Spark! Business Rescue, Debt Workouts & Turnarounds.

If you are concerned for the future, or feeling overwhelmed, you have come to the right place. Business under performance can cause its own prolonged stress, but financial distress and looming insolvency are quite another matter. We have invested our own resources, time and money, in distressed businesses, and fully appreciate how difficult a time like this can can be. We also know how to improve matters.

Financial distress remediation demands an unsually broad set of skills and experience. We deal with the most often cited reasons given for failure by:

We act with urgency and focus, doing the right things and avoiding time becoming a constraint.
Adopting the correct approach and set of business tactics - formal rescue is not the only option available.
Applying rigourous strategic thinking that deals with tangible operational issues which immediately address key issues in the business.
Providing self funding solutions for cash flow and enabling longer term funding options and alternatives.
Integrating specialist legal advice with financial, operational, management, negotiation and leadership skills.

What we provide you is the application of actual experience gained locally and internationally in numerous successful global and smaller turnaronds over the last 30 years. We love what we do, we do it well and are able and willing to do what the situation demands. Talk is cheap, so let us take you through previous engagements.

What are the main remediation approaches and focus areas?

Look under the services menu item at the top of the page, otherwise this is summary of what we do.

Restructuring Debt and Informal Debt Workouts

Our home page for Debt Workouts, will show you how we do much more than merely negotiate extra time or a reduced debt burden - you can do that yourself, we do what no other firm offers, and that's ensure you reach a healthy compromise with workable plans that are self funding, structured and convincing.

Matters concerning Business Rescue

Our business rescue home page Business rescue, where you will find a process walk through, our approach, planning, week one actions sheet and deliverables

Business Turnarounds

A Business Turnaround, must enable sustainable changes to the business, beyond the fundamentals, like cash flow. Obviously, depending on the pressures faced by the business, we make every effort to coach the business through the various stages of a turnaround - a unique offering in South Africa.

Our Coaching Methodology

To give you reassurance that you are dealing with world class specialists, we have made available part of our Coaching Framework. You'll find information on our approach, and specific detail on the different focus areas of Strategy & Planning, Cash & Value Management, Personal Development & leadership, Reliable Execution, Enabling Habits etc.

Searching the site

There is an uncluttered, search page which y=can be used to search our archives for material.

Bear in mind the following discussion points so you understand what to expect from our website.

There is a lot of detailed material! - Each distressed business that avoids liquidation and goes on to thrive has its own journey. We have distilled the main themes and approaches that can be taken. The first request, demand and expectation from most distressed businesses is for funding. This comes with all sorts of guarantees and promises. The reality is lenders, creditors and investors, even if they have some sort of security, will have very little appetite to help without reassurance that history won't repeat itself. This isn't trivial and requires the active participation of the leadership team itself with tangible and convincing evidence of their efforts that reflects insight, planning and an ability to execute.

Why so little emphasis on legal processes? - The South African legal system is adversarial and we lack a rescue culture. Creditors are unforgiving of delinquent debtors and have largely well defined legal recourse. The wisdom of Sun Tsu is not to be ignored. Know when to fight and when not to fight. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Prolonged warfare benefits only the arms dealers. The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won. The Company Act prescribes a minimum structured process with timelines, obligations, legal implications that can be easily followed if you have the various templates for the prescribed notices. Our focus is on providing the content with insights, analysis, actions, and a viable plan that will be supported by creditors and able then to deliver on its commitments.

So how do we work with lawyers? - Extremely effectively, as we consult and engage with them early, they are essential in navigating some of the less well defined aspects of the Act and checking recent precedents (don't treat your landlord like any of your other creditors! and what about that secured lending contract with your bank, where your accounts receivable could be ceded on breach). A good lawyer is worth her weight in gold, and will play an essential role in the overall rescue. Roles and responsibilities must reflect a business context and not be constrained by a dominating legal process. Thus methodology and tactics must be clear and hence mandates and accountablility are crucial in enabling co-ordination of a team.

What kind of enterprises do we prefer to work with? - Industry segment is not an issue, however we generally prefer working with larger or smaller businesses that reflect a typical family owned smaller business culture where decision making can be quick, communciation effective, consensus building less political, where people are more entrepreneurial, there is a sense of commitment to the business and its customers and momentum can be built quickly as a sense of urgency will self generate. Issues of nepotism and financial ill-discipline are much easier to deal with in such an envirnoment. However, we strongly encourage you to adopt a self-help approach and to use the material here yourself.

If there is more you need to know - please don't hesitate to ask! Just use our contact form., call us or e-mail us using the links in the footer below.

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