Saving Investa:
How an ex-factory worker
helped save one of Australia’s iconic companies
1. What inspired you to write your
book?
The
situation at Investa was so unusual and we used uncommon and perhaps
unprecedented strategies, Board members often joked, “Someone should write a
book about this.” I did because I think the story is worth telling and lessons
from what happened, especially the over reliance on debt by private equity
investors, should be a case study lesson for those who follow.
2. What is it about?
2. What is it about?
The Investa
story is about saving a big company with hundreds of employees and one
of the top companies in the world in sustainability practices from insolvency
and liquidation and the terrible consequences that would have had on Morgan
Stanley (one of the too big to fail banks) and international lenders during the
global financial crisis. There is a
personal story intertwined about my rise from washing dishes, sweeping streets,
and working in a factory ‘sweat shop’ to being an international CEO of multiple
companies. The book uses an innovative format to weave my life story with the
company’s struggle for survival.
3. What do you hope will be the everlasting thoughts for readers who finish your book?
Governments
(including the US) will change the tax code to discourage massive and often
unsustainable borrowings to take over companies. The existing tax code favors
use of debt and directly leads to corporate bankruptcies and closures when
projections do not work out.
4. What advice do you have for writers?
Be
persistent. The investors threatened me with lawsuits if I insisted on having
the book published. A year later and at considerable legal expense, we reach an
agreement to let the book proceed. This is not a story that the investors or
bankers wanted publicized.
5. Where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?
Two types
of books will be published. Certain high volume sellers generally written (or
ghost written) by famous people and already established best selling authors
and self published, self financed books.
6. What challenges did you have in writing your book?
1. Distilling considerable information
and observations to a condensed approachable format. The early versions of the
book were much longer and probably less interesting.
2.
Describing
complex business terms and conditions in language that the public can
understand
3. Weaving a personal memoir that
describes my experience and sets the stage to answering how I came to be in
Sydney at the helm of Investa with the action backed events going on at
Investa. I chose a very unusual format with alternating flashback chapters to
my life and current events at Investa. I have not seen this format tried
previously.
7. If people can only buy one book
this month, why should it be yours?
This book
is a business thriller. Most people
would believe this is an oxymoron but they should read Saving Investa. There is a final chapter on lessons learned
from a career that spanned work on the factory line, palm reading, and working
on corporate assignments throughout the world.
An investment banker with the company that tried to stop my book
subsequently told me he gave my chapter on lessons learned to his teenage
daughter and told her she should study the lessons and would be better off in
the future if she remembered them. The book will be of value to those who like
non fiction, employees, managers, and young people starting their careers.
for more information, please see: http://authorscottmacdonald.com/
for more information, please see: http://authorscottmacdonald.com/
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