Journal of Corporate Renewal

Nov/Dec 2013

• Expanding production lines to include products that may not fit a company’s core competency.

• Entry into new markets, including oversight and planning to ensure management has achievable launch plans without diverting from the core business.

Services that restructuring
professionals can provide in
addition to support during the
due diligence process include:
• Monthly monitoring of key
operational metrics, including
development of a dashboard.

• Communicating with key personnel to ensure prospective performance stays in line with forecasts.

• Identifying potential market trends and risks and assessing whether management has plans to address their impacts.

• Providing board advisory support and oversight.

BDCs and other nontraditional lenders
may benefit from the experience of
restructuring professionals who have
worked in multiple industries and with
companies of various sizes that have
successfully navigated through varying
degrees of stress. These professionals
can leverage a network developed
through numerous economic cycles
to provide insight not only regarding
market trends at the financial level but
also feedback at the operational level
that can prove beneficial for lenders
who plan to aggressively penetrate
the lower middle market. The value of
being proactive is certainly heightened
in smaller companies, where a slow
reaction to a potential crisis can
result in disproportionate losses.

Leveraging the depth of experience of restructuring professionals with pertinent industry and operational expertise can mitigate risk and provide oversight of lower middle market companies that have become fertile ground for BDCs and mezzanine lenders. J

Robert Schleizer, CTP, is managing partner and co-founder of BlackBriar Advisors LLC, a business renewal and acceleration firm comprised of senior financial and operational executives focused on small to mid-market companies facing challenges in their legacy business models, current financial position, or existing operational capabilities. He has more than 30 years of financial and operational experience serving private and public companies in financial and organization restructuring, crisis management, acquisitions and divestitures, and equity and debt financings. Schliezer serves on TMA Global’s Finance and Certification Oversight Committees. He can be reached at bschleizer@blackbriaradvisors.com or 214-483-1261.