Friday, May 18, 2007

Is your company at risk?


When:
BPSE I: May 7 ­ 19, 2006
BPSE I: April 29 ­ May 11, 2007
BPSE II: August 27 ­ September 8, 2006
BPSE II: August 26 ­ September 7, 2007
BPSE III: November 26 ­ December 8, 2006
BPSE III: November 25 ­ December 7, 2007
Where:
On the shores of Lake Geneva, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Corporate failure: few reasons, enormous consequences


A decision to save $20,000 a year by not subscribing for a second Reuters terminal ultimately cost Allied Irish Bank's American subsidiary, Allfirst, some $690 million in 2002: possibly the worst bargain ever. Allied Irish was big enough to absorb the losses and did not suffer the same fate as Barings Bank, which had failed some seven years earlier after a `rogue trader' ran up even greater losses. It was abundantly clear that Allied Irish had learnt nothing from that high-profile disaster. Sadly, this was only one of many such omissions that have led to history repeating itself so dramatically in the first years of the new century. A thorough understanding of what has gone wrong, what the major causes of corporate failure are and where the responsibility lies is essential if we are not to continue repeating the mistakes of the past.

The reasons why companies fail are few, and common to most, and that this holds
irrespective of industry or geography. The main causes of failure can be grouped
into six categories:

See full Details, in pdf format.