Becoming Who You Want To Be

During our vulnerable economic times, it is not surprising to see that one of the fastest growing fields of business is business crisis management. Often a crisis situation occurs before it is fully realized by management and an expert must be recruited to intervene. The goal of crisis manager is to identify the nature of the crisis and plan a turnaround or liquidation strategy. The crisis consultant juggles multiple factors including the company’s public image during the analysis of company’s current viability of profit, loss, and recovery.

During such a crisis, businesses try to restructure their way out of the crisis utilizing many of the same strategies which lead to the current downfall, but do not realize it. A crisis manager will see the company’s structure with a fresh pair of eyes and can implement a plan from an impartial point of view. Turnaround or liquidation may well be related to how soon a crisis experienced outside manager is involved; in other words time is very much of the essence.

Chrysler, once known as one of Amererica’s premiere car-makers, more recently has been called “not salvageable” by both the broadcast and print media, and the US Federal Government. Detroit area turnaround specialist Jim McTevia of McTevia & Associates of Bingham Farms stated, “Ultimately you’re talking about a set of circumstances that means a liquidation of Chrysler’s assets, that’s what everybody has been talking about but nobody is saying it.” As of this writing, to our knowledge, Chrysler has not brought in a crisis manager to take over. Almost no American corporation has lost so much money in such a short period of time, yet they still will not bring in an expert consultant. One might think they would learn from their own history with the amazing Iaccoca story.

Firing its best sales people was Circuit City’s stab at “restructuring” around 2007. The executive decision made by Phil Schoonover former Circuit City chairman, CEO and president to transform Circuit City in to Best Buy was a critical factor in the company’s failure. Had a crisis manager been brought in prior to the 2007 decision perhaps they could have developed a turnaround strategy, rather than acquiescing to the fact that liquidation is the only possible option.

Nonprofits are even “getting into the game” of finding turnaround crisis managers. Dr. George Head, PhD and director emeritus of the Insurance Institute of America in Malvern, PA and special adviser to the Nonprofit Risk Management Center and co-authored the Center’s book, “Enlightened Risk Taking: A Guide To Strategic Risk Management For Nonprofits”. His book is available at Amazon and your friendly neighborhood bookstore or library.

Without flinching Head insists, “Economic downturns bring both threats and opportunities to which a resourceful nonprofit can and should respond constructively – both for its own protection and for the greater well-being of its clients and of the general community of which that nonprofit is a contributing part. In hard times, it is easy to find and bemoan the threats. It is more rewarding for everyone, however, to seek out and seize the opportunities. In all of these circumstances, the discipline of risk management can provide resources and tools for sustaining a nonprofit and the clients and communities it serves”.

An economy that is this stagnant has created a need for crisis and liquidation consultants within retail apparel sector. A veteran retailing expert, Milton Waldoff of The Waldoff group says, “The world of retail is fierce, competitive and unforgiving, more so today than at any time since The Great Depression, surviving is not a given, nor is a successful closing.” He continues, “A crisis management expert understands not every situation cannot be turned averted. Some situations must be liquidated and management must have the experience, knowledge and expertise to know what works and what does not, and which situations might be turned around very successfully! Both take professional unemotional analysis and planning.” Waldoff has been involved in numerous successful retail crisis management situations. If done internally, a firm risks much greater losses, whether it is a turnaround or liquidation, if done internally, rather than hiring a person who can give valid valuable advice based on years of experience.

Today’s economy is becoming eerily less forgiving and consumers obviously have less to spend. The marketplace will continue to contract to accommodate the loss of incoming revenue. Whether large or small firms, or even non-profit can benefit from the services of a professional turnaround crisis consultant. Knowing when to hire a crisis manager to assess the health of your business could mean the difference between a turnaround or liquidation of his/or her venture. The results have been shown to be the same, time and time again whether it was IBM, Chrysler, or the deli on the corner when an outside professional is not there to help minimize costs or even turn the business around.

Milton Waldoff is founder of retail crisis management The Waldoff Group. He was discovered by authors Rick London and Lee Hiller while researching an article on business turnarounds. London is founder of Londons Times Cartoons, Google’s #1-ranked offbeat cartoons since 2005 and LeeHiller.com is the #1 ranked Americas Favorite Love Columnist on Google, Yahoo, and MSN.