FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
& SCALABILITY FOR HAWAI’I
Liquidity Management / Performance Improvement / Cost Takeout / Profitable Growth / Restructuring & Turnaround
Working Capital Management & Risk Mitigation (Including Tariff Management)
Financial Advisory is a Hands-On, In-Person Partnership
Two decades of leadership in Deloitte’s Financial Advisory Services (FAS) practice focused on advising executives on restructuring, liquidity management, and operational excellence reinforced a core principle: sustainable financial advisory requires rigorous execution, operational alignment, and shared accountability—not empty vision-selling.
Business transformation isn't an off-the-shelf product. SMBs cannot afford fancy decks that tell them what they already know - they need seasoned hands-on experience to be on-site to help align day-to-day tactical execution with long-term, quantifiable strategic goals.
Finance is often thought to be a quantitative answer to explain an action. It is actually the opposite - finance uses numbers to prioritize the questions that need to be asked to understand why the business operations are not performing the way they should be - a value-add advisor knows the business, industry, product / service and region to provide solutions that will fix problems and improve the numbers.
Hawai’i-based companies are unique from both a cultural and leadership style. Understanding those dynamics and living on-island, while also bringing a breadth of experience advising large companies on the mainland provides an unparalleled alignment. Trust in a virtual world is earned through on-site presence, cultural awareness and expertise delivered in-person.
“A solution without a roadmap and plan for implementation is not worth the paper it is printed on. A solution without trust through cultural alignment is equally invaluable.”
Navigating Tariffs for Hawai’i-based Companies
For businesses operating in Hawaiʻi, the extreme geographic isolation, unique supply chain dynamics, and structural dependency on imported goods, shifts in trade policy and international tariffs create immediate, amplified financial stress across the island economy.
Why Tariffs Hit Hawaiʻi Harder: The Amplification Effect
When federal trade tariffs are enacted, mainland businesses feel a cost increase; Hawaiʻi businesses face a compounded financial threat.
Compounded Freight and Logistics Charges: Virtually all containerized imports enter via ocean freight under Jones Act requirements. Freight costs, insurance, and handling fees are calculated on the landed value of inventory. When tariffs increase base inventory costs, shipping overhead, surcharges, and local General Excise Taxes (GET) rise on an inflated base, magnifying the landed unit cost.
Mandatory High Inventory Buffer: Island logistics prevent "just-in-time" (JIT) inventory execution. Local firms must hold 30 to 90 days of safety stock to guard against shipping delays and supply chain disconnections. Higher tariff costs on necessary safety stock tie up disproportionate amounts of cash in non-liquid inventory.
Elongated Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC): The time lag between outlaying capital for overseas manufacturing, paying ocean freight, holding safety stock, and collecting accounts receivable in a high-cost local market severely drains liquidity.
Market Price Sensitivity: Local consumer purchasing power and tight corporate operating margins mean businesses cannot automatically pass 100% of tariff cost increases to buyers without risking demand destruction.
Strategic Financial Advisory for Hawaiʻi-based Companies
Finance Werks brings a rigorous, operational perspective to financial advisory. I go beyond standard financial accounting to focus on working capital optimization, dynamic cash flow forecasting, and scenario-driven strategic alignment.
Strategic Financial Advisory related to tariffs for Hawaiʻi Companies
Finance Werks brings a rigorous, operational perspective to financial advisory. We go beyond standard financial accounting to focus on working capital optimization, dynamic cash flow forecasting, and scenario-driven strategic alignment.
When macro factors like tariffs threaten corporate margins, our advisory approach stabilizes cash flow and defends liquidity:
13-Week Dynamic Cash Flow Modeling: Moving cash visibility from lagging P&L statements to rolling, operational liquidity projections to identify cash shortfalls before they materialize.
Working Capital Optimization: Analyzing the precise Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)—Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO), and Days Payable Outstanding (DPO)—to unlock trapped balance sheet cash without destabilizing vendor relationships.
SKU-Level Margin Realignment: Disaggregating broad margin averages to identify true profitability at the product level after accounting for landed tariff additions, freight allocations, and holding costs.
Debt and Credit Facility Restructuring: Collaborating with lenders to align asset-based lending (ABL) terms and lines of credit with expanded inventory carrying values.
Experience Advising Companies on Tariffs
Navigating trade friction requires hands-on experience in global supply chain finance.
In 2018, amidst rising Section 301 federal tariff implementations on Chinese imports, I lead a team at Deloitte that advised the Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer of W.W. Grainger—a Fortune 500 global industrial distributor with vast sourcing operations in China.
Key deliverables and execution:
Financial Scenario Modeling & Pre-buying Analysis: Evaluated holding costs versus escalating tariff penalty rates. Built predictive capital models to execute strategic pre-buying campaigns prior to effective duty dates, locking in pre-tariff unit costs while optimizing liquidity reserves.
Alternative Sourcing & Footprint Evaluation: Partnered with supply chain and procurement teams to evaluate total cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) impacts across alternative manufacturing regions (including nearshoring and non-impacted Asian markets), accounting for retooling costs, lead times, and freight differential economics.
Marketplace & Margin Strategy Realignment: Re-segmented product catalog margins and customer pricing tier frameworks. Directed market focus toward lower-duty or domestically sourced product categories, mitigating customer pushback while insulating enterprise EBITDA.
If you are struggling with mitigating the financial impact related to tariffs in Hawai’i, please contact me for an introductory conversation to get my thoughts on your specific situation.
Core Principles
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If you can’t measure something as fundamental to a business sustainability as cash flow, then don’t expect to be able to manage it. Every business, regardless of size, should understand how cash flows through their business and how operational decisions translate into liquidity.Description text goes here
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The AI world we live in puts a huge emphasis on ‘data’. Data is essential for any business to understand, but what data should be measured, how that data is interpreted, and knowing the limitations of data are essential. Data is the start of optimizing parts of your business, but it is not the end. Understanding how operational decisions create patterns or anomalies in data is where the magic is. Companies that make decisions solely off data can make huge mistakes by not interpreting that data correctly.Description text goes here
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Companies that don’t challenge financial advisors on their industry knowledge, the regional dynamics of their business, and company-specific elements are likely not going to get the outcomes they want. It is often in these nuances of how business is done in a certain region that provides the essential context for an advisor to create solutions that are much more likely to succeed. Remote work is great, but not when it comes to really helping a business thrive.
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Anybody that charges a ‘monthly fee’ or hourly rates without any type of success-driven accountability is just that - a monthly fee that adds to their clients’ overhead costs. Advisors must have ‘skin in the game’ by creating mutual fee arrangements that incentivizes the advisor to create real value.
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Whenever you outsource something, especially when it comes to the financial stewardship of your business, do not be surprised when you get exactly that - an outsourced service that provides reports, not actionable insights. Outsourcing is really effective for areas of your finances that just need to get done - areas where the quality between ok and good, and good and great will not change your ability to reach your strategic goals.
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Guaranteed financial outcomes are sold by people who are just that - salesmen. Advisors with a deep breadth of experience know that no outcome can be guaranteed. There are too many variables that affect the ability to achieve an outcome to make a guarantee. Experienced advisors set parameters (ranges) on what a successful outcome may look like, but they never guarantee anything - if it was that easy, clients would never hire them.
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Financial consultants love to create dependence of themselves by creating complex tools that they designed and are often incredibly difficult for the client’s staff to update, change, and extend. This creates a dependence on consultants as the very tools that the client buys require the consultants to operate. Creating solutions that can be seamlessly handed off with training for the client’s staff to ensure sustainability is essential to a mutual partnership.
Published work.
Select clients served
Served as Financial Advisor to AMR Corp. (parent of American Airlines) throughout its Chapter 11 reorganization process. Key initiatives included cash management, operational continuity, supplier relations, and estimation of liabilities culminating in its concurrent emergence from Chapter 11, merger with US Airways and IPO as American Airlines Group on Dec-9-2013.
Engaged by AT&T to assist with its cash flow forecasting process to drive enhanced predictive liquidity specifically around device purchases from OEMs based on channel fill and demand, rent payments for physical locations and tower leases, and supplier financing arrangements.
Served as Financial Advisor to Sears Holdings Corp. during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Oct-2018. Supported its mandatory financial filings for its 53 legal entities, assisted with its contract disposition process by quantifying pre-petition liabilities, and supported its successful Section 363 sales process to Transform HoldCo.
Built a weekly cash flow forecasting process for Grainger Inc. - a multi-billion dollar distributor of industrial, maintenance, tools and other equipment. Worked across functions (supply chain, sales, treasury, finance, and HR) to streamline a process to both measure and manage its cash flow. Assisted with analyzing the liquidity impact of its strategy on tariffs from its China imports.
Supported GM Holdings (US Parent) with its demerger of its GM Korea (GMK) business into two separate legal entities - one supporting its research & development and the other engaged in automotive manufacturing. Worked directly with management from both GMH and GMK to understand tax and balance sheet impact for compliance with local jurisdiction and labor laws.
Served as Financial Advisor to the Department of Treasury of the Government of Puerto Rico (GPR) during its 2017 Title 3 Filing (municipal bankruptcy). Worked throughout its largest government agencies (departments of health, education, transportation, etc.) to quantify savings achieved based on Executive Orders issued by the Governor and assisted with design / implementation of financial control processes to enhance transparency.
Engaged by the NY State Dept of Health to help assess a near- and long-term solution to the large financial subsidies required to keep Maimonides Medical Center financially viable. Key initiatives were assessing the subsidy required for SFY2024 and analyses of different business model transformations to address both Maimo's long-term future as well as the larger Brooklyn metroplex's accessibility to healthcare without large state funding.
Served as Financial Advisor to LRGHealthcare - a New Hampshire based healthcare system bleeding cash during the COVID-19 pandemic. Worked with Management and Board of Trustees to file the company for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, maintain its operational sustainability as a critical access healthcare system, and facilitate an expedited Section 363 sales process to Concord Health which preserved access and jobs in the region.
Engaged by Meyer Sound, a leading enterprise-grade sound equipment manufacturer, assess its financial viability under its current asset-based lender agreement. Key initiatives included building a weekly cash flow projections, aligning its operations, design and finance functions to drive alignment around liquidity management and sales.
Served as Financial Advisor to Bashas, a $2 billion dollar chain of supermarkets in Arizona and New Mexico, with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Key initiatives included managing vendor negotiations to maintain inventory levels, weekly cash flow projections and reporting to secured lenders, required financial filings, and building a financial model to assess the prospective impact of closing its most unprofitable locations.
Engaged by a Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Activision, Inc., a leading video game development company, in its internal investigation for the SEC related to its stock options backdating practices. Analyzed stop option awards, grant dates, and strike prices to understand the dollar magnitude of the practices and the accounting and tax consequences of not disclosing the backdating practice.