The trouble I've seen

David James is a professional crisis manager. For almost 30 years, his job has been to rescue companies on the brink of bankruptcy. By the time he's called in, it's usually too late to save much for the shareholders. In almost every case, however, there is still a lot to salvage: Nearly all the companies James has managed continue to operate in some form. More than 2 billion Pounds have been repaid to banks and unsecured trade creditors. And more than 30,000 jobs have been saved. The key to preserving value, James has found, is to resist the urge to try to generate cash from operating the business. In most cases, these companies have taken on far too much debt to ever sell their way out. Indeed, trying to expand operations beyond what the market would bear was what got them into trouble in the first place. James argues against waiting until the company is dead to break it up. A more effective course is to sell off valuable assets while the company is still a going concern. In vivid and sometimes hair-raising detail, James recounts how he has discovered valuable assets in unexpected places, salvaging everything from airlines to soft-drink makers to Britain's Millennium Dome. He has a routine for accomplishing this, which involves locking up the checkbook on day one and, more often than not, firing the senior management. His is a cautionary tale for top executives who, it is clear, should be concentrating their efforts on never needing to call on him in the first place.