Corporate Turnaround Artistry

Chapter 1Understanding Corporate Turnarounds

If stupidity got us into this mess then why can't it get us out?

—Will Rogers

The U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court in New Orleans would never be described as regal or stately. Instead of marble floors and ornate molding it held all the charm of a Soviet era department of motor vehicle office: pale fluorescent lighting washed the stale air, dingy yellowing cinderblock walls sweated with the morning's dew. Metal chairs were lined up in orderly rows across the dead linoleum tile. A judge and her clerks worked behind two large wooden tables stacked high with files. It was just me and all the other losers assembled there that day to file personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I had a 780 credit score but that was about to tank because I'd personally guaranteed corporate debt on our family business prior to Hurricane Katrina and was now at rock bottom of society surrendering my assets to the court in exchange for a release of my debts.

Forty years of my life had led me to this low point. Our family home and neighborhood were wrecked in the storm, so my wife, our three young children, and I spent eight months living in a small camper in the driveway while we rebuilt the house on nights and weekends. My participation trophy was this day in court. I'd reached bottom and it was time to push off and rebuild, but I had few options; no corporation would hire a failed entrepreneur and I was dead broke without money to start or buy another business, and ...