Ending well

You may have noticed a few core themes cropping up in our posts and letting go has definitely been one of them. When we posted ‘What might have been and letting go’ a couple of weeks ago it prompted some reflections from Susan about her experiences as an insolvency practitioner. We are all being faced with some pretty tough decisions at the moment and for some the changes that result from this crisis are going to be significant. We thought now would be a good time to contemplate the unimaginable, and the need to do it well.


Back in the 1990s I worked in the insolvency practice of one of the big accountancy firms. I started in the recession of the early 1990s when companies were falling over like ninepins and left in 2000 after the concerns of a Y2K collapse failed to materialise. I spent my time both helping companies to avoid a formal insolvency and trying to ensure the best outcome for creditors when that was not possible. Strange as it may sound to many, I enjoyed it immensely. The work was tremendously varied, intellectually challenging and almost every day brought a new problem to be solved, usually on the same day. I got used to formulating recommendations and taking decisions at speed and on incomplete information, to quickly forming effective working relationships with people who often wished I was not there and I learnt to have confidence in my intuition (although, as the environment was heavily male, it was always called ‘gut instinct’!).

Of the many lessons I learnt in those nine years, there is one that insolvency teaches in a way that few other professions outside healthcare and religion can: sometimes the best thing you can do is to help people end well, to give an organisation a decent burial, to save what can be saved and move on.

In the coming months some leaders (both executives and trustees) will face some truly horrible decisions. I hope that they will find the courage to face the possibility of insolvency honestly and in good time. Hopefully this will allow them to avoid an insolvency, albeit often at a high price. If this is not possible, it will allow them to plan, with an insolvency practitioner, an end that allows them to complete the life of their organisation as well as possible: treating staff, partners and audiences as well as practicable, taking the time to celebrate what the organisation has achieved and working with stakeholders to save what can be saved in terms of buildings, collections, expertise and archives.

I have been involved in a number of emergency insolvencies that no one was prepared for and I would not wish such a crazy and brutal process on anyone.

Thinking the unthinkable before you are forced to is hard, but it is better than the alternative – I know, I’ve been there.

Susan