In her first day at the helm of Fairchild Aircraft in 1991, Bettina Whyte pink-slipped 350 people just to make payroll. Later that year, as part of a housecleaning at a West Texas oil and gas company, she received death threats aimed at dissuading her from disclosing unsavory business practices.
All in a day's work for Whyte, a turnaround specialist who is called in to fix an ailing company by its board of directors. Specialists like Whyte, whose work is also known as crisis management or business recovery, are in high demand these days. The Chicago-based Turnaround Management Association says many members report the biggest spike in work in 10 years.
As a partner of corporate turnaround firm Jay Alix and Associates in New York, Whyte, 52, has commandeered the helm of more than 50 businesses in the manufacturing, transportation, high-tech, energy and distribution sectors. Two of her recent stints include serving as CEO of AG Financial Service Center and CEO of Service Merchandise. Her tenure can last from six months to two years, and she often takes up to six people with her on a job.
As you might expect, Whyte's not always greeted warmly. "After all, we're usually called in after management has lost credibility with its leaders when the shareholders are out of money," she says. The worst reactions she remembers were the death threats at the oil and gas company. They came during a business trip from someone who knew her pager number and the details of her itinerary, right down to the restaurant where she had stopped for dinner.
No wonder Michael Useem, who teaches corporate renewal at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, says good turnaround specialists need fierce independence and thick skin. "Their job is to dispense bitter medicine," says Useem, without getting embroiled in past events or the reaction of employees.
There's a real need for that tonic these days. During the past decade, executives proved good at presiding over growth - but less skilled at tackling decline or crisis. "Good times mask bad business practices," says Melanie Cohen, chairwoman of the Turnaround Management Association. She notes that an upswing in business failures usually lags behind the dip in the economy, which suggests a lot more work in the coming year for turnaround specialists.
That's fine with Whyte, who confesses, "I guess you could say that I'm a crisis junkie."
