The Ninth Annual HBS Turnaround Symposium was held at the Harvard Business School on April 18, 2007. Through keynote addresses by distinguished industry leaders as well as numerous topic-specific panel discussions, the symposium aimed to address the key issues and trends relevant to turnaround CEOs and CFOs, turnaround investors (equity and debt), turnaround facilitators, such as consultants, lawyers and bankers. This symposium is the oldest student-run event focusing on turnarounds in the USA.

The afternoon opened a keynote address by James H M Sprayregen, Managing Director - Goldman Sachs, Leveraged Finance Group who spoke about the Trends and opportunities in restructuring in the US. The keynote was followed by four panel sessions.
In Negotiating out - a turnaround lesson panelists ,Eugene Keilin, Founding and Managing Partner, KPS Capital Partners, Nathan Gilliland, Senior Vice President of Sankaty Advisors, Daniel Nicolaievsky, Director, UBS Brian Cassady, Director, Alix Partners and Mark Bloom, Co-Chair, National Business Reorganization and Bankruptcy Practice of Greenberg Traurig focused on some key questions related to turnaround negotiations such as:

•    Who are your key constituencies in a turnaround situation and how do you prioritize them?
•    What are the different levers and tactics that you can use with these constituencies, e.g. creditors, management, customers, government and employees?
•    How do you negotiate with each of the different parties? What you can give up and what you shouldn’t give up.
•    What are your obligations to employees and what are the legal rules that govern the negotiations?
•    How do you balance between obligation to employees and company survival?
•    Finally, when things go wrong, what do you do?
The session was moderated by Professor James Sebenius, Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School.

In Debt restructuring: Successful approaches to unlock hidden value, panelists, Aaron Bendikson, Oaktree Capital Management, Ashesh Shah, Director, Trans-Continental Capital Advisors, Michael D. Stewart, Managing Director, Carlyle Group, James F. Mooney, Baupost Group and Benjamin Procter, Woodside Capital tried to answer questions such as how are distressed opportunities identified? How is value assessed? How do you know what strategy to employ? The also spoke about some of the current issues under scrutiny including:

•    Managing the split between PE activity and distressed opportunities
•    New trend on issuing debt without covenants. What leverage aside from liquidation?
•    Credit derivatives : Are they speculative or sound underlying hedging opportunities?
•    Convergence of PE and hedge funds
Ronald Moore, Adjunct Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School served as the moderator.

The state of the US automobile industry as an industry in trouble was discussed in the panel session titled The US Automobile Industry: Sink or Swim?
 Panelists Cuneyt Oge, Director, PRTM, Durc Savini, Managing Director, Miller Buckfire, Allan Holtz, Managing Director, Alix Partners, John H. Weber, President and Chief Executive Officer Remy International, Inc brought different perspectives from investors, advisers and managers on how to address different topics in this competitive industry including the key issues facing these firms and  how  they are being addressed? What kind of opportunities and threats does the industry and its sub-sectors face in the short and long term? Which of the incumbent firms has the greatest potential to beat the downward trend and what should they focus on?

Paul W. Marshall, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School served as the moderator.

The panel on the nexus between operational and financial turnarounds explored the following issues.
•    Criteria used in identification of turnaround targets
•    Different valuation approaches (there is a lot more art to valuing a company that has distressed earnings)
•    Strategies employed to gain control of distressed companies
•    Strategies employed to resuscitate distressed companies
•    Differences in professionals’ skills, overall process, timeframe, degree of involvement
•    Convergence or divergence of the two approaches
•    Occurrence of pure-plays
•    Cases shifting from one framework to the other
•    When/how/why can things go wrong (war stories)

The panel included panelists Brian Ramsey, Partner, Littlejohn & Co, Stephen Presser, Founder, Monomoy Capital, Scott Wagner, KKR/Capstone, David Coles, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal and was moderated by Stuart C. Gilson, Steven R. Fenster Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School.

Peter Fitzsimmons, Co-President – AlixPartners brought the event to a close with a keynote talk on globalization in restructuring.

For individuals with strong analytical skills and intellectual curiostiy on how businesses function the turnaround industry offers a great career opportunity. The attendees learnt a lot about the “Turnaround” business which today has clearly become an important and viable business opportunity. The globalization of restructuring presents opportunities which if harvested right can bring great gains.

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