5 tips to turn around deeply troubled or bankrupt companies - useful for Turnaround Business Consultants (A very lucrative consulting opportunity in today's economic environment!)

(This is from the book "If I knew then what I know now". Reference below)

Moran.Jr, A. (1997). 5 Tips to turn around deeply troubled or bankrupt companies. In R. Edler, If I knew then what I know now (pp. 120-122). New York, NY, USA: Berkley Business.

I turn around deeply troubled companies for a living. The following 5 steps apply every time:

• STEP 1: Grab the cash. Cut the existing deals with vendors, sell assets, stop payments.
• STEP 2: Freeze expenses. Don't worry about revenue. Just lock down the expenses. Cut everything you can, including executive salaries. Let them feel the crisis and share in the solutions.
• STEP 3: Interview everyone you can. All the information about faults and solutions is already in the house.
• STEP 4: Formulate a strategy for direction of the company. It is better to have a half correct strategy now than to have a perfectly right strategy in 6 months. By then, it will be too late.
• STEP 5: Draw up an "ideal" organization chart, to reflect the minimum necessary staff to implement this strategy. Most managers take the existing staff to implement this strategy and try to find a job for them. This is a disaster. Plan the organization (company). If people don't fit, get rid of them. Sounds cold, but executives are paid to execute.

That's it! Works everytime.