Initial situation

Corporate crises develop over long periods of time. Every company goes through weaker phases of economic performance. Regardless of the cause of the crisis, whether due to external market changes or internal company weaknesses, managers of these companies do not notice alarming changes for a long time. Advice and tips from experts such as tax consultants, auditors or bank advisors are ignored or rejected. Agreed countermeasures are implemented half-heartedly. All understandable reaction patterns and frequently observed behavior patterns of the people involved. The urgency of action changes abruptly when liquidity is lacking, capital has to be injected or additional collateral is requested from the entrepreneur's private assets.

Goal setting

Entrepreneurs with their family environment, shareholders and financial institutions all agree in this business situation: they want to overcome crises quickly, effectively and sustainably. The same applies to this situation:

• Starting the refurbishment as early as possible increases the chances of success.
• The restructuring experts brought in accelerate the necessary transformation processes, utilize the demonstrably effective levers and thus once again increase the chances of success for a reinvigorated company.

Solution approach

As restructuring professionals at TCI, we support small and medium-sized companies, mostly family businesses, with our in-depth practical expertise. We not only master the tried-and-tested classic restructuring tools, but also use digital solutions to restructure, rationalize or even tap into new sales potential. Our restructuring plan is always individual and customized.

Practice-oriented approach

Restructuring concept and securing livelihood

We always start by taking stock of the company's situation, the crisis analysis. Early warning signals, annual financial statements, reporting, information from the corporate environment provide initial indications of the type of crisis - product/sales, success, liquidity. After analyzing the product range or service offering with a comparison to competitors, we quickly determine the attractiveness from the customer's point of view. Even at this early stage, possible development options for the company are tested by the restructuring expert deriving possible courses of action from the company's projection of future market developments and customer expectations. As industry experts, reorganizers bring these perspectives on the future to the table. Together with the key players, we develop the unique selling proposition (USP) and the market positioning of the future company. From this, we derive the restructuring concept and the implementation roadmap and operationalize it by involving employees, defining targets and scheduling milestones.

In this way, we ensure that we utilize all capabilities and skills as well as all suitable capacities in the implementation and can provide information on the implementation status at any time. In the event of deviations from the plan, the management team intervenes with the reorganizer at an early stage.

In practice, we are increasingly finding that even elementary operational tasks are not carried out properly or with dubious results. As a result, we devote ourselves to the correctness of accounting and controlling from the second week onwards. We also ensure liquidity through consistent accounts receivable and accounts payable management. The company's structural costs are successively and rigidly reduced through immediately effective measures.

At the same time, we take care of short-term sales success. We categorize and prioritize sales activities according to their value contribution, their probability of success and their inherent risk of underperformance. In the event of underutilization, we have had good experience with period-related price reductions and additional charges for key customers - always with an exclusive individual approach. We also adjust the size of the workforce here.

Facets of cooperation

At the same time, we motivate insecure employees and managers to tackle important and urgent tasks from day one. We are involved in the day-to-day business. Through targeted support - methodology, approach, tools, guidance, supervision - we accelerate their execution. We institutionalize the targeted cooperation of all those involved, whether employees, managing directors, shareholders or financiers.

Alignment and growth

After securing the company's existence, the realignment follows immediately. Because on the foundation of secured liquidity, the first short-term sales successes, clear, prepared accounting and meaningful controlling, we transform the company more and more systematically within the cornerstones of the restructuring concept. For your better understanding, I would like to mention just a few keywords here:

• Sales - opportunity pipeline, professional customer approach, consistent follow-up of leads, new pricing models, customer typing with type-specific processing, customer-centric support
• Product & service offering - customization, complementary offerings, digital services
• Suppliers - purchasing conditions, volume bundling, market-adequate quality and delivery level, make or buy
• Controlling - planning, budgeting, intervention in the event of deviations from plan, scenarios, KPI-based monitoring
• Corporate structure - process optimization, structural adjustments via best-practice comparisons of organizational efficiency
• Financing - structuring, selection of suitable forms of financing
• Strategic corporate development - generational change, succession, diversification, buy & build

We provide individual support to entrepreneurs and managers throughout the entire assignment. In particular, we coach the members of the management team. We also provide targeted support for individual employees. In doing so, they discover how they can act in a conscious and contemporary manner in the future to ensure long-term success. Internal management and the organization emerge stronger from this crisis management.

TCI restructuring expert - an entrepreneurial personality with proven know-how, a clear view and empathy

Selected TCI partners have in-depth expertise in restructuring support for small and medium-sized companies (€ 5 - 50 million annual turnover) - some sectors of manufacturing companies, trade and services, mostly family businesses. Our restructuring experts act with an entrepreneurial personality, are goal-oriented, pragmatic and empathetic to the situation. They incorporate proven best-practice solutions into decision-making processes. In this way, the future target picture is defined accurately and quickly. TCI brings in external partners from the fields of auditing and legal advice as the situation demands. All in all, individual and holistic support and guidance.

About the authors

Stefan Dresen is a partner at TCI and, as a certified restructuring consultant, he restructures medium-sized companies with both commercial and psychological expertise. He provides close operational support to management and employees in their daily restructuring work and strengthens them personally in this difficult entrepreneurial phase. Stefan Dresen has over 35 years of expertise in controlling, IT, process improvement and the restructuring of medium-sized companies; he has been self-employed for 25 years.

Peter Hieronimi is a partner of TCI with a focus on restructuring and digital transformation. It uses technology to optimize, restructure and streamline on the one hand and to digitalize entire business models or supplement existing service offerings with digital products and services on the other. Always smart and with demonstrable leverage for corporate success. He has over 30+ years of experience in the transformation of companies (SMEs and corporations) - as a consultant, employed manager/CEO/CPO and entrepreneur. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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