The short answer is when the status quo isn’t working but the longer one centres around expertise and independence.

Milsted Langdon’s Interventions Team are experts in being parachuted into businesses and taking control to ensure stakeholder value is maintained.

We don’t claim to know more about anyone’s particular business; making those widgets or providing that particular service but, when day-to-day working has proved impossible for whatever reason, we can offer expertise in business and importantly running a business in difficult situations.

The issues that can trigger this are almost infinitely varied but some of our instructions have come about following issues like these;

• Death of Owner/CEO
• Incapacity of the CFO
• Boardroom deadlock as part of a dispute
• Shareholder deadlock
• CEO resignation/abandoned shareholders

The key strengths that we bring to these scenarios are;

Calm

In all of the above scenarios, there is a need to settle stakeholders – staff, investors, customers etc and reassure them that business will continue and that there is a plan in place to ensure that their interests are looked after. This is crucial to ensure that the business continues and that we aren’t merely custodians of a slower decline than was otherwise going to occur. 

This is particularly important where there has been a long-standing dispute or deadlock as that goodwill will already be strained and so stakeholders will want to see an improvement in the situation quickly.

Independence

Most of the situations we encounter have an element of tension where stakeholders of all types want to ensure that they are not disenfranchised and that their position is not negatively impacted by the change.

By actively stating and maintaining our independence we can satisfy all parties – who may not otherwise agree on anything – that we are not the other party’s stooge.  This allows us to have open and honest conversations with all parties in order to plot a way forward.

Expertise

These situations are hugely pressured and stressful both because of the in-business situation and the external factors that have led to our appointment but this is what we do.

We have run businesses doing everything from property management to aeronautical manufacturing to bridal dresses to transportation networks.  They all present their own particular challenges but the fundamentals of business remain the same.

We have proven expertise in getting under the skin of businesses in an incredibly short period of time, with the help of our forensic accounting team, and working with existing in-business expertise to build a strategy that delivers for stakeholders; whether that is a steady hand on the tiller in the short term or working towards some sort of sale or managed exit and just about all points in between.

So if you are aware of a business that is suffering from challenges and might benefit from external advice and support, do reach out to our team.