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Member Articles

Sustain Before You Grow

& Understand Before You

Implement

CA Sai Prakash shop, unmotivated employees due to delayed salaries
and a practice of decision making by instinct rather than
commercial sense.
As a CA professional in industry for 30 years before
moving to consultancy, I have seen several instances But it also had some positives that gave me the hope
where businesses prepare optimistic business plans for a turnaround such as a Managing director who
based on their growth strategies where they missed was aware of the poor decisions taken, partners who
to capture the ground realities and lacked a strong were willing to listen and cooperate, employees who
foundation before they embarked on growth. Any were patient and willing to work hard for a turnaround,
business plan should ideally define assumptions clearly, regulatory authorities who were willing to extend credit
which is also known as the premise of the business terms and my family who agreed to delay their arrival to
plan. Accordingly, the tool that we love to implement UAE and use the savings and so on….
is “Sensitivity analysis”. For any due diligence as a CFO Here comes the time to take tough decisions for
or as a M&A Consultant, we should always prefer to turnaround :
develop business plans with at least three scenarios – a
base case, an optimistic case and a pessimistic case. • Reduce the stress on break-even cash flows of bakery
Similar to the way we like to test our body to withstand operations by closing a two month old coffee
different climatic conditions, we need to test our vision shop at a prime location in Bur Dubai, writing off 90%
for the business based on so many variables. of the investment;
• Establish discipline in costs like overtime, recipe
In this context I would like to present a case study
that I have faced during my first employment in UAE management, adequacy of manpower;
in the year 2005 when I had excitedly come to Dubai to • Develop realistic cash flows, even if they are true to
take the role of Operations Head at a bakery chain and show deficit;
premium coffee shop. • Sign long term lease with Dubai Industrial City for

Shocking situation to face: future expansion;
When I joined the company, it was evident that • Minimise post-mortem and have live analysis of what
the company was not doing too well with plenty of is happening in every department, even if it had to
problems to be resolved that included disputes between make us work post-midnight on many days;
partners, working capital shortage, an unviable coffee • Develop alternate ways of production and one such

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