Could a Conflict Director Help Your Company Through a Crisis?

For many business owners, the pandemic of 2020 is one of the biggest professional crises they are likely to face ever as they try to maintain revenues in faltering economies. Bringing in an independent conflict director could make all the difference.

Across the globe, companies of all shapes and sizes, in a multitude of industries, are experiencing a turbulent time right now as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic sees economies recede and businesses contract.

As a result, many companies will slow down while many more will dissolve. However, if a company is struggling, its directors have a responsibility to ensure that no insolvent trading takes place and that no further credit is incurred if there is no reasonable prospect of repayment. But this is often easier said than done, and many company directors either ignore, or are unaware of insolvent trading taking place and the liability they become exposed to in the process.

With the potential to be in breach of fraudulent trading laws, directors can quickly find themselves in a  situation that often ends in the directors seeking to replace themselves with practitioners who have dedicated insolvency and turnaround experience.

In instances such as these, where a company director might be forced into a conflict through a difficult and unexpected position that they are either incapable of or uninterested in managing, a conflict director can be retained to manage the numerous and often time-sensitive workstreams in their place.

External, independent expertise is valuable for a number of reasons. Firstly, independent professionals are free from conflicts of interest and are unburdened by the relationships and internal politics of the board and the company. We can give an objective view of matters as they stand and assist with a way forward in a rational way. Secondly, in our experience, the expertise needed when a company is at a crossroads is often simply unavailable in-house.

Of course, this type of assignment is highly sensitive and involves higher risks than typical directorship roles. At Perun Consultants, you can be assured that our conflict directors are experienced professionals, adapt and skilled at steering companies through problems. In addition, they are supported by a team of forensic accountants, insolvency practitioners and compliance professionals who can be retained or consulted as required. Together, they form a broad network of legal and financial specialists dedicated to helping your business navigate seamlessly through any conflict situation.

In our recent experience, appointing us as conflict directors has been instrumental for client companies to both advance and defend a litany of fraud claims in several jurisdictions, often concurrently. When we are assigned to replace a former director, who typically has no interest whatsoever in being in a witness box either domestically or abroad, our team is able to engage directly with foreign and local counsel to plan and execute a coordinated legal strategy. In these instances, we have shifted the sizeable burden of managing the fraud investigations, public relations, and litigation from the former director and put the interests of the company into capable hands.

If you would like to find out how a Perun Consultants-appointed conflict director could help your company, please contact us for a confidential chat.