Masters of Disaster

Your company's tanking. Your biggest customer just went AWOL. A once-sleeping competitor has turned into your worst nightmare. Your operation is headed for the ditch -- and it's up to you to fix it. Fast. What's your first move: Fire people to send a message? Try to calm everyone down? Take action on your own plan and ignore what others say? (Hey, they're the ones who caused the mess, right?) We asked twelve turnaround experts, from professors to investors to managers, who have brought companies back from the brink, to give us their recipe for rescue. Here's the 411 on the 911.

Nina DiSesa

Chairman and chief creative officer
McCann-Erickson
New York, New York

When you step into a turnaround situation, you can safely assume four things: Morale is low, fear is high, the good people are halfway out the door, and the slackers are hiding.

You have between 30 and 60 days to make an impression as the new leader, to convince everyone that you're the right person, and to show people that you're doing something. To make a difference, you have one year.

What have I tried to do in turnarounds that I've been involved in? First, I find out where the company's strengths are. Who can you depend on? Who needs to stay with the company in order for things to get back on track?

In an ad agency, the answers to those questions are pretty easy to figure out. You can talk to people to get a sense of who is handling clients in the best way. And you can see for yourself who is doing the best work. My guess is that it wouldn't be too difficult to assess in any company; even in a big one, it's pretty easy to identify the stars.

At the same time that I'm assessing the people, I also create a plan of action. And you have to be decisive. You're not going to be absolutely sure about anything, but that's a given -- so don't let it freeze you. If you have 80% of the information that you would ideally assemble to make a decision, go ahead and make it. If it's horribly wrong, you can change course. But you can't afford to waste time by waiting. You'll never get that time back.

You'll probably have to bring in people to flesh out the team that you'll need in order to move forward. And you'll probably have to fire people as well. The crueler the action you have to take, the greater the kindness you have to show when doing it. You don't want to destroy people. Remember: Everything you do is for the good of the company.

Finally, as if you didn't know this, you're going to have to put your personal life on hold. A turnaround isn't a 9-to-5, three-weeks-off-to-go-scuba-diving kind of deal. And if you're successful at a turnaround, don't ever believe for a moment that you did it alone.

Nina DiSesa (ndisesa@aol.com) started her career as a copywriter and worked her way up to midlevel creative-director titles at two advertising agencies: Young & Rubicam and McCann-Erickson. In 1991, she moved to J. Walter Thompson as executive creative director, where she was part of a successful turnaround effort. In 1994, she returned to McCann -- itself in a turnaround situation at the time -- as executive creative director of the New York office. She has been the chairman and chief creative officer for two years.

Martin J. Whitman

Chairman and chief investment officer
Third Avenue Funds
New York, New York

Here are some rules on how to refinance a company. Whatever you do, don't use scary words like "bankruptcy." Most of the time, you'll be dealing with rookies -- people who have never been through a reorganization before. Don't cause a panic. Speak calmly. Say something like, "We have to recapitalize this company, and there are various methods we can use. Let's examine them rationally and then do what we have to do."

We do turnarounds by analyzing a company the same way that we would analyze an LBO. We determine the value of the business; we consider the dynamics of the market; we assess the estimates of future cash flow and the possible proceeds from the separable and salable assets of the company; and we look at the cost of capital.

You can't let emotion cloud your judgment. If the product or the service has a market and the company has the kind of expertise that it needs to move forward, then you're in a good spot -- as long as you can get rid of the debt and lessen the pressure. My feeling is that if you think the company has hope, let the people inside that company know it. If you don't let them know that there's hope, they won't pull it through.

Martin J. Whitman has identified value in distressed securities for more than 40 years. He is the chairman and chief investment officer of Third Avenue Funds, the portfolio manager of Third Avenue Value Fund, and the comanager of Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund and of Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund. He is also the chairman of MJ Whitman Inc., a full-service broker-dealer specializing in the research, sales, and trade of distressed securities. In total, he oversees more than $2 billion in assets under management.