Flying J was a family-owned business that operated a bank for trucking companies, travel plazas, oil refineries, and other relevant businesses. To a vertically integrated $18 billion business Flying J that had grown from four gas stations in the intervening forty years. Decreasing crude oil costs, declining cash reserves, and multiple internal challenges compelled most Flying J subsidiaries to register for illiquidity protection. This served as a source of astonishment to the company’s lenders, providers, customers, and employees, who did not know the company was in trouble, until it was not able to meet payroll only days before Christmas 2008.
Maggelet was determined not only to return her family's company to profitability but also to refund all of Flying J's debts, retain as many of the business's 12,000 employees, and prevent compromising workers' economies (e.g., 401K retirement accounts). All of the advisers of the company's told her it could not be done. They thought a more likely result would be paying lenders nine cents on every dollar owed. The family was left with a company that was smaller, but very lucrative.
PUBLICATION DATE: January 16, 2015 PRODUCT #: KEL887-HCB-ENG
This is just an excerpt. This case is about LEADERSHIP & MANAGING PEOPLE
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