Business Turnaround Management

Graduate Studies in Business Turnaround Management (BTM)

"The existence of many troubled companies with continuing operations inspired the creation of a new degree program in turnaround management at the University of Detroit Mercy" (The Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2004).

"Until now, turnaround management has been a self-taught field," said Jay Alix, founder of AlixPartners LLC. I think this program is a recognition that turnarounds are here to stay, and companies always need to replenish and improve themselves" (Crain's Detroit Business, October 2004).

Business turnarounds are a natural part of business - from failing companies caused by mismanagement or the business environment to normal business cycle driven challenges to "creative destruction" necessary to keep good companies improving. Every company is a candidate for people trained and skilled in turnaround management.

Typically, Business Schools structure their programs around the optimistic assumption that most firms are "going concerns" when 40% of all firms are under some level of stress. When Business Schools address this issue, it is by applying healthy company techniques to find and fix problems. If restructuring is addressed, it is generally from the Investment Banking perspective (financing and M&A) rather than that of Operating Management.

The University of Detroit - Mercy has taken the unique perspective that any company can benefit by looking for improvement, especially, but not only, those in trouble, and built a comprehensive program around that concept. This perspective more closely resembles the work of today’s CEO than the classical policy and strategy approach.

UDM was among the first to see the importance of comprehensively studying business from the perspective of turn-arounds and improvement. These conditions create an environment where leadership, speed, work ethic and creativity are paramount. The BTM programs embrace that environment and provide pragmatic tools and concepts for the practitioner.

The BTM programs are geared to provide students with the state-of-the-art edge to understand, predict, monitor, reverse and transform corporations.

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