Milan Demšar · Interim director
Company turnaround
The best view comes after the hardest climb.
I take charge of companies in crisis. Five companies led, two turnarounds achieved: Pekarna Postojna and Elektrode Jesenice.
Unlocking insight, challenging established thinking, achieving sustainable advantage.
Approach
- Partnership with stakeholders
- Teamwork and expertise
- Company culture and technology
- Capital and leadership
Three decades, one climb
From international sales at Iskra, to leading companies through crisis, to rebuilding my knowledge for the digital economy.
- 1980 to 1990
IskraEconomist, sales manager, commercial manager
International sales, marketing, purchasing and logistics in a large company. My career path is the proof.
- 1990 to 2001
Five turnaroundsInterim and finance director
The expected results for five owners. After one bankruptcy, appointed to lead a second company in the same group.
- 1991 to 2015
POSVET, KranjDirector and owner
Occasional consulting, and a rebuilt knowledge base for a world where knowledge is key for every person, company and country.
Track record
Five companies in crisis, from bakeries to steel. Two turned around. For three, I gave the owners, in a very short time, the insight they needed to decide on bankruptcy. Open a case to read what happened.
Elektrode JeseniceManaging director1998 to 2001Turnaround achieved
I was there from the founding of the new company after the parent company's bankruptcy, and after three years handed it over to regular management as a profitable, stable company. The S.Ž. group gave me a special award for the successful turnaround.
Pekarna PostojnaManaging director1996 to 1997Turnaround achieved
Hired as interim manager because the company had been making losses for several years. In less than a full year I halved the monthly losses: changes to the programme and customers, higher productivity and quality, new prices and suppliers, and a renewed company shop. I handed the company over to a new owner and director.
Veriga LesceManaging director1997 to 1998Bankruptcy proposed and accepted
Interim manager after an unsuccessful earlier restructuring. After analysing the turnaround options for the largest successor company, I proposed bankruptcy, and it was accepted.
Metalna TGS, SenovoFinance director, board member1995 to 1996Ended in bankruptcy
One of three board members, responsible for finance. The licence had already been terminated before I came, leaving the company without its own programme and without its largest customer, the licensor Liebherr. It ended in bankruptcy.
Energoinvest TTL, LjubljanaManaging director1990Planned bankruptcy
My first crisis-management post. After analysing the company and the alternatives, I proposed bankruptcy in agreement with the group board: the all-inclusive restructuring it needed was impossible at the end of Yugoslavia.
Elektrode Jesenice: rescuing the healthy core of a bankrupt company
The full story, written by the managing director who led it: the first 90 days, then 33 months to a profitable company, and a special award from the S.Ž. group.
How I turn a company around
Four fronts, in the order a company in crisis needs them. Finance first, business second.
Company turnaround
- You're in Charge, Now What?
- The First 90 Days
- Company Turnaround
- Rapid Performance Improvement
- Strategy, Organization and Operation Analysis
- Finance and Business Restructuring Plan
- Leading Change: 1st Finance, 2nd Business
- Partnership with Stakeholders; Teamwork
Financial restructuring
- Liquidity Management: Cash is King
- Working Capital Release
- How to Cut Costs
- Controllership
- Asset Divestment
- Restructuring Sources of Assets
- Financial Statement Analysis and Planning
- KPIs critical to Liquidity and Profitability
Sales and marketing
- Customer Insights and Segmentation
- Sales and Channel Effectiveness
- Pricing and Inescapable Downsizing
- New Product Development Management
- Digital Marketing and Multichannel
- Customer Service and Pipeline Management
- Customer Experience and Brand Management
- 3-S, 4-P and an entire company focused on the customer
ICT
- Initially no large new ERP, CRM or BI projects
- Many small ICT projects:
- to increase operational efficiency
- to support customer experience
- to improve supply chain management
- for effective fact-based management
- to create smart simplicity
- Benchmarking approach for rapid improvements
Twelve concepts, 82 knowledge blocks
A management toolkit condensed from the best business books into mind maps. The route follows a turnaround from taking charge to sustaining the result. Pick a stage.
Take chargeYou’re in Charge, Now What?
Neff, Citrin
Take chargeThe First 90 Days
Watkins
DiagnoseCorporate Turnaround
Slatter
DiagnoseStrategic Analysis
Fleisher, Bensoussan
DiagnoseStrategy
Porter
RestructureStructure and Restructure
Mintzberg and others
RestructureOrganization
Miles, Snow, Senge and others
ExecuteLeading Change
Kotter
ExecuteExecution
Bossidy, Charan
ExecuteThe Execution Premium
Kaplan, Norton
ExecuteThe 4+2 Formula: What Really Works
Joyce, Nohria, Roberson
SustainThe Learning Organization
Senge
Knowledge blocks by area
How the concepts break down into the tools I combine for a particular company.
Strategy
- Strategic Analysis
- Business Model
- Porter's Strategy
- 4+2 Formula: What Really Works
- Financial and Business Restructuring Plan
Execution
- Controlling
- Balanced Scorecard
- Aligning operation, strategy and people
- Adept culture, management and leadership
Organization
- Organizational Design
- Organization 4-DNA
- IT System
- Business Function Competencies
Leading change
- Kotter's Eight-Stage Change Process
- Change of Structure, Systems, People and Culture
Operation
- Operation Process and Coordination
- Technology and Operational Standards
- Operation Planning and Quality System
- Customer and Cost/Profit Culture
Learning organization
- Senge's The Fifth Discipline
- Kobayashi's 20 Keys to Workplace Improvement
- Learning by doing
The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.
George OrwellInsights
My commentary on the economy, Europe and business, with the charts I selected. Each piece links to the article it responds to.
Will The Crazy Global Debt Bubble Ever End?
Debts are the driving force of the economy, not just Slovenia's but the world's. States, companies and people are all borrowing excessively.
Economics in Transition
"Panta rei": everything flows, everything changes. Too fast or too slowly, for better or for worse, depending on us or on others.
Europe's Secret Bailout
The ECB, Fed, BoJ and PBoC prevented a global financial and economic collapse. They "printed" infinite money and cut interest rates to zero.
The Global Age of Complexity
The ideologies of the 19th and 20th centuries have been replaced by the complexity of the 21st. Globalisation and technology are slipping out of the control…
Values first, although business is built on interests.
I insist on respecting both; neither may override the other. My management style is democratic or autocratic as the case demands, and I always challenge conventional thinking and the flaws of company culture.
- 2MBAs, in Slovenia and in Austria
- 130+US business books studied
- 3foreign languages: English, German, Serbian/Croatian
- ~100business trips to partners abroad
Available for your needs
Send your message or request as the first step. An email or a phone call is just as welcome. Then we agree on the next steps. Confidentiality guaranteed.
SlovenskoNa voljo za vaše potrebe. Pošljite sporočilo ali povpraševanje, lahko tudi pokličete. O nadaljnjih korakih se dogovorimo. Diskretnost zagotovljena.
DeutschFür Ihre Bedürfnisse zur Verfügung. Senden Sie Ihre Nachricht oder Anfrage als ersten Schritt. Vertraulichkeit garantiert.