Tapping into Academia

(TMA International Headquarters)

A common misconception is that the worlds of academia and business do not intersect. Over the past few years, TMA has actively worked to bridge the perceived gap between theory and the practical application of business skills.

Through our Academic Advisory Council, our membership has access to some of the best minds in top business schools around the world in matters dealing specifically with corporate renewal. This issue of The Journal of Corporate Renewal focuses on the contributions our academic partners are making to enhance our understanding of the forces at work in our market.

In this issue, we have taken the opportunity to introduce the advisory council members. There are biographies of professors who represent distinguished institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and New Zealand; articles by several of them; and a review of a book authored by another.

Dr. Edward I. Altman, the Max L. Heine Professor of Finance at New York University and chairman of the Academic Advisory Council, updates his research on defaulted bonds and bank loans in “The Altman Report: Defaulted and Distress Bonds and Bank Loans, 1987 to 2001.”

Jack F. Williams, a professor at Georgia State University’s College of Law, explores a timely topic, focusing on ethical conduct of directors and officers in his article, “Scrutiny of Board Conduct Intensifies.” Headlines highlighting the demise of a few of America’s largest corporations and the melodrama that followed point us toward the need for exploring how our practices can be affected by appropriate conduct in distressed and insolvent businesses.

Finally, William Hass, CTP, and the CEO of TeamWork Technologies, Inc., reviews Creating Value Through Corporate Restructuring: Case Studies in Bankruptcy, Buyouts, and Breakups , by Dr. Stuart C. Gilson, of Harvard Business School . Gilson offers a series of case studies in restructuring distressed businesses. Hass takes us through what we can learn from Gilson’s book.

We hope you enjoy meeting our Academic Advisory Council through this issue of The Journal and garner some of the benefits provided by academic research as it applies to our practice of corporate renewal.