Jo Haigh, head of corporate finance at chartered accountants firm MGR discusses recession coping strategies with BusinessWings.
Dan Drage: How do you view the UK media coverage of the current financial downturn?
Jo Haigh: Unlike our cousins across the water, we don’t celebrate success.
This is a British phenomenon. We read the doom and gloom and believe it.
If someone continually tells you that you look unwell, you eventually feel unwell.
On the other hand, if people tell you that you’re looking well, you radiate.
I’m not burying my head in the sand, but sometimes it helps to say something positive in my opinion.
If you're a cash buyer, there are some absolute bargain businesses and opportunities out there
Jo Haigh, Head of Corporate Finance at MGR
DD: Is your insistence on positivity reflected at MGR?
JH: A lot of the work we’re doing concerns recovery finance and restructuring finance.
If you’re a cash buyer, there are some absolute bargain businesses for sale and business opportunities out there.
Whatever the commercial climate, robust and well-run businesses will always be for sale. This is a fact.
DD: Could the recent spate of redundancies in the banking sector prompt a new wave of businesses buyers to emerge from this group?
JH: It depends how fragile or vulnerable they’re feeling at the moment.
We’re all dealing with a sense of the unknown right now, and it’s this lack of clarity that could prevent potential buyers from dipping into their golden handshakes.
I like to know where I’m going and I like to have a plan, but in business terms that’s just not possible at present.
Everyone’s living in the moment.
In a few months time when buyers are feeling more surefooted, we’ll see cash buyers snapping up bargain businesses. For now, they’re still a little battle-scarred.
DD: How will MGR absorb the impact of this downturn?
JH: We’re geared towards innovation; it’s the only way to survive.
If it doesn’t work one way, we’ll try other ways until it does.
We’ve launched a brand new division called Troubleshooters and a helpline called First Response, both of which promote support and turnaround.
DD: Will you market these new divisions online?
JH: In part yes, but I participate in around 80 speaking events a year, particularly a programme I devised called Things Ain’t What They Used to be, and I’m going to use this as a vehicle to get our new products to market.
Also, I want to get people thinking about how to keep themselves and their teams motivated, both emotionally and financially.
