Years ago i was asked to step into a Biotech firm that had just been taken over by new management via a hostile takeover. The place was a wreck. It had been started via a small IPO, and the management team squandered the money on overblown facilities & unproductive staff. My first task was to stabilize cashflow, which I did by collecting past-due receivables and renegotiating just about everything. I then focused on the larger picture of redeveloping the company into a winner (note: they had never made a profit up th this point). I dumped the fancy facilities, reduced the staff to a small key group, outsourced production at reduced cost, and developed a marketing strategy that got the company into profitable status. Meanwhile, I courted a venture capital group who injected cash and took the company private. Ultimately, the company was consolidated with another firm which had national distribution channels. They went from being a near-bankrupt small-cap loser to a vibrant mid-cap winner. I'm proud of that and the many other contributions I've made over my career. There were many lessons to be learned from that experience, but the key lesson was to "get off my butt and do something". The biggest mistake of all is inaction; a lesson the old management learned when they sat on their butts while the company crumbled around them. The second-most-important lesson was to have a plan. Planning forces one to exerise the discipline of developing & thinking through their strategy, and provides a "bible" for running the business. Without a plan, most people are just throwing money away. I've got a great story about an Aerospace company that I'll tell another day.
Regards,
Al Walsh, CEO
Walsh Enterprises, Business & Financial Advisors
http://www.awalsh.us
Go to http://www.walshal.wordpress.com where you can access:
* Articles on Business, Economy, and Career
* Presentations I've written on various business topics
* Information Resources on varied business topics
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