardening and keeping up with 3 grandsons.

Earn 2 Interactive CPE Credits (Consulting Services) Business Valuation Resources, LLC is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN 37219-2417. www.nasba.org NASBA Sponsor

Please note: To receive CPE credit, you must fill out the post conference survey. The survey link is e-mailed to participants along with the dial-in number and registration code, normally sent two or more days prior to the conference. CPE credit only registrants will be sent the survey link via e-mail.

Satisfaction Guaranteed:
For more information on this telephone conference or our past telephone conferences, please email customerservice@bvresources.com Business Valuation Resources offers a 100% money-back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied, you may submit a written request within 30 days of the date of this program to receive a full refund. Please e-mail our accounting manager at: pamp@bvresources.com . There are no fees associated with refunds.