SETTING A RETIREMENT DATE
It’s not easy to grasp the idea of a retirement date, says Evergreen Consulting’s Brent Grover. “This is very long-range planning,” he says. Grover told participants in an MDM Audio Conference on succession planning that he went through the same thing in 1982. At that time, he was working in the family’s distribution business founded by his grandfather. The second generation needed to set a retirement date. He was fortunate: His company planned for the future.

Succession planning isn't simple, and the issues that come up take time to resolve. "It's a difficult process for any family, and I think that ours handled this process very well," Grover says. There are many options for families that need to do this. More...

TAPPING LENDERS WHEN CREDIT IS TIGHT
Even when times get tough, the rules of asking for credit are the same, according to this article from Forbes. The author says that every transaction, regardless of the times, "hinges" on Credibility, Collateral, Capital and Conditions. Credibility, he says, has to do with personal traits and reputation as well as credit scores and tax returns. It also helps to be prepared when you ask for money with all information organized and current. Capital refers to net worth, the author writes, and when you ask for credit, "Expect to sign a personal guarantee for your business loans."

In tough times, lenders "prize transparency," so bring in years of financial statements. One lender says: "When credit gets tighter, we tend to give the Cs additional scrutiny. The exercise becomes pretty critical when the risk associated with lending increases.” More...

Related Articles from MDM:
Six Questions to Ask Your Bankers

THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN: TRACING A DRUG BACK TO ITS SOURCE IN CHINA
Here's an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal that illustrates the complexities involved in sourcing from other countries. The recent hubbub over possibly tainted heparin, a drug used to thin blood, has brought supply issues to the forefront. More than half the world's heparin comes from China, according to the WSJ, and the chemical that starts the process comes from small rudimentary factories. If a problem comes up, it's "nearly impossible" to trace the raw heparin, which is made from pig intestines, back to its source.

There is also a lack of oversight in some parts of the supply chain; small producers in China often sell their output to export companies, according to this article, and never know where their product ends up. Record-keeping in some factories is minimal. Some of the problem can be linked to differences in how the two countries carry out health inspections. The FDA in the U.S. has done some inspections, but only a small fraction of the total facilities that produce drug ingredients to the U.S. market. The article illustrates the need for distributors and manufacturers that do business in China and elsewhere to carry out strict due diligence in their sourcing activities (Registration required). More...

WOLSELEY GENERAL COUNSEL JOINS COMPANY AT CRITICAL TIME
Richard Shoylekov joined UK-based building materials distributor Wolseley in November as its general counsel, coming in at a critical time for the company. Wolseley was growing fast, but at the same time the U.S. housing market was slowing and sub-prime situation heating up, according to an article recently at thelawyer.com. "The market was more or less halved in the U.S. in just over a year, and that has affected us as a group," he told the site.

Shoylekov also has worked to integrate the companies Wolseley has acquired over the past few years: "Because we have acquired different companies we have brought in different business models, and one of my jobs is to get consistency between them. That's difficult because naturally there's a tendency for a company to want to continue doing things the way it always has." More...

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH CAR COMPANIES IN DETROIT?
If you sell to the auto manufacturers up north, here is a good overview of GM's and Ford's strategies to stay viable. This Forbes article looks at buyout deals and other cost reduction strategies, as well as consolidating brands under one roof – ie creating Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealers and Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealers. Other strategies include slimming down on brands and retreating from certain markets, for example, rear-wheel-drive vehicles for GM. More...