Lowell Robinson is a numbers guy, with a twist. "A company's numbers tell a story," says the reflective CFO and executive vice president of the Manhattan-based PRT Group Inc., a high-tech services firm. "When you make that story come alive, you get people to take action."

By getting the numbers to tell a tale, the unassuming Robinson is a kind of John Grisham of the corporate financial world. For the past 25 years, he has been teasing out the narrative thread behind companies' financial data and helping them use the information to become more competitive.

An early player in the reengineering movement, in the mid-1970s Robinson was a strategic financial manager for General Foods' (GF) domestic grocery products. After scanning a decade's worth of data and analyzing GF's investments in new product development, Robinson says he found that "GF's $50-million-a-year investment had yielded only one moderately successful product — Stove Top stuffing mix. " Armed with this information, he quickly advised the firm to refocus its efforts on acquiring established but undermarketed concerns, which eventually led to GF's profitable acquisitions of Oscar Mayer and Entenmann's.

Citicorp recruited Robinson in 1986 as assistant controller for their international consumer businesses, including bank cards and retail banking. His first task, he recalls, was to "take a look around and advise my boss what his group should be doing differently." His in-depth financial analysis revealed that Citicorp needed to manage its operations by business instead of by country, strategically reallocating resources. "I also showed them how to look at expenses as a percentage of revenues, something that's commonly done in the packaged-goods industry but that was revolutionary for this segment of the bank," he explains. In a record six weeks, Robinson was promoted to controller for Citicorp's Global Consumer Businesses, becoming responsible for seven hundred employees worldwide.

In 1994 he joined ADVO, Inc., the largest direct-marketing company in the United States, where he helped boost its stock price by 300 percent in one year by altering the company's profit structure and leveraging its balance sheet. Among other reengineering moves, Robinson reduced fixed costs significantly by centralizing the firm's financial operations.

Eager to apply his numbers magic to a smaller, more entrepreneurial company, last fall Robinson joined PRT, a global firm that provides information technology solutions and services to Fortune 500 companies. He stepped in to help lead PRT's initial public offering just after its revenues had soared from $24 million in 1996 to $60 million in 1997. "Since PRT's boom, the business environment has become much more competitive," Robinson says of the firm, whose CEO, Doug Mellinger, has been hailed by Inc. magazine as the next Bill Gates. "Some difficult decisions lie ahead as we continue to build this company. My challenge will be to help lead them through the growing pains. "

A native of White Plains, New York, Robinson says he came to finance by wending his way from liberal arts to economics as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He attended HBS immediately after college. "I didn't want a theoretical program, which is why I picked Harvard," he says. "I wanted the practical methodology for solving problems you get from dealing with case studies. "

These days, Robinson enjoys spending more time with his wife, Leila, who is managing director of global asset allocation at Salomon Smith Barney, and their daughters Sarah and Abby. He is also helping to create a mentoring program in New York City that will partner seasoned business executives with public school administrators to develop more efficient ways to put funds to use for students. "For me, life is about helping people and organizations realize their full potential," says Robinson. "It's my way of giving back. "

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