The current economic recession and the continued deterioration of the larger macroeconomic situation are playing havoc in a very significant and permanent way with the financial system, bringing many companies from varying sectors to bear critical situations. Not all of them will survive, and we are facing the continued corporate restructuring and market repositioning for those the strong ones, and a true battle for survival for those less so.
Yet all this also means opportunities, whether for investment as prices fall to new lows, or for mergers and acquisitions of both healthier companies and business models and thus able to lead this time of change. These companies are the “winners” of today. A common denominator between them has been a straight forward Management, without unnecessary complications or sophistications, and that have responded with policies of caution and efficiency. Curiously, and possibly with a somewhat pejorative intent, these companies have sometimes been branded in the past as conservative, insufficiently aggressive, or even outdated. However these same companies are the ones to emerge today with relatively robust business models or at least significantly less contaminated by the toxicity that plague many others. These others are the “losers” of today. Their future depends on their ability to transform or adapt as the case may be, which in all cases implies deep reaching processes of restructuring, sale or merger, or in the worst of cases, closure and liquidation.
The winners, with these aforementioned healthier business models, will be the ones to benefit from the opportunities that arise and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The benefits will be in terms of more business and new clients, with the corresponding rise in market share, and this of course comes in hand with a greater ability to attract the best professional talent. These companies will emerge stronger from the economic recession, and at the same time are already looking toward a new kind of professional profile that will help guide them in the complex rebuilding of the economic structure.
Alfonso Rebuelta
Managing Partner
Bao Partners / Signium International