Here's a war story...
I was hired as CEO of a public company listed on the TSE, NASDAQ and LSE the day before Christmas 1997. The board had accepted the resignation of the previous CEO the day before. I promptly flew down to Baltimore to meet with the staff at the headquarters (and one of 26 different subsidiaries in 15 countries). I discovered that:
- There was no money in the bank account (ANY of the 30+ bank accounts)
- Over $5million had recently been lost through a fraudulent investment
- The staff was not going to receive their Christmas payroll that day and I had to be the one to tell them (50 staff in a room. "Hi, Nice to meet you...")
- We had to restate our financials within 5 days (by the end of the reporting quarter on Dec 31) or risk serious fraud charges as a public company
- We had to issue a press release to inform our shareholders and regulatory agencies that we were insolvent and were about to restate financials before the end of the month (and disclose change of personnel. Oh did I mention seizing the CFO's notebook and escorting her off the property that night...)
- We had to start selling equipment and assets to generate cash
- There were over $5M in overdue trade payables and creditors were starting to organize and sue
- The Ukrainian government had nationalized several gold mines owned by the company (hey, they had nuclear warheads and we didn't)
- About that time the landlord walked in and served me a notice that our rent was overdue and they were kicking us out of the premises.
I sat down and started writing a very long and very detailed letter to the Board, legal council and the D&O insurance provider (!!!) to disclose the situation and prepare a plan for the turnaround.
Merry Christmas...! Anyone else had a worse first day on the job?
