Challenges Are Just Beginning For Business Leaders

Advisory firm H&Hendricks warns the toughest decisions could be yet to come

After a year of pandemic turmoil, businesses may still be yet to face some of their biggest challenges, according to London business advisory firm H&Hendricks.

With the country gratefully embracing vaccines and thinking about how it is going to emerge from the third lockdown in a year, business leaders must start paying particularly close attention to how their businesses will effectively transition from survival to recovery mode, and ultimately return to business-as-usual.

Ashley Bancroft, Partner at H&Hendricks, a boutique firm of Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors based in St James’s Central London, said decisions taken by under-pressure boards over the next 12 months will determine the fate of many companies post-pandemic.

“Many business leaders across the country are already suffering fatigue from the constant firefighting they have had to deal with over the last year as they have tried to ensure the survival of their companies during the pandemic,” said Ashley. “But for many the recovery phase may prove even more challenging.

“As we emerge from the pandemic many companies will need to quickly adapt to operating in a cash-constrained environment for the foreseeable future. As government assistance programmes start to wind down, the importance of having a credible plan in place to rationalise cost structures, replenish cash balances and paydown borrowings cannot be overstated.  

“The expectation of a swift return to business-as-usual is probably wishful thinking for most, but even in the unlikely event that were to be the case, many companies would be at serious risk of overtrading given their current precarious financial positions coming out of the pandemic.  With uncertainty about what a ‘new normal’ may look like, businesses need to think dynamically when planning for the future.

“As a starting point companies should get an independent assessment of their post Covid-19 recovery plans to objectively challenge their robustness and viability.”

H&Hendricks specialise in increasing business value and preparing companies for sale. Its advisors work with business owners to ensure they are best positioned to realise the maximum value for their company when raising new equity capital, undertaking a partial exit or executing a full sale.

H&Hendricks take an active role in assisting senior leadership teams to implement recommendations to deliver quantifiable high-impact results.

They work with business leaders to focus on:

• Building value;
• Business transformation;
• Optimising performance; and
• Preparing for sale.

As a regulated member firm of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales the company’s advisors are bound by the ICAEW Code of Ethics.