News & Insights
What we see, think, and know from years of working at the intersection of distress, leadership, and performance.
Issue 2: The Fog Machine — How the K-Shaped Economy Hides Future Distress Inside America's Biggest Brands
Procter & Gamble used to be a proxy for the American consumer. That signal has gone quiet, because the consumer split in two. Inside the K-shaped economy, price papers over an eroding volume base, and the fog is about to lift.
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Most Decisions Aren't Fatal. Not Making Them Is.
Ninety-nine percent of decisions are not fatal. But the refusal to make them often is. In distressed and transitional situations, waiting is often the most expensive decision a company can make.
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Zero Times a Multiple
Zero times any multiple is still zero. In distress, trailing EBITDA is a fiction, and the recovery decision keeps getting anchored to it. Distressed value is not a multiple of what a business just lost; it is the sum of what can still be recovered, lever by lever.
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Issue 1: AI in the Backroom — From Hype to Operations
89% of retail and CPG leaders say AI has helped increase revenue. The real question isn't whether AI works — it's where it actually moves margin. The Backroom Report launches with a look at where the returns justify the spend.
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Pharmaceutical Distress Is Different. Here's How to Navigate It.
The companies that navigate pharma distress aren't always the ones with the best science. They're the ones with the right leadership, engaged boards, and a clear view of their options before a crisis forces the issue.
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The Mid-Market AI Playbook Is Missing
Lumen created $50 million in annual value with AI. Air Canada ended up in a tribunal. The difference wasn't the technology — it was the playbook. Here's the framework mid-market companies actually need.
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Your Employees Already Know Where AI Works. It's Time to Start Listening.
Every AI diagnostic starts the same way: with the people who do the work. Within the first 48 hours, a pattern emerges. The people closest to the operation already know where AI fits and where it doesn't. The shortcut to smarter deployment isn't another vendor demo. It's listening.
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Reactive Pricing Is Quietly Destroying Your Margins
The margin problem usually doesn't look like a margin problem. When sales teams accept customer-dictated terms, pricing discipline breaks down fast.
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The Operating Partner's Edge: How AI Is Compressing the Transformation Timeline
What used to take months — assessments, risk briefs, GTM strategies — now takes hours. AI doesn't replace operator judgment. It amplifies it. Here's how the firms embracing AI as a force multiplier are widening the gap.
→ Private Credit Grew Up in a Greenhouse. Winter Is Here.
Why workout capability — not capital — will define the next decade of the asset class.
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The Hidden Cost of Selling Everything to Everyone
Most mid-market companies are proud of their product breadth. Most of the time, it isn't a strength. It's a strategy that happened by accident.
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Randall Miles joins Areté
Seasoned CEO and board leader brings decades of experience guiding organizations through transformational growth, complexity, and transition.
Thomas Allison Joins Areté as Restructuring and Board Advisory Leader
Former CEO, CRO, and independent director brings decades of operating and board experience to moments of complexity and change.