About

This is the blog and web site of Robert “Bob” Amter. A Chief Executive Officer services consultancy.

How My Clients Benefit:

Convert profitable but underperforming or distressed money losing companies into solidly profitable operations with growth opportunities and enhanced enterprise values in a matter of months.

The First Challenge:

Companies fail because they are not coordinated. Do not work as a synchronized unit. People, including top management, are not working on the same and correct priorities. The first priority is to get the company coordinated.

The Process to Improve the Company:

● Restore people into a self confident, assertive team capable of executing the “Action Plan”.

● In the first six weeks, establish the strategic plan and disciplined focus which will result in reduced costs and harvesting cash. Develop the plan by including the bottom of the organization as well as the top – commonly referred to as “bubble up”. Rely only on reducing costs, not growth, to effect a turnaround.

● Rebuild and balance the organization structure which may include increasing or reducing salaried headcount.

● Restore each operating function to the level of a well-run company including finding cash for capital investments. Fix the Operating Fundamentals.

● Redevelop trust and relations with banks and creditors – partially accomplished with accurate forecasts.

● Fund organic and acquisition initiatives.

● I enter every company alone so that I can evaluate existing management. Prefer to fix the company with current management. If necessary, replace functional officers with specialists I have worked with on underperforming and turnaround assignments.

Eliminating the numerous negative characteristics, common in failing companies, produced the following results:

● Ladish Co., $210 million aerospace forgings manufacturer, registered $2 million in monthly Operating Losses for six straight months. Coordinating its functions resulted in a $512,000 Operating Income in the third month and $1.3 million in the fourth. Converted its $22 million Deficit Net Worth into a positive $32 million Net Worth.

● Evenflo Co., $300 million manufacturer of baby products. Turned its Mexico subsidiary’s Operating Loss into a $3 million Operating Income in the sixth month.

● Returned Springfield Precision Instruments Inc., a Wal-Mart supplier, to positive Operating Incomes by building a company owned plant in China.

 

 

 

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Categories

Services

Chief Executive Officer

Executive Chairman

Turnarounds & Operational Restructurings

Adviser to creditors, board of directors or owners

Pre-acquisition & troubled company due diligence evaluations

Develop strategic and operating plans - including Court required plans of reorganization

Acquisition advice and negotiations

Serve as Member Board of Directors

Testify in Federal and State Court

Reason I wrote my book “Learn to Whisper”

Click on this link for a more complete description of “Learn to Whisper”

The reason I wrote “Learn to Whisper”:

My conclusion after operating as a Turnaround Chief Executive Officer for more than twenty-five years is that the majority of this country’s top management is far from first-rate. In fact top management, particularly at the chief executive officer level, is at best average with a large number that can be rated mediocre. This lack of management competence has seen this country’s market leaders lose sizeable market share to foreign manufacturers able to export better quality and lower cost products to the USA. It has seen manufacturing and service operations unnecessarily moved to foreign countries. All of which has negatively affected the economy, severely damaged former blue-chip corporations and seen quality jobs lost.

It is quite common to discover that companies struggling with this inability to compete with foreign companies have been simply mismanaged. The once successful business deteriorated because of an incompetent chief executive officer and weak senior management

Why doesn’t this nation have first-rate management? Inadequate training. Chief executive officers and vice presidents learn “on the job”. A number get promoted based on personality, political connections and drive – not merit. They are not carefully screened for the potential to become successful at managing. For some all that is needed is a well-written resume, the right interviewing style and the inability of a new employer to accurately assess skills, performance and potential.

Compare this to the process doctors go through. From medical school to internship to residency to a senior role after years of education, experience and continuous training their progress and capabilities are constantly monitored even after they become senior in the profession. Generals and Admirals go through a similar protocol. They must prove themselves in low-level assignments before they are judged qualified for senior positions. Unqualified applicants in both professions are culled out. What can be done to improve management competence? Education, on-the-job training and job performance monitoring. My book will educate people on the subject of managing. Its 101 management lessons are separated into the 17 subjects managers need to know.