Corporate Digest Magazine- December/2017 corporate digest December 2017 | Page 7

Finance Upgrade human capital A downturn can also create an ideal opportunity to upgrade human capital and tailor it and A straightforward exercise of mapping the required skills against the organization's current skills is likely to reveal significant gaps, as well as areas of substantial oversupply. With redundancies on the agenda for many companies, this is a timely opportunity to address these imbalances Corporate Re-structuring Establish up front a shared vision of a desired future operating model. This should provide answers to questions such as the following: What role will Merger Acquisitions play, and where we are likely to make them. The underlying trends that have been driving consolidation across a range of industries have not gone away. The benefits of scale, geographic reach, and access to scarce resources will continue to make large Merger Acquisitions an attractive source of future growth. Divestiture of non-core assets is a strategy that companies should be considering carefully. Consequently, companies need to take a clear and decisive view as to what constitutes a core vs. a non-core asset and act accordingly. Conclusion Risks are coming from last two three quarters—mapping these carefully and understanding how to mitigate them will be essential. Many companies will struggle to survive— and some will not make it. In these cases, rapid action to secure cash flow and minimize exposure to risk can make the difference. Finally, companies with the financial strength to back major acquisitions should be looking at the current environment as presenting an ideal opportunity to establish market leading positions through domestic, global M&A. on the downturn company with competitive advantage and on the learning curve will look very different than it does today www.Venture-Care.com/Magazine December 2017 7