2019 TMA Australia President’s Message

Another strong year for the TMAA. Following your overwhelmingly positive response to our survey this year,  we have focused on delivering more of what you, the 90% of responding members, like about the TMAA –  skills development/events, thought leadership, the CTP program (more on that below), social citizenship with Foodbank, safe harbour best practice guidelines and moves to create better alignment with other industry bodies.

TMA members are perfectly placed to help companies in strategy, vision, performance, replenishment and other steps to add to the value of their business.  It is the experience of knowing how and when to renegotiate contracts, debt instruments, when to look for short term special situations finance to run a turnaround plan, how to communicate with the market and with stakeholders and gain trust, support and offer reward to turnaround supporters that so marks out the skills of our membership.

You have asked to hear more about strategy and for us to work on education and to better publicise what it takes to obtain CTP accreditation.  As we heard at this year’s Conference in Melbourne, the latter is important if, as it seems, we are at a tipping point, or more accurately, if we have a series of different tipping points – mining + resources are generally holding up because of a strong investment bias by offshore funds chasing yield (and even as pricing falls across many commodities); industries are transforming/disrupting with technologies and changing retail sentiment; other industries like telecommunications and technology in Australia may well be about to out-perform.  Along the way, the debt laden will restructure and transform or, if directors leave taking advice from turnaround specialists too late, liquidate assets – there are a couple of larger businesses around the country coping with crisis at the moment, still attracting new owners willing to invest.  The poorly run or those experiencing generational transition will need new turnaround managers.   Each business has the chance to transition back to a strong position if the existing managers have, or rent, experienced turnaround practitioners to prepare good and robust turnaround plans, reporting platforms, technologies and relationships that are transformational in design.

Simplified application for CTP

Those who have completed our coursework and have the relevant experience are encouraged to apply for recognition as Certified Turnaround Practitioners.  We have recently posted simplified forms and a case example to our website to help the best and most experienced practitioners gain CTP recognition. Our successful applicants will appear on the TMA Global’s website as CTP (Australia) and will be market leaders in turnaround assignments.

Have a look and see if you qualify for the recognition.  Have a word with your local committee, the national board or myself.  If you wish to put forward an application, our independent Oversight Committee will assess the application and make recommendations to the Board. You can access the forms  – here

TMA Australia strategic focus areas
TMA Australia Board has identified near-term priority objectives for the organisation to focus on including:

• broadening our membership out to include more special situations, funds, distressed credit investors, trustee companies and turnaround operators
• deeper thought leadership through improvements in our education modules
• continuing to support our NexGen program and State committees to build membership, undertake personal development events and provide a pipeline of students into our education programs
• diversifying our revenue streams
• developing the relationship with Foodbank

We are thrilled to welcome FTI Consulting as a diamond sponsor, Corrs Westgarth Chambers as a platinum sponsor, King & Wood Mallesons and Baker McKenzie as a gold sponsors and BDO as a silver sponsor, joining Allegro, Scottish Pacific, Ashurst, Clayton Utz, Herbert Smith Freehills, Grant Thornton and KordaMentha as strong corporate sponsors of turnaround.  Within a short period, TMAA sponsors will be the market recognised go-tos for high end of town restructuring, turnaround and, at the pinnacle, transformation assignments.

Your board and committees, our incredible sponsors and supporters willingly give over their time to help the TMAA become stronger and to build a reference for business to use in understanding what turnaround, restructuring, transformation is all about.  Over the coming months, we will give you a closer look at how we are tracking on our key focus areas and how you can get involved.