Manufacturing Excellence is a podcast featuring conversations with leaders pushing industrial businesses forward. Guests include operational experts, capital allocators, and specialists bringing unique insights to navigate the greatest challenges in business.
Today’s guest is Steven Wybo, an financial turnaround expert specializing in automotive manufacturing.
Listen to the Podcast
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About Steve
Steven Wybo has over 20 years of experience helping manufacturers through insolvency, bankruptcy, turnaround and crisis management. Steve is the Senior Managing Director running Riveron’s Automotive financial consulting business. He’s led 75+ turnarounds as Chief Restructuring Officer, interim CFO and other critical positions.
Top Takeaways
- The preconditions for turning around a business:
- Product or service people want
- Competent management team
- Cashflow
- Practicing honesty and transparency is the only way to operate. “Generally speaking, stakeholders will work with you, at least in the short term.” Making commitments that you can’t honor is a recipe for getting shut off by vendors. Not getting the material you need can cause a “death spiral.”
- Successful financial turnarounds use a 13-week cash flow forecast to run the business, not a P&L. Without cash, a business becomes insolvent.
- Top ways to increase cashflow include negotiations with vendors and lenders as well as cutting costs and decreasing working capital tied up in inventory.
- At a high-level, the priorities for a turnaround are:
- Day 1: Cashflow management
- Day 2: Trim what costs you can
- Day 3 – Onward: Fix the operations of the business
- When fixing an insolvency issue, it gets a lot more expensive and a lot more dire the longer you wait. It’s like a heart attack patient, the right team can “lower your cholesterol before you end up on the operating table.”
“You really need to address the core problem, and oftentimes that’s just inefficient operations.” – Steve Wybo
