Talking Turnaround & Restructuring: The Accordion experience

Meet the
Authors:

Adam Rhum

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Authors:

With it comes to companies in crisis, some consultants default to bankruptcy. But at Accordion, our Turnaround & Restructuring experts go beyond just filling out paperwork; they go hands-on, turn businesses around, and set clients on a course from value stabilization to value creation.

We talked to a few of our experts about what it’s like working in Accordion’s Turnaround & Restructuring Practice:

Q: What convinced you to join Accordion’s Turnaround & Restructuring Team?

What really stood out to me about Accordion is that you get to work on a project from end-to-end. You’re not pigeon-holed into a small part of the restructuring effort. You’re on a lean team that really works together across the entire project—from identifying key business issues, to formulating a plan to resolve them, to executing on that plan to get the client out of crisis.

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Q: What excites you about working in T&R within the PE space?

There are just so many opportunities to make an impact in the PE space. There are so many companies, services, industries, and just available deals. And you don’t have to be a senior-level person to get a seat at the table; even as an Associate or VP, you can start to build relationships with clients’ senior leadership and make a genuine impact on their business day-to-day.

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Q: Tell us about the opportunities to work cross-functionally as part of the T&R Team.

I’ve worked on so many cross-functional projects throughout my time at Accordion, which has been a really unique experience. For example, we worked with an auto tool distributor facing liquidity issues. We brought on a Strategic Finance person, a Transformation person, and then a couple of T&R people. The whole project was very successful; you start with T&R, and then bring in Strategic Finance and Transformation to set the client up for long-term success.

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Q: Describe the culture of the T&R Team.

Everyone on our team is incredibly intelligent and capable, and we always learn so much from each other. We’re also all just really invested in what we do because we actually enjoy it. We talk about work sometimes even when we’re together outside of work; we’re genuinely interested in unpacking clients’ problems, our approach, and how we can work together to make success happen.

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Q: If you were talking to your ideal candidate and trying to recruit them, what would you want them to know about Accordion’s T&R Practice?

At Accordion, we really are doers; we’re helping solve real-world business problems instead of merely performing academic finance gymnastics. If you join the firm, you’ll be interacting directly with clients’ employees and making a meaningful impact. A lot of times, our work determines whether our clients have a working business—and whether their employees have jobs tomorrow.

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Q: Which of Accordion’s core values resonates with you most?

‘Pivot & perservere’ encompasses the nature of T&R work at Accordion. With T&R, there’s no playbook; every situation is different, every team is different, every client is different. You have to be comfortable going with the flow and rolling with the punches while delivering for a client: pivoting and persevering.

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Q: How would you describe the relationship dynamic between senior leaders and other members of the firm?

Our senior leaders push me to be better and sharper in different ways, but overall, they’re just really supportive of my professional development. And the good news is that most client teams aren’t just an SMD and a junior employee, as it is at some boutique firms. Our teams are large enough that the workload is manageable, but small enough that everyone’s voice is heard. We’re always bouncing ideas off and learning from one another, regardless of position level.

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