Leadership is never more crucial than when corporate survival is at
stake. But the days of the tough guys are over. The leaders who are
driving today's sustainable turnarounds understand that the answers
to a distressed company's problems lie almost always within the
firm itself - usually at middle manager level and below. The secret
is cooperation. Drawing on interviews with top company doctors and
advisers, as well as on the authors' own experience,
Leading
Corporate Turnarounds explores seven key leadership and
management skills required for successful turnaround, and shows why
quickly gaining the buy-in and trust of all stakeholders is the key
to ultimate success.
- Written by the founding directors of the Society of Turnaround
Professionals (STP), with a proposed Foreword by the Society's
Patron Sir John Harvey-Jones
- Considers the different drivers of turnaround, the alternatives
to it, and the restructuring processes required to move beyond
crisis stabilization to sustainable change
- Features international case studies from leading companies
including BT, Virgin Express, Arthur Andersen, Parmalat, GE, Lee
Cooper, New Look and IBM
Leadership is never more crucial than when corporate survival is at
stake. But the days of the tough guys are over. The leaders who are
driving today's sustainable turnarounds understand that the answers
to a distressed company's problems lie almost always within the
firm itself usually at middle manager level and below. The secret
is cooperation.
Drawing on interviews with world leading, international company
doctors and advisers, as well as on the authors' own experience,
Leading Corporate Turnarounds explores seven key
leadership and management skills required for successful
turnaround, and shows why quickly gaining the buy-in and trust of
all stakeholders is the key to ultimate success.
"This is an admirable guide to the increasingly specialized
business of corporate turnaround; I wish I had it when I started at
BT in 2001."
-Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman, BT Group
"Why wait for a crisis to hit before reading this book? There is
so much good material here which can be used preventatively to stop
your company going to the brink. If I had this book available when
we faced our turnaround, I have no doubt that I would have moved
faster to tackle the problems! This book is a must even for those
seeking to stimulate change before the crisis begins."
-Patrick O'Sullivan, Group Finance Director, Zurich Financial
Services
"This well researched analysis of the characteristics of
leadership in turnarounds is a valuable and timely successor to
Corporate Turnaround. It should be essential reading not only for
those involved in company rescues but also for those who want to
learn about crisis leadership without experiencing it
themselves."
-Paul Thompson, Head of Lending Services, HSBC
Stuart Slatter
Founding partner of Stuart Slatter & Company, Chairman
of Stuart Slatter Training and a Visiting Fellow in Strategic and
International Management at the London Business School (LBS).
Stuart Slatter has over twenty-five years of experience in
providing strategic consultancy advice and management education to
senior management throughout the world. While a full time faculty
member at LBS, he was Dean for Executive Education, Director of the
Senior Executive Programme, and Chairman of the Strategic and
International Management Department. He has been a Visiting
Professor at the University of California (UCLA) and at the
University of Capetown. Prior to joining LBS, he was Managing
Director of a subsidiary of a UK public company, and a senior
management consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton in New York
specialising in marketing strategy.
He holds a law degree from Cambridge University, an MBA degree from
Stanford Business School, and a PhD in marketing from London
University. He is a qualified barrister-at-law, and is the author
of a number of books and articles, including "Gambling on Growth",
Wiley (1992), and "Corporate Turnaround", Penguin Books (1999). He
was one of the founding directors of the Society of Turnaround
Professionals in the UK, and can be contacted via
www.slatter.co.uk.
David C. Lovett
David Lovett, a Managing Director with AlixPartners and a
member of the European Executive group of the firm, is a business
graduate, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
England and Wales, a fellow and a founding member of the Society of
Turnaround Professionals. Before joining AlixPartners, David was
with Andersen for 18 years, where he formed Andersen's London-based
turnaround practice in the early 1990s and subsequently led the
Global Turnaround practice. He co-authored "Corporate Turnaround"
with Stuart Slatter in 1999.
During the last 30 years, David has advised all the classes of
stakeholders in troubled companies.He has led many corporate
restructurings and turnarounds in both an advisory and officer
capacity serving as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Restructuring
Officer.
David has extensive cross border restructuring experience and is
familiar with the changing trends in insolvency and restructuring
legislation. He is driven by a desire to minimise economic loss to
stakeholders while his clients manage the turbulence of forced
transformation.
AlixPartners is recognised internationally as the "industry
standard" for solving complex business challenges, helping
companies improve operating and financial performance, and
restoring corporate value.
Founded in 1981, it has been retained by hundreds of companies
throughout the USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America and has worked
in virtually all industries and sectors.
Laura Barlow
Laura Barlow is a Director in AlixPartners' European
Turnaround and Restructuring practice. Over the past 15 years she
has been an adviser to both creditors and debtors in troubled
situations and has worked with numerous companies to help them
achieve operational turnaround and financial restructuring. She has
taken interim management roles in several troubled companies,
restoring stability and leading the development and implementation
of turnaround plans. Her current focus is on providing
restructuring advisory services to corporates, including taking
Chief Restructuring Officer positions where appropriate.
Laura is a graduate of Oxford University, a Chartered Accountant
and SFA Securities Representative. She is a regular speaker at
European conferences on turnaround and restructuring and at the
London Business School on the Managing Corporate Turnarounds
course.