2110 – Reversing Business Downturns with Mike Dunlop

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1:05With us right now, it's Mike Dunlop. Mike, you are a serial entrepreneur. Ten companies, my friend, over your lifetime that you've been involved in. But not only that, because for 17 years, you've served as a turnaround expert consultant. We'll get into that. But 34 companies you've helped turn around. so pronounced in fact you wrote the book the art of the turnaround a comprehensive 10-step guide how to bring back enjoyment novel concept and profitability back into your company mike thank you for joining us thanks very much josh well listen i want to hear in your words that was kind of my stab at some of your accomplishments do you mind maybe just sharing a little bit about who you are today?

1:55Yeah, I was born in England. I was lucky enough to get into the computer business when I was 18. I didn't finish high school, but I was a good mathematician. So in 1967, I got into the computer business, and it was incredible business. These were the very first real-time computers. I actually read the manual, and one of my advices to young people is, keep a room clean and read the manual. Because if you're the only one who reads the manual, you're the only one that knows. And nowadays with all the search engines and chat GBT, you can become a subject matter expert very quickly. Oh, yeah. So when I was 25 years old, I immigrated to America.

2:45I had a great computer background. I found a job working for a large division of Litton Industries, which was a big conglomerate in those days. And I was selling and installing software for the construction industry, Jobcast software. And the software that the corporate had sent from New York was totally unusable. And so I sent letters back. We didn't have email in those days. We sent letters back and they flatly refused to change it. So I thought, well, I can rewrite it. So I rewrote the whole program, produced my own brochure and became the top salesman in the US. And I was asked to go back to New York to make a presentation on my sales technique.

3:33And being rather blunt and 25, 26 year old, I said, well, you won't be able to be successful at selling if you sell the junk that corporate sent you. Here's the new software. Here's the brochure. Kind of good luck. and you'll be successful. And here are 15 references from Seattle. You can call anytime. They love the software. And so there was silence in the room. And I got an impromptu meeting with the CEO of the company. And he said, what have you done? Who gave you permission? And I had a folder of all the letters that I'd sent. And I said, you didn't even have the courtesy to respond. And he said, but you can't just take over things and do things like that.

4:17And I said, well, that was no responding. So I took the best alternative and produced some very good software. And long story short, they ended up buying the software from me because I developed it on my own time, not on company time. And I left having been fired with a check after taxes of$30 ,000, which sound like a lot. But in 1973, going back on my flight to Seattle, the only thing I could think was, what a wonderful country. I've only been here nine months, and here I've got$30 ,000. And the CEO was a very kind man. He was quite old. He must have been in his 40s. And he said to me, Mike, he said, you're unemployable.

5:00Don't ever work for anybody again. Take the money. And he said, you're not employable. He said, employees do what they're told, when they're told, how they're told. And he said, you have your own initiative. You did it. You did it successfully. He said, just take the money and start something yourself. So that was the start of the story. And so I set up a computer consulting firm in Seattle that advised companies buying their first computer and did a turnkey service where I'd select the computer program and install wallet, train, and just had a wonderful business doing a fixed price turnkey for companies buying their first computer.

5:47And then as luck would have it, I was putting on the financial statements of a large local retailer. And the retailer, when I was putting on their financials, I could see there was trouble in Dodge City. And so I went to see the owner and said, look, I'm worried about being paid. And he said, well, we're in a desperately difficult financial position. And I said, well, I've been around your company for two or three months. There's a whole bunch of things you can do to save money and get back on track. So he asked me to put a business plan together, took it down to one of our local banks. And the first thing they said is, you didn't put this together.

6:26We want to talk to the person who did. So I got summoned out to the bank and the bank for the next 17 years with a couple of other banks locally gave me consulting clients in all types of industries. And I used the same process for a period of 17 years. And then the last three companies I did, I took equity rather than consulting fees and got them turned around, improved the equity. And that gave me the funding to start my own manufacturing group. Yeah. Well, Mike, I just want to make sure that we're thoughtful. We only get 16 minutes for these interviews. So, you know, I want to talk about your book because you talk about it's the art of the turnaround.

7:10It's available everywhere. And it's comprehensive 10 step guide. Do you mind maybe breaking down a few of those steps? And again, just thinking about our friend that's listening right now, they might be in a bit of a rough patch in their company. There might be aspects of it that are maybe not just financially frustrating, but maybe emotionally. They might have a problem with turnover. These are all indications that, I mean, there's opportunity here to improve. Do you mind maybe going through some of those high level in the time that we have left? No, that's fine. So leadership is critical. And the first chapter is about leadership and how you lead.

7:54And I think that's absolutely critical. If you haven't got a leader, you're not going to go anywhere. And it shows the characteristics of leadership, what you need to do, how you need to position yourself as a leader in order to get people to follow the directions that you're going. The second thing is to do forensic accounting and go through and admit exactly what your financial position is. and really the challenging part is accounting people feel their job is to take bad numbers and make them look better. What you need to do is to take those numbers and make them what they actually are. What is the cash position and really go into a deep dive and then look at the whole ecosystem that you have, all your employees.

8:40Meet with all your employees, find out what their vision is, make sure it matches your vision. So the steps are fairly straightforward. But the outcome is that you select a team that wants to go to the same destination that you do. And one of the challenges is you can't want for people what they don't want for themselves. So the first thing you need to do is to find out whether they want what you want. And if they do, then you help create a path for them to get there. It's just like the principles of judo. You use the other person's force to take them in the direction that you want them to go.

9:17So judo is not a sort of combat sport. It's basically waiting till someone pushes and then you accelerate their push and then you take them to a position that you want them to go in. So business is very much like that. Yeah. Mike, your work today, are you still consulting? Yeah, I still do. I still do a little consulting. I did one three years ago and all the principles absolutely applied. And I'm doing one recently. Last couple of years, I've done two and all the principles. The reason I wrote the book was all the principles just absolutely apply. And I almost went back to my own book and just said.

10:01That's so funny. So you're basically showing up and it's like, well, I brought my manual. It's my book. and we're pretty much just going to go chapter by chapter. Well, it's very strange because Boeing is going through a crisis here in Seattle. Yeah, they're going through a crisis all over. They're following very much the steps that I recommended. Yeah. And so they're really assessing, you know, how many people they need, looking at their financials. Their quality is nowhere near as bad as promoted. In fact, their quality is excellent. Yeah, it's really on really unfortunate series of events. It was just and then the timing was just, oh, I was just I really did feel pretty bad.

10:47I mean, it's awful. And I'm generally more of a consumer advocate. So I want, you know, I want safety, you know, so forth. But so like, just Boeing is an example. What what if we were to, like a casual observer, maybe kind of just kind of keeping up with what they're doing? What are some of the headlines that we may or may not see coming out of Boeing if they are truly focused on getting the ship shape? Well, they've had a bit of a confrontation, and that's cash. They've gone in the last 15 years with$30 billion in cash in the bank to$60 billion in debt. So no one was minding the store. All they looked at was their stock price.

11:31they didn't look at the company and looked at the drain of cash flow that was coming to the company. I mean, they've fairly dissipated$90 billion in the last 15 years, which takes a lot of work to do. They're now understanding that cash is king, and they're getting back to cash principles. And one of the cash principles is they cannot afford the number of people that they have, quite simply. They just can't afford it. And if they do, they'll go bankrupt. uh so uh kelly ortberg has done a significant reduction i think there's going to be another uh significant one and uh they're looking at all the ways that they can save uh he did one thing that was very sort of demonstrative and uh cancelled all the corporate jets and uh all the executives now fly economy and they had a fleet of i think eight uh challenger 604s And they had two BBJs, which are 737 equipped to be a corporate plane.

12:35And so he stopped all that. So sometimes you've got to do something really demonstrative so the senior people can feel the pain as well. And so they're doing less traveling and they're certainly not traveling in corporate jets. So no one can say to him, look, you know, you're asking us to cut back. And his principle is to cut very close to the top of the company where you have very high salaries and it's not very easy to determine exactly what they do. Yeah. All right. Well, Mike, are you open for any? I'm just curious, you know, to our friend that's listening right now. Obviously, go to your website, go get your book, The Art of the Turnaround.

13:18Are you available for engagements then? Yeah, I think so. I was kind of very selective. One of the reasons that I was successful, I was kind of like a baseball batter. I selected the balls to hit. And so some of the ones that were offered to me were DOA. They were dead on arrival. So it has to be in an industry that has some sort of survivability. It has to be not so far gone. So I'm kind of careful that I pick ones that have the ability to recover. And some don't. I mean, you know, some industries, some companies, some debt structures are such that there's really no recovery from it. But if there's kind of a beating heart and the industry is one that has a future, then that's how I select the candidates to turn around.

14:22Yeah. So I also see, Mike, that you are a podcaster. And by the way, if you want to share a little fun fact about your family member, you're welcome to. You are not the only family member in podcasting, but it's up to you if you want to share that or not. I have a daughter that has a very successful podcast that she's been working on for five years. And one of the things I've learned about podcasts, it takes time. There's no overnight successes in podcasts. it's gradually building an audience and also creating content that is different and interesting there's no place in podcasts for me too you have to differentiate I'm quite lucky having an English accent so that you differentiate me and people give way too much credit for English accents that you know what you're talking about you're intelligent you're honest all these are attributes that may not be correct, but the English accent is a good instant difference.

15:29It is. No doubt about it. Well, your website is The Art of the Turnaround. Guess what? That's the name of the podcast as well. And again, newer show. So congratulations on the launch as of when we're recording this up to episode five. But to our friend that's listening, So you can search in your podcast app and find the art of the turnaround. I also have a blog too. So some interesting articles that I've written. One of the fun ones recently is entrepreneurship in retirement. And that's got a very good following. Trying to explain that just because you're 65, it doesn't mean you stop. And I point out that Warren Buffett has made 85 % of his net worth since the age of 65.

16:24Colonel Sanders started his Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was 65. And so I've made about 80 % of my net worth since I turned 65. So these really are the golden years if you know how to use them. And it's also immense fun being associated with younger people, new technology, and it forces you to keep up. And so I'm really recommending that people don't quit at 65. I turn 60. Absolutely not. No, that wisdom is so insanely badly needed. And that wisdom, that experience, the connections, I mean, that is just so valuable if paired with the right opportunity to be of service. So thank you, Mike. I couldn't agree with you more.

17:20Mike Dunlop, again, your website, theartoftheturnaround.com. That's the name of the podcast. And then, of course, also the name of the book, Brand Consistency. I like it. The Art of the Turnaround Comprehensive Step Guide. It's on Amazon and everywhere else. Mike Dunlop, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Josh. Really appreciate it.

17:46Thanks for listening to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program. Please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

18:28I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

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