A crisis is not a walk in the park – but neither is it a disaster if you take the right approach. The Swiss writer Max Frisch puts it in a nutshell:
“Crisis is a productive state. You just have to take away the aftertaste of catastrophe.”
Let’s overcome your crisis together and emerge stronger from it.
1. Create facts instead of gut feeling with our Interim Finance Managers
In the crisis, there is little time for experiments. Your gut feeling is valuable, but it takes a solid foundation of data and analytics. Without reliable figures, you run the risk of going in the wrong direction.
Ask yourself:
- Which products and customers deliver real contribution margins?
- Are the production costs calculated correctly?
- What do payment flows and liquidity look like?
Companies often lack this clarity, or it is based on erroneous assumptions. With well-founded facts, we create the basis for making convincing decisions and getting stakeholders on your side.
2. Secure liquidity – immediately and consistently
Liquidity is the lifeline of your business. Without it, every crisis becomes a catastrophe. The first step is therefore to secure the financial cushion, for example by:
• Tight receivables management
• Renegotiation of payment terms or loan repayments
• Sale of non-operating assets
Forget standard solutions such as a more intensive written dunning process: Success often requires unconventional approaches. In one company, for example, I was able to reduce the days sales outstanding from 71 to 41 days through active receivables management together with the company’s teams – this alone made liquid funds available again.
3. Strengthen profitability – no half measures
Liquidity buys you time, but is not a sustainable solution. To survive effectively, you need to consistently improve your profitability – both on the revenue and cost side.
Revenue: Work your market in a targeted and critical way:
• How many offers does your sales department issue?
• What is the order loss rate?
• Which salesmen generate real contribution margins?
An example: A company paid sales representatives high fixed wages. The episode? During the crisis, the intensity of acquisitions decreased. With a revised compensation structure, we were able to significantly increase the acquisition intensity and closing rate.
Costs: Proceed structurally:
• Which production sectors are not competitive?
• Which products generate losses?
In one case, a company was desperate to keep a high-revenue product group – but the margin analysis showed that it delivered minimal contribution margins. Such facts help to make better decisions.
4. Attract employees, don’t lose them
Without the trust and support of your employees, every measure remains piecemeal. You have to win over both those who stay and those who leave the company for the change process.
In a restructuring, we have intensively supported employees who we had to lay off in their job search, and in the vast majority of cases we have succeeded in finding suitable positions. This approach not only created a positive dynamic for those affected, but also strengthened the trust of the remaining employees. They felt that the company was acting respectfully and responsibly.
In a Nutshell
Crises require courageous and confident actions, because time is pressing. Our Interim Finance Managers strengthen your gut feeling with fact-based analyses and develop measures that take effect quickly.
Particularly important: Win over your employees for the way out of the crisis. Because without them, every strategy remains a plan on paper.
With the experience of our Interim Finance Managers, we are at your side so that your company can quickly and sustainably get back on the road to success.
