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© Business Money Ltd 2006 |
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TMA Conference 200421 September 2004 The Turnaround Management Association in Great Britain has been climbing the stairway to wider recognition of its role in the business life of the United Kingdom. If last year’s conference agonised about the capacity to reach those businesses needing the help of the TMA in time, this year’s conference tried to examine, in some depth, the realities of turnaround. Is it working, or is it merely deferring the moment of reckoning? This year’s conference director, Paul Burke, is an old friend of Business Money and he quickly brought to the platform the TMA president, Chris Burford, of Pathfinders Strategic Partnerships LLP to set the course for the day. We were fortunate to have an opening address from the Rt Honourable Howard Flight MP. Howard was elected as member for Arundel and the South Downs in 1997 and was appointed shadow economic secretary to the Treasury in 1999, having served on the environment and social security committees. In September 2001 he was appointed shadow paymaster general and in July 2002 was promoted to chief secretary to the Treasury. In a rousing speech which held no surprises for those believing in the freedom of the individual and the importance of getting the economy right before anything else, Howard Flight attacked Gordon Brown’s abysmal record of taxation and he attacked the current administration overall on the appalling levels of regulation being applied to UK plc. Another old friend then took the stand, David Kern, chief economic advisor to the British Chambers of Commerce, under the heading of ‘Global European UK Economies – the Effect on British Business’. David gave us an informed summing up on the state of the world economies and the effect the challenges they presently face would have on them, plus the reaction of their trading partners. Desmond Flynn, inspector general, agency chief executive the Insolvency Service, then took to the podium to talk to us on the subject of ‘The Enterprise Act: is it Working?’ I have a lot of time for Desmond having heard him speak many times over the past few years. With that said it was a disappointment to hear him come the customary mandarin sniffiness regarding Howard Flight’s speech. To treat the reasonably proposed arguments of someone who is clearly not a fool in such a dismissive way, and to throw in a few more rejoinders that effectively confirm Civil Service resistance to any form of change, was a pity. No-one has done more than Desmond to move the Enterprise Act forward and the latter part of his speech emphasised just how difficult it is for him and what a great job he has done. We learned that some of the greatest hurdles to the smooth working of the Enterprise Act are to be found within the government itself, more specifically the Inland Revenue and those seeking to change pension legislation. Overall, this intellectually brilliant man made a presentation worthy of his huge contribution to the cause of turnaround which made it even more of a shame regarding the memories that lingered of his opening remarks. After the first coffee break we had a long session entitled ‘The Lenders Perspective’. Pam Stewart, regional director specialised lending services, The Royal Bank of Scotland, represented the clearing banks, Richard Pelly OBE, chief executive, GE Commercial Finance, represented the asset-based lenders and Anne Glover, managing director and founder, Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd and chairman of the British Venture Capital Association, represented the venture capital sector. Veteran, Philip George, managing director of Commercial First, fought the corner for property lenders. Each made a polished and professional presentation which was then followed by a question and answer panel session, chaired by David Porter, head of private equity at Nomura. Lunch was abundant and convivial and at 2.15pm we gathered once more to hear an old friend, Graham Moffit, appearing under the banner of Bank of America for probably the last time, address us. Graham, like our editor, is clearly deeply impressed by the Hilco Organisation and having met Jeffrey Hecktman, the founder and chief executive, in Chicago to hear about it, I can understand why. Graham is returning to Britain to run an organisation purchasing distressed credit card debt and I know we all wish this seasoned campaigner every success. He paid a fulsome and much earned tribute to Paul Hancock for the huge amount of support he and Bank of America gave him in setting up the UK chapter of the Turnaround Management Association. To describe a presentation as charming, you run the risk of being termed patronising but Harriet Maunsell OBE won most of us over with her comprehensive and articulate presentation on pensions issues. There are a number of points which need to be resolved here, especially for those contemplating acquisitions and mergers and Harriet updated us on the present thinking and the way in which she hoped government would move. Next came a presentation on which I have to declare interest. Tim Lefroy, my baby brother, scaled mighty heights in advertising whilst I was ploughing my furrow in banking and he included spells as a director of McCann-Erickson, chief executive at Yellowhammer and chairman of Young & Rubicam in the UK, before peaking at the great old age of around 40 in his business and moving into consultancy. Tim, veteran of the British Gas ‘Tell Sid’ message and Lloyds Bank’s Black Horse campaign, has named his strategy consultancy ‘Radical’ and when you saw his presentation you could tell why. I have to vote this the most lively, thought provoking and innovative presentation of the day, though given that I now draw my living from media, plus the fact that he is my baby brother, you may be better informed by asking others. Tim showed us turnaround on a far broader scale is achieved by addressing the mindsets of the executives of a company or those using its products and services. There is much more to this than just chucking the money in and changing the message and those not inspired by this particular message may find their turnaround operation less successful than they might have hoped. Reorganisation and change in major infrastructure businesses fell under the remit of James Close, director – government advisory services, Deloitte Consulting, and following him Stuart Ross, chief executive of Belhaven Group plc, reminded us that reputations are not made by over promising or under delivering. A simple and fundamental message but one which can be all too quickly forgotten. The closing presentation came from Martin Gudgeon, director and head of corporate restructuring, Close Brothers Corporate Finance. Martin reminded us what the corporate financier looks for in a turnaround. The closing question and answer session was moderated by Graham Moffitt and a very successful and lively, thought provoking conference came to an end. Editor
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