What’s in a name? For Etonien LLC (pronounced E-Tone-Ian), an accounting and financial consulting firm, it is a lot of history. But it’s not what you might think. It is a unique name that is derived from a long scholastic tradition in England. Founded by consulting industry veterans Joseph Davis and Lawrence Greaves, the firm is just over 16 months old. “We spent a tremendous amount of time trying to come up with a unique name,” says Chief Executive Officer Joseph Davis. “After dispensing with using our last names or phrases such as accounting or financial, my business partner [and President of the firm], who is British, has a family heritage that dates back many centuries in England. The name actually comes from Eton College, a very prestigious boys’ school in England founded by King Henry VI in 1440. It has educated many of England’s prime ministers and members of Parliament. An alumnus of that school is called an Etonian, so we just did a slight derivation of that with I-E-N.”  

Based in Los Angeles, California, Etonien’s clients range from smaller start-up companies to middle-market companies to Fortune 500 companies.“Etonien provides three types of assignments – project, interim and interim-to-hire – for corporations in their finance and accounting departments, with an emphasis on accounting, treasury, internal audit and tax,” Davis says.

The project assignments generally revolve around a specific technical skill-set that a company would like to utilize for a period of time – such as financial modeling – but they do not want to hire that expertise on a full-time basis. In this way, the client can have access to that specific skill-set for the period of time needed, but will not have the commitments of full-time employment: training, mentoring and career development.

The interim assignments are generally in a situation where a company has had a recent vacancy (resignation, physical move, pregnancy, etc.) in one of its departments’ full-time positions. They do not have anyone in the department who can step into  he role, but they need the position filled appropriately on relatively short notice. Etonien can provide an interim resource that can handle the position requirements while the company decides how to handle the position replacement for the longer term. “Again, this provides the client with an immediate solution to their situation, and then allows them the time to consider the alternatives for that longer-term solution,” Davis says.

The third assignment is an interim-to-hire option. This provides the client with an opportunity to work with a professional resource on an interim basis (per the assignment above), and also to have the option of offering the professional resource a fulltime employment situation. For many companies, this provides a great option to ensure that not only are the technical skills of the resource a proper fit, but just as important, the “chemistry” of the resource is a proper fit for the department and the company, and vice-versa. “For many of us who have made bad longer-term hiring decisions solely on interviews, this option takes away some of the risk,” says Davis.

Etonien’s professional resources are CFOs, VPs of finance, controllers, assistant controllers, directors of financial/SEC reporting, financial analysts, internal auditors and corporate tax professionals. All have a minimum of 10 years of experience. Most began their career in public accounting, then transitioned to the corporate world, or have an M.B.A. from a top-quality school along with their corporate experience. “A key component of their skill set is the ‘in-house’ corporate experience that allows them to effectively use their technical skills in understanding how a corporate finance and accounting department operates. We are fortunate over a relatively short period of time to have attracted an outstanding group of professional resources,” Davis says.

When asked about the types of industries that Etonien serves, Davis responds, “Again, we have been very fortunate we are ‘agnostic’ when it comes to industries, as we have had assignments in virtually all industries – manufacturing, distribution, retail, apparel, technology, healthcare, entertainment, not-for-profit, etc.”

Moreover, the fact that Etonien, in its infancy, has survived the worst recession in memory is another stroke of good fortune. It clearly demonstrates the business acumen of Davis and Greaves. “Historically, our industry is one of the first industries to feel the negative effects of a downturn, and this one has been no different,” Davis says. “When the economy is declining and companies start to experience economic stress, they usually focus on reducing costs. With so many U.S. companies being labor-intensive, the reductions are heavily focused on people. Consequently, the first reductions usually are the project and interim resources. If the economic stress continues, the next reductions are the ‘permanent’ employees as well.” But Davis says he sees real growth for the industry in the near term. Following the historical patterns, once the economy starts to recover,  he notes that project and interim resources are usually the first resources brought on by companies as they deal with the backlog of work generated from the downsized department and the additional work from growth. “That’s been the historical trend for the last several economic cycles and it appears to be the same this time,” Davis says. “When we talk to CFOs and controllers of companies, they tell us that’s exactly where they are right now. They have downsized their departments and are reaching the point where their departments are overworked and overstressed. They know the time is coming when they will need to alleviate the work and stress loads.” In the meantime, Etonien continues to focus on its balance of networking and direct marketing. “I’ve been fortunate, given my 27 years of experience with KPMG and three-plus years with Tatum LLC, to have met a lot of great people in the business community,” Davis continues. “Now my business partner, Lawrence Greaves, comes from a dynamic sales and marketing background and was the youngest member of the firm-wide leadership team of a large national consulting practice prior to co-founding Etonien. So he’s very comfortable in picking up the phone and reaching out directly to the buyers of our services – CFOs and controllers – and starting the dialogue that way.” It’s all part of Etonien’s core business development philosophy. “We believe every company, a week from now, a month from now or a year from now, will most likely need some assistance either on a project or interim basis,” Davis says. “So the more people that know us and our business model, and hopefully trust and respect us, we believe will keep our business pipeline flowing.” Included in that pipeline are plenty of referrals from professional service providers such as accountants, attorneys, commercial bankers, investment bankers, insurance/real estate consultants and private equity firms. Among the best referrals, Davis says, “are companies that need specific finance and accounting skill sets and access to those resources on a very tight timeframe. Our business model provides for this rapid response.” However, Etonien does try to keep its referrals and direct business marketing at a fairly equal mix. “We try to maintain strong contacts with our referral relationships and balance that with being able to directly market to companies,” Davis says. “It makes for a very broad marketing base.”

In addition to focusing on Etonien’s business development strategies, Davis says another ongoing development in the marketplace will substantially increase not only Etonien’s business, but that of the entire accounting industry. Davis sees the converging trend toward international accounting standards as a boon to the industry, similar to what the Sarbanes- Oxley legislation has been since its inception in the early years of this decade. “We’re probably several years off from that now, but in terms of looking forward, it’s going to be a radical change for all companies to have to deal with this,” Davis says. “Many companies are already starting to look at the work that’s involved and what the specific impact is going to be on their companies’ financial statements. There’s going to be a tremendous amount of work that’s going to have to be done by financial accounting departments at U.S. companies. Many of those companies will look for outside resources to assist with the technical issues and the extensive volume of work.”