Ethical issues in turnaround engagements

October 22, 2011

In July, I was invited to write an article for the conference issue of The Journal of Corporate Renewal, the publication of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA). The topic I selected was “Ethical Issues in Turnaround Engagements.”

Although TMA  declined to print the article in the conference issue because they found it to be too controversial, Jack Butler, an internationally recognized partner at Skadden’s corporate restructuring and governance practice,  invited me to participate in the Advance Education Panel he is moderating at the TMA Conference in San Diego next week  and to include the article in the materials distributed to session attendees.  The title for the panel is “Ethical Challenges in Large, Mid and Small Companies.”

I intended the article to be a call to action by TMA, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.  It is my understanding that the article will be shared with TMA’s Strategic Planning Committee as well as the Certification Oversight Committee for the Certified Turnaround Professional program.  I have been invited to submit it again for the March issue, which will be devoted to ethical issues, but I certainly hope that the content will be out-of-date by then!

Although I have made some revisions to the original (suggestions for refinements made by several people I interviewed), all of the basic points remain unchanged.  Here is a link to the article:  Deconstructing the Code.