Debt Chickens Coming Home to Roost

Today’s online newspapers have real drawbacks. First, they don’t let you to scan all the news. Second, all too often important articles in the print edition never make it to the paper’s website. And let’s not forget how fewer and fewer people are getting real newspapers delivered these day. As a result, there is a [...]

Failure to Adapt Kills 2 Many Companies

When everything from wealth to glory is on the line, athletes aren’t the only ones who freeze, choke or come up short. But in business, that shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be ‘just the way it is’. It’s entirely normal, if you’re normal, that to some extent for some period of time your brain’s higher-level [...]

New $Num,ber.ss Language Coming Soon

Attention CEOs & Business Owners: the language you are using in your financial statements to ‘talk money numbers’ is about to change – so start saying goodbye to GAAP! IFRS is coming and it will cause a big change to how your financial statements are constructed. Consequently, what and how you communicate your company’s financial [...]

Lehman Bros: What Failure Felt Like

It’s been a year since the bloodshed on Wall Street took Lehman Brothers down. Finally, stories about what really caused their downfall are starting to filter out. And oh boy, what juicy business lessons there are to learn in all of it. September 15, 2008 was the date of Lehman’s demise. Their bankruptcy filing came [...]

Recession Cures: What & What Not to Do

What’s the recession fighting strategy of choice for most business owners? Why, it’s none other than: tell the sales force they have to try harder! That unexpected finding is just one of many coming from a recently completed survey commissioned by Red Wheel Marketing of Toronto, the outsourced marketing management firm. Their July 2009 survey [...]

Porsche: how hunter became prey

Europe is having its fair share of auto sector troubles right now and both Porsche and Volkswagen have been caught up in them. However, the really interesting sector news is about Porsche family firm politics and the downside of BHAGs. Read about their problems and how they could have avoided them…

Turnaround Recipe|fire the salesforce

There’s a cautionary tale for sales people and a recipe for turnaround success in the story of Descartes Systems Group (TSX: DSG). Descartes has gone: from (i) huge success, for once it was a high-flying stock that soared to $130 per share during the dot-com bubble; to (ii) almost total failure, where its share price [...]

Focus on Cash: – BB$M Tip #2

Today’s business conditions are pretty tough and many business leaders are finding their days really long, hectic and very tiring. That’s why it’s too easy to get caught up in the daily grind of activity or become too brain fatigued to focus on key but abstract indicators of business health. Conversely, your situation might be [...]

Biz Bankruptcy Wave-Watch

I was on the phone mid this week speaking with an SVP in the Recovery & Reorganization (aka Bankruptcy & Insolvency in more plain speak) area of one of the major CA firms here in Toronto. What he had to say was that the tsunami of business bankruptcies has yet to break…

Capital Market Signals to Watch For

Courtesy of the recent presentation by Ernst & Young that I attended, here is some economic insight into the current state of the capital markets and what signals to watch for that will indicate a recovery’s getting underway….

keep looking »

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Posts by:

Tony Johnston
President
Compass North Inc.

Tony provides executive management and advisory services that help companies get MORE !!

sales / profits / cashflow
financing / exit valuation

Tony delivers the leadership or leadership support needed that can make remarkably outstanding results happen operationally, economically, financially and in the eyes of customers, lenders & transaction counterparties.

If you are a decision maker in a company that wants MORE, give him a call at 416-342-5652 or check out the Compass North Inc website [click here].

Tony's ability to help companies achieve important/challenging goals is well demonstrated by his long record of success, which includes:
- 4 successful turnarounds lead
- $66 mil+ increase public
  company's value
- $34 mil value harvested
  from biotech cofounded & lead
  as CEO
- $12 mil/3x investment gain
  in 2 years delivered for
  VC partners
- $2.5+ bil in public & private
  market debt, equity and
  M&A deals done
- 1 successful company IPO
- 4 new businesses organized &
  grown: Biotech; Securitization /
  Mortgage Servicing; Third-Party
  Logistics (3PL); & Consulting