Hit the road Positive leadership for troubled times - ICAEW

TURNAROUND
TURNAROUND: NEW NORMAL?
The skills that Williams turbo-charges for
his turnaround work have become a basic
buy-in for any CFO these days. Harsher
market conditions, long-term throttling
of finance and a faster pace of business
mean the approach you’d typically see
only in tough times is the “new normal”.
And Williams is hopeful that the new
generation of finance professionals,
forged in a much harsher economic
climate, will be able to rise to the
challenge of affecting change within
struggling businesses. “Starting out in a
difficult environment is no bad thing
because you learn early on in your career
that it’s not always a bed of roses – and it
rarely is,” he says. “Getting exposed to
difficult situations more quickly and
often will be good experience if and
when things get really tough later on.”
That type of experience now makes
Williams an effective elder statesman in
his non-exec roles. Having recovered
from his stint at Blacks (“it was pretty
intense for four months,” he admits),
Williams is now focused on passing on
his wisdom to the next generation of
retailers, most of whom will need some
advice on how to cope with the
continuing downturn and more secular
shifts in the way people buy.
And he admits he fears for the industry.
“It’s going to continue to be difficult
throughout this year,” Williams says.
“Retailers are now much more cognisant
of the fact that they’ve got to do
something about the number of stores
that they have and how they run
themselves in a slow economy.”
The ones that survive, in Williams’s
view, will be those companies willing to
listen to dissenting voices. The best
businesses, he says, “are very open to new
ideas – all through the organisation. They
are very prepared to listen to anybody
who’s got a smart idea” he concludes.
“That’s very refreshing because it means
they will absorb new approaches.”
And that openness means there will be
fewer casualties for him to tend.
Christian Doherty is a freelance writer and
former editor of Real FD, a magazine for
FDs of small UK companies.
MOUNTING A
SUCCESSFUL RESCUE
Peter Williams eschews
the turnaround tag. But
he knows the important
ingredients for bringing
a company back to life.
Advisers are key. “Make
sure you’ve got a strong
set of advisers. Turnarounds
are unusual situations, they
can get quite technical.
You probably have a
banking syndicate or a
covenant that’s causing
problems, so you need
people to provide legal
and debt advice. You might
also need accountants who
provide things like going
concern help or reviews.
Those people need to be
very well versed in
turnaround, too.”
Seeing is believing. “Just
being there in the head
office, and walking round
the building with a smile
on your face – not looking
as though Armageddon is
nigh – that’s important.”
Don’t panic! “Whatever
fires are burning in various
parts of the business you
have to keep calm because
if the leader of the
turnaround process is seen
to panic then that’s not
helpful at all.”
Work on your acting skills.
“Even if you don’t know on
day one what the answer
to the problem is – which
you probably won’t – you’ve
got to pretend that either
you do know or that you’re
going to get there quickly.”
A quick, less-than-perfect
decision is better than no
decision. “Sometimes you
just have to say it’s not
perfect, but it’s 80% there
so we can refine it later.
We do need to decide
what we’re doing.”
FINANCE & MANAGEMENT MAY 2012
13