Written by Schon Condon in June, 2008

Welcome to the new masthead for our newsletter “On the Beam”. Change these days is a given however it will not mean a diminution in the quality of its content.

With the recent increases in both interest rates and the cost of fuel there has been a noticeable increase of activity within the Insolvency area of the Firm. This is being further exacerbated by an increase in recovery activity by the Australian Taxation Office and an increase in debt recovery activity in the market generally. So, the market certainly appears poised for a difficult period.

One thing that times like this bring to the forefront is the general lack of planning and preparation that should have been put into place to either prevent or minimize the impact of difficult times such as this. With our focus on turnaround and the preservation of value for all participants in the process, the need to take action early is paramount.

The combination of early action, appropriate advice and determination will provide the best position for recovery and turnaround. I have just been listening to the Honourable Charlie Lynn MLC in his dissertation on Kokoda and this, a magnificent story well worth reading and researching at another time, reinforces the need for good guidance, a team focus and a burning desire to succeed will drive even the most adverse of situations around.

Interestingly, the actual existence of the determination is really quite common in the matters that we see, what is sad however, is that most of this determination is bloody minded and done without appropriate advice. A situation that actually expedites and fuels failure.

The other is dealing with an advisor whose only real interest is in the drawing away of the last remaining value for their own purposes. We have recently taken up a matter where various advisors, over basically a two year period, did nothing more than provide false and misleading hope whilst extracting the last vestiges of value from the business.

We do truly appreciate the opportunities we are given to provide advice and relish the satisfaction that comes from knowing we did all we could and we succeeded.

Enjoy the read.