By Pat Brennan, Partner How is your cash flow doing this week compared with what you expected two weeks ago? If you don’t know, you’re driving in the dark without headlights. It’s surprising to us how many times we work with business owners who know their budgeted versus actual profit and loss statements extremely well but only look at cash flow on an annual or […]
By Dean Bachelor, Founder and Chairman It was the year 2010. The Great Recession of 2008–2009 had created an opportunity for Platinum Group to help banks deal with their troubled credits (loans). Years ago, we formed Platinum Receiver Services to facilitate receiverships capable of addressing the disposition of assets that banks require when they are near or at foreclosure. We received a phone call from […]
By Amanda Lee, Executive Consultant Regardless of our profession or industry, location, family, or any other circumstance, we have all been forced to pivot in some pretty spectacular ways recently. Pivots are always a little more exciting and easier to embrace when we choose them ourselves, but regardless of how they come about, there is always power in a pivot. Given my passion for finance […]
By Ron Leaf, Partner No business owner wants to have to call in a turnaround consultant. The decision to do so is usually forced, either by a secured lender seeking to get its loan repaid, or by a set of circumstances that have led to significant financial distress. So how to you ensure you avoid such a predicament? Being prepared to act before the first […]
By Randy Kroll, Partner A business owner and I were talking recently and I asked him how much time he spends with his company’s monthly financial statements. The answer was not much; he looks at only two numbers, the cash balance and the net income. He’s not alone. There can be a tendency for business owners to do a quick scan and then to jump […]
By Dean Bachelor, Founder It was the late 1980’s. I was having lunch with the president of a bank in Red Wing, Minn., at the St. James Hotel, the landmark hotel founded by 11 civic-minded businessmen in 1875. I had just stepped into the role of CEO at Durkee-Atwood, the town’s second largest employer (Red Wing Shoe employed 500+ and Durkee-Atwood had 325 employees). Located in […]
By Steve Coleman, Partner Two months into this pandemic shutdown, I was included in a Zoom offering new perspectives on how to make our way through challenges not seen in our lifetime. Evercore Wealth Management invited clients and family business advisors across the country to participate in a webinar that turned out to be disturbing, then challenging, then encouraging in ways to address this uninvited […]
By Randy Kroll, Partner Leadership is critical during this COVID-19 inflection point. Decisions must be made quickly. Communications must happen in rapid pace. Information must be filtered hourly. Here are three critical actions that Platinum Group suggests to help guide business and organizational leaders in these times: Be Strategic — We know from past experiences that inflection points in life and business create stress, but […]
By Greg Backlund, Executive Consultant, Operations Improvement An interesting way to consider business issues is to compare the economy to living ecosystems. Millions of years of survival testing provides a lot of success and failure examples! The current Covid disruption is likely to be a major ’extinction event’ for many businesses – unfortunately, probably, many businesses will go bankrupt or have to drastically restructure. In […]
Many business owners have been facing uncertain market conditions for the last year. Their customer buying patterns have been disrupted by the uncertainty facing all of us today. Unprofitable operations, a decline in the collateral value of assets used to support bank loans and erosion of working capital from ongoing losses are leading many owners to wonder if their businesses can be sustained.