Platinum Group Interview Series: Recent Episodes
Dale Kurschner
The Upper Midwest's most seasoned experts at solving complex business challenges take turns talking about what's most important to focus on in the Covid-economy, while sharing a few examples of how current and recent clients turned their greatest challenges into successes. Minnetonka-based Platinum Group has helped more than 2,000 business owners and leaders save their businesses since its founding 40 years ago.
An informative discussion on how to avoid bankruptcy—from how to avoid this from becoming an issue, to how to proceed if inevitable. These three experts have been there/done this dozens of times.
The insights and advice they provide are timelier today than when first shared during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020, when government stimulus placed the economy on economic life support longer than any of us anticipated. That support is now gone, and the threats to one’s business more varied and intense.
Panelists:
Pat Brennan, a partner at Platinum Group and a seasoned business executive with a strong track record of success working in a diversity of environments, including distribution, manufacturing, service and banking. He leads financial restructurings and excels in rapidly transitioning environments where cash insufficiency is the key issue that must be overcome.
Cameron Lallier, a partner in the Minneapolis office of Foley & Mansfield. Cam practices in the firm’s Banking & Finance and Creditor’s Rights groups and represents banks and other financial institutions in matters involving Chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcies, and the enforcement of security interests.
Thomas Lallier, a partner in the Minneapolis office of Foley & Mansfield. Tom has more than 25 years of experience working nationwide in the insolvency arena representing asset-based lenders, equipment and real property lessors, commercial debtors, consignment vendors and creditor committees in Chapter 11 cases, and workouts. He also represents buyers and sellers of companies in merger and acquisitions in many industries, including banks, manufacturing, retail, real estate companies, the industrial industries and technology companies.
The discussion is moderated by Dale Kurschner, also with Platinum Group.
Three business leaders discuss how their organizations and clients are attracting and retaining great talent while others find it in short supply. Along the way, they lay out the blueprint for what any of us should think about when looking for our next best hire -- or our next career opportunity.
Recorded in front of a live audience on May 4, 2021, this panel discussion taps the collective insights of panelists...
- Bill English, president and CEO, Accurate Home Care, Otsego, Minn.;
- David Magy, principal and co-founder, Abeln, Magy, Underberg & Associates, Wayzata, Minn.; and
- Rick Trontvet, SVP of Human Resources, Marvin, Warroad, Minn. (and previously, Digi-Key, Thief River Falls, Minn.)
This discussion was unrehearsed and unscripted, produced and moderated by Dale Kurschner, and presented by Platinum Group, Minnesota's most trusted business advisory helping business owners buy, sell or fix mid-sized, Midwest companies.
Perspectives and advice from three experts who collectively have been there/done this 100+times.
This panel discussion with three veterans of business workouts and bankruptcies delves into how best to avoid having to file, and if unavoidable, what to do to come out of the process as well as possible. Our panelists are:
Pat Brennan, a partner at Platinum Group in Minnetonka, MN. Pat is a seasoned business executive with a strong track record of success working in a diversity of environments, including distribution, manufacturing, service and banking. He leads financial restructurings and excels in rapidly transitioning environments where cash insufficiency is the key issue that must be overcome.
Cameron Lallier, a partner in the Minneapolis office of Foley & Mansfield, where he practices in the firm's Banking & Finance and Creditor's Rights groups. Cam represents banks and other financial institutions in matters involving Chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcies and the enforcement of security interests.
Thomas Lallier, is a partner in the Minneapolis office of Foley & Mansfield. Tom has more than 25 years of experience working nationwide in the insolvency arena representing asset-based lenders, equipment and real property lessors, commercial debtors, consignment vendors and creditor committees in Chapter 11 cases, and workouts. He also represents buyers and sellers of companies in merger and acquisitions in many industries, including banks, manufacturing, retail, real estate companies, the industrial industries and technology companies.
This panel discussion was produced by Platinum Group and moderated by Dale Kurschner.
Platinum Group Founder and Chairman Dean Bachelor not only coined this phrase many years ago, he wrote a mission statement that received trademark protection. His firm has lived by it ever since, and as a result has saved more than 100 businesses and several thousands jobs. In this short video and podcast interview, Bachelor explains what it is and why business owners and leaders should be even more mindful of it in the months ahead.
This series of interviews with key members of Platinum Group – Minnesota’s most experienced advisory group helping business owners and leaders with extreme challenges including financial setbacks, lender and landlord re-negotiations, turnarounds and bankruptcies – is produced by one of its consultants and former multi-award winning editor, writer and interviewer Dale Kurschner.
Greg Coward is a former product marketing executive who’s gone on to serve as CEO of a dozen industrial B2B manufacturing and consumer goods companies. He also has owned two businesses and led through many turnaround and other rapid-change situations.
In this Platinum Group interview (also available to watch on YouTube), Coward says the greatest risk for any business today is waiting. He also talks about how he's quickly assessed situations as an interim CEO brought into companies that needed turning around, and how he's ignored lawyers' advice at times when it's been at odds with being an effective leader—including how and what he's communicated with employees.
This is one of a series of interviews with the expert consultants who work at Minnetonka, MN-based Platinum Group, which for nearly 40 years has specialized in helping business owners and CEOs navigate through turnarounds, divestitures, acquisitions, family business transitions and other extremely challenging situations.
Given today's Covid-19 recession, Platinum Group's Steve Coleman says there are those businesses that are pausing and being conservative, and then, "there's a significant minority of owners that we serve who have very alertly said, 'wow, this is so enormous of a changing environment that there have to be some new opportunities that these disruptions bring to us. New opportunities I better be looking for. 'And so they have leaned forward. They are not being silent. They're not looking down. They're looking up and they're looking out."
During this short unedited, one-take interview, he explains how business owners are doing just that in part by finding good new partners, sharing their experiences with other owners and exploring new ways of looking at and doing things.
"Take a look at how you define who gets on your benefits role. You may be a company where you're only operating at 50 percent capacity and that doesn't allow most of your employees to participate in your benefits," Platinum Group Partner Bill English says during this short interview. "Run a cash flow analysis of your benefits costs, and whether at 50% whether you can afford to lower some of your benefits thresholds to make sure those employees are taken care of. If not they may find full time elsewhere."
During this brief one-on-one interview, Platinum Group Partner Pat Brennan discusses the need to prepare for this possibility after the upcoming presidential election. He also shares what he's seen as the number one issue that tripped up the dozens of companies he's helped over the years after they fell into financial or operational disarray.
Bob Stewart is an attorney, CPA, business manager and an entrepreneur with experience in several industries across several subjects ranging from international business and turnarounds to serving in the roles of interim manager, corporate oversight, general counsel and consulting advisor. He's been with the Platinum Group for 15 years and specializes in strategy and turnaround assistance, transitions especially on the south side of matters, and corporate governance leadership.
In this short one take (unedited) interview, Bob covers several important topics including communication and the need for leaders to be decisive.
"Communication is so vitally important. You have to communicate with your employees, your vendors, your customers and of course your primary source of finance. What you're going to communicate depends on the circumstance," he says. "But one of the things that I've seen in this crisis even more profoundly than at other times is that your people in all of these categories need you to lead. This is the time for action. This is the time for decisive leadership. And it is one of those times when people may need some [outside] assistance in figuring out what is the right step to take as a leader. "
Tip #1: Call business acquaintances to ask how they're doing and what they've experienced the last few months, and learn from it, says Platinum Group Partner Randy Kroll. A CPA with 40 years of experience specializing in in the areas of financial services, manufacturing and nonprofits, Kroll also has extensive leadership experience . He brings all of this to bare when helping Platinum Group clients with transition planning, strategic direction, talent management and interpreting their financial statements, particularly during periods of turnarounds and economic turbulence. He provides some tips and helpful suggestions to business leaders in this brief interview recorded in one take (no edits).
An attorney who's worked just about every type and size real estate project possible during the last 35 years, Robert Lehmann shares insights and tips for anyone dealing with property today--especially tenants and landlords.
Dean Bachelor founded Platinum Group as a turnaround firm nearly 40 years ago. Since then he's seen an awful lot while helping more than 2,000 business owners and leaders save their businesses. In this podcast with Dale Kurschner, he talks about what's most important to focus on now.
(Given work-from-home requirements, this interview was conducted over Zoom. The video version is available here.)