Pat Diercks, CTP, CIRA

Partner, Clear Thinking Group

40 Under 40 Category: Business Consulting/Turnaround

Pat Diercks has over 17 years of experience as a consultant in the turnaround/restructuring arena, including roles as chief restructuring officer, chief strategy officer, and interim VP of finance.  He has participated in numerous engagements related to cash management and operational performance improvement.  He has been retained to assist clients with the preparation and analysis of business plans, financial statements, cash flow reporting and forecasting, collateral analysis and monitoring, out of court wind downs, refinancing and organizational restructuring.  Pat has also worked on numerous bankruptcy cases serving both debtors and creditors.  He is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP), a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor (CIRA) and has a bachelor’s degree in finance from The Florida State University.  He actively participates in the AIRA, SFNet, TMA and NYIC trade associations, frequently speaking on panels at industry events, writing articles for publication and serving as a member of the TMA Global Awards Committee.

What is the best professional advice you have been given and how have you implemented it? 

Nothing is black and white.  As an outsider it can be easy to identify a problem and the appropriate solution; however, oversimplification of a problem is the easiest way to alienate the parties you are trying to get buy in from to fix the issue.  Remember that the people who are having to confront the issue every day may have a skewed perception that is hindering their ability to see the solution.  It is my job as an advisor to understand my client’s motivations, biases, and experiences, and use them to develop the strategy needed to solve the problem.  How you get to the answer is just as important as getting the right answer.  Making sure that you craft your strategy in a way that allows as many parties as possible to have some sort of buy-in, will yield much better results than forcing your plan upon them.  I am constantly trying to gain a greater understanding of why clients/parties feel the way they do and change their perception as needed in order to assist them in solving their problem.  

How do you define a good leader?

A good leader can extract the best out of every member of their team while accomplishing the task at hand.  To do this, I believe you need to set the right example and hold both yourself and everyone one else on the team accountable.  They also need to be able to maintain an open dialogue and develop a high level of trust amongst their teammates to be successful.  Honesty, integrity, and character should be reflected in everything a good leader does.  A good leader should also be humble and know the value of their team by being thankful for their contributions, which only comes from the understanding that they cannot accomplish the goal by themselves.

What advice do you normally give to the junior talent you mentor?

My first piece of advice is to use every situation as a learning opportunity and continuously evolve your approach as to how you do business.  Regardless of whether a deal pans out or not, there are always takeaways that can be used in the future.  There is never one answer or approach to solving a problem and the more times you get to experience something new the greater the likelihood that you can incorporate new ideas and concepts into your repertoire.  Being in the turnaround/restructuring arena, I am not always faced with situations where the best possible ideas and solutions are being utilized and, as such, many of the takeaways I have had over the years are lessons on how not to do things.  Sometimes those lessons can be pretty valuable.  The best way to take advantage of these opportunities is to be a good listener.  My second piece of advice is to use every situation to grow your network.  Every new situation will likely bring the opportunity to connect with people you have not had the chance to interact with before.  There is no better advertisement for yourself than being able to show new contacts how you operate, the quality of work you deliver and ultimately what kind of person you are to work with. It also allows you to ascertain the same about them. While certainly not all situations yield productive contacts, you never know when you will cross paths with someone again and it is always nice to have a friendly face across the table, so make the best of every interaction when you can.