Interim and Crisis Management - During a crisis, often outside assistance is needed to help correct the situation. In some cases, extra or even replacement management can be utilized to help with business turnarounds, facilitate conflict resolution, and many other aspects of crisis management. These management services can be more effective than relying on internal staff because the interim management teams are experts in resolving crises, and they have experience in different organizations that can aid your company as well.

Corporate Finance -

Corporate finance deals with the tools and processes used to make financial decisions on the corporate level. The main purpose of corporate finance is to maximize value, while minimizing financial risk. To do this, corporate finance involves making both long-term choices with capital investment, as well as short-term choices with cash management.

Creditor Advisory -

Creditor advisory services are performed so that creditors, those to whom the corporation has debt with, can asses the financials of the company in order to maximize the amount of money that they can recover in the event of business failure. This analysis can include reviews of business plans, identification of assets that can be sold for cash, analysis of cash flows and many other aspects. Often this does not indicate that the business is going bankrupt, but can be used to assure creditors that the organization is taking steps to turn around a crisis.

Risk Management Advisory -

Risk management advisories are used to asses a companies risk to a loss of value. Often applied to insurance coverage, risk management determines a company’s current level of insurance, and analyzes the potential for future losses, to assess whether the company would benefit from higher insurance coverage. If there is a lack of coverage than an advisory, or warning can be issued. These advisories can also be applied to a company that is a credit risk, an operational risk, or a market risk. These different types of risks need to be evaluated, and if necessary acted upon.

International Competition -

Today’s business world is increasingly global. With the advent of the internet, businesses today are no longer competing with stores down the street, but companies are also competing with organizations around the world. Often companies from other countries are operating with a distinct advantage, such as a lower cost of labor or land. In this arena of international competition, it is important to maximize your own advantages while minimizing the company’s disadvantages. It is also important to understand that even though your competition is international, your market has also expanded to be international as well.

Business Plan -

A business plan can be thought of as a blue print for your business. It defines the goals and strategies for your company in order to maximize the chances for success both long term and short term. Developing a business plan is extremely important for organizations because without one a business plan the organization can drift without a clear direction, and without a clear direction chances of succeeding are diminished. After a business plan has been developed, it should be referred to on a regular basis to determine if the goals and procedures are being adhered to, or if the goals and procedures should be updated. In a crisis, a sound business plan can help a company to stay focused and moving forward.

Financial Projections -

Financial projections are predictions of the financial performance of your company. This is often a section of your business plan, but can also be asked for by an investor or creditor. Financial projections are based on your income and expenses, and what you think they will be in the future. It will also contain a cash flow projection, which is the movement of money within your organization. When asked for by investors, or doing it your self to make sure your projections remain in-line with reality, a financial projection review will examine your projections to make sure that your estimates and assumptions are solid so that financial decisions can be made based upon that information.

Cost Reduction -

In a crisis, often your organization will need to reduce expenses or costs. This is known as cost reduction. In order to maximize revenue, it may be necessary to make some hard decisions on which expenses need to be cut. Development of these initiatives is a task that can some times be aided by an outside party who has an objective look on your company. Once these initiatives have been developed, it is important to do a review of the initiative from time to time to ensure that the initiatives continue to be acted upon so that costs do not begin to escalate again.<\p>

Creditor Negotiation -

In some crises it may become necessary to negotiate with creditors. Often, negotiating with creditors in an effort to prevent a crisis from occurring can be beneficial to both your company and the creditor. Both before and during times of crises, it is important to communicate with creditors. By managing the processes of communication and negotiation, you can not only improve your chances of surviving a crisis, but also if done early enough avoid a crisis all together. The key is to understand and utilize creditor communication and negotiation, and to manage the processes effectively.

Benchmarking -

Comparing your organization to other companies in the same industry can give you an idea of how well your company stacks up against the competition. Determining if you are an industry leader or trailing behind can guide your decisions in both times of crisis as well as times of normalcy. Competitive risk analysis will help in your benchmarking efforts. Surveying the industry make up and finding who your competitors and what risk they pose to your company’s ability to make revenue is essential to revealing the health of your company, and helps to determine your best course of action.

Capital Optimization -

Capital structure is the way in which a corporation has financed its assets by using a combination of equity, or debt. Many organizations will grow their company by investing some percentage of their own equity, and the rest by use of debt obtained from creditors. Optimizing this ratio so that the organization has the highest chance of success is important. In times of crisis it may become beneficial to take on more debt in order to sustain a company through lean times. On the other hand, reducing debt to save on interest payments may also serve a company in time of crisis. It is important to look at a company’s financials in order to determine the most optimized capital structure.

Turnaround Experts - If an organization is in danger of bankruptcy or even closing its doors, a turnaround expert can change the downward course of a failing company into a positive moving company. This reversal of course from failure to success is called a turnaround, and an expert in reviving companies and turning them profitable again is a turnaround expert. These experts have experience in reviving failing companies, and can apply that expertise to your own company. Turnaround experts also have the objectivity necessary to make tough decisions when necessary. If your company is on a downward spiral, a turnaround expert may be what you need.

SWOT Analysis -

SWOT Analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. These four areas can be used to analyze your business or organization to better perform strategic planning and assessments. Once you understand your SWOT, you can put into place a plan that will help your company succeed and thrive. If you are in a crisis, a SWOT analysis can help in your turnaround, if you are not in a crisis, a SWOT analysis will help you to understand how to perform even better.