Commercial Bankruptcy: The Six Components of Leadership

The items below are excerpted from the Business Bankruptcy News Bulletin. A full issue contains information on dozens of troubled companies, as well as informational and analysis highlights. Please visit the insideARM bookstore for information on subscribing to the Bulletin.

There are six main factors that contribute to successful leadership, including vision, motivation, strategy, faith, values and responsibilities.  Vision is a picture of the future that a leader wants to achieve, while motivation involves getting commitments from others to share that vision.  Leaders must outline a strategy to achieve their visions and have a firm faith that they can overcome obstacles in reaching their goals.  Values, with moral values coming ahead of economic ones, are important to make clear to employees, Finally, leaders must take responsibility for any mistakes that occur on the way to achieving a vision.

Auto Crane Company filed Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma listing assets of between $10 million and $50 million and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million. The filing was under case number 09-14002. For more information contact the court at 918-699-4001.

Heartland Publications LLC, Clinton, Ct., filed Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The firm listed assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million each. The filing was under case number 09-14459. Also filing was Heartland Publications Holdings LLC under case number 09-14460.  For more information contact the court at 302-252-2560.

ION Media Networks suffered a setback when a federal court stayed a the U.S. Bankruptcy Court ruling that had approved ION’s reorganization plan, according to Cyrus Capital Partners, a creditor that had objected to the decision by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, N.Y. to approve the plan. Cyrus claims that ION’s restructuring plan was improperly based on certain liens against its broadcast licenses. Back in November the bankruptcy court turned down Cyrus’s $250 million buyout offer for ION, which was set to soon emerge from Chapter 11, and instead approved ION’s plan, which erased $2.7 billion in debt. For more information contact the court at 866-232-1268.

Kafko (U.S.) Corp., Latham, N.Y., filed Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The firm listed assets of between $1 million and $10 million and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million. The filing was under case number 09-14492. For more information contact the court at 302-252-2560.

Visteon Corp., the Van Buren Township, Mi. auto-parts supplier, suggested transferring three of its pension plans, which face a more than $540 million shorfall, to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. The plan is part of Visteon’s Chapter 11 reorganization strategy, which would give the federal PBGC a nearly 4% equity interest in the reorganized firm, with lenders getting the rest of the shares. Visteon is operating under court protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware under case number 09-11786.