Richard Fleming, European Head of Restructuring at Alvarez & Marsal, and Margaret Cameron-Waller, Associate Consultant at Source, caught up with Emma Carroll, Source’s Head of Content, on the latest episode of our The Future of the Firm podcast. 

Richard and Margaret shared their insight on the following matters and more:  

• Hotspots for restructuring work currently include Germany, France, the UK and Nordics. When looking at sectors there’s activity in real estate, housebuilding, the automotive supply chain, and anything with a strong consumer focus. 
• Early signs of trouble are a drop off in demand, liquidity pressures, and a lack of financial discipline.  
• We discuss parallels between tech businesses that are in trouble today and those during the dot.com crisis, including the risk of large amounts of money being made readily available to creative, tech businesses where the financial acumen available in leadership teams doesn’t support the weight of the investment being made. 
• Changes in the restructuring market itself, including spinouts from the Big Four, and how this has affected clients and competition.  
• What clients are looking for when they choose a restructuring firm, including regulatory knowledge, restructuring creativity, great stakeholder management, reputation, the appropriate scale, and cost.  
• Plus, Richard shares his experience of restructuring a critical healthcare business just as COVID lockdowns hit.  

If you enjoyed this conversation, don’t miss our sister podcast, Business Leader’s Voice. In our latest episode, we debate whether organisations have pursued the cult of leadership to such an extent that they have forgotten how to manage.