Why Rosemont
A Q&A with Rosemont’s founder and principal discussing Special Situations providing more insight on what the firm does and what sets them apart.
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A Q&A with Rosemont’s founder and principal on Special Situations, understanding them, providing more insight on what the firm does and what sets them apart.
Q: What is a special situation, and how do you know you're in one?
A: A special situation in its simple terms is a business problem with a potential impact on the future value of a business. It centers around an inflection point, such a business opportunity or conversely a downturn. Broadly speaking, such situations are high-stakes, open-ended and don’t occur often, making them uncertain and hard to predict for the people in it.
Q: How did you get into this the work you do?
A: After attending an International Business Management school I started in commodity trading. Having deciding I wanted to go down the entrepreneural path, I was offered the job of an doing integration across five production plants of an exchange listed organization. That exposed to almost everything that these businesses experienced. I started advising them after the job was finished, which turned into what what I do today.
Q: How does Rosemont differ from other advisers?
A: Most service-oriented businesses have a specific solution that is offered to companies experiencing the problem they solve, for example a digital inventory system. We don’t fit in the typical professional categories. We operate one layer above that in between. In our work what the solution will be isn’t known before it’s done.
Q: With different specialists in the room, what value do you add?
A: Special situations lack one thing in particular: a clear course of action that gets the job done. The specialists involved, however indispensable rely on either precedent, frameworks or a model, which is what the job requires, but that alone doesn’t resolve the situation. It won’t tell you what to do or where to go. That’s why we usually don’t compete.
It is also not guaranteed to resolve an underlying issue. For example, a legal step has operational consequences, a financial one has stakeholder consequences, etc. We translate and address the picture as a whole.
Q: How do I know if my situation qualifies?
A: We have described a number of situations here that should give you a good impression. The typical characteristics are: the business is at a pivotal or consequential moment. the high stakes, it’s complex and open-ended, making it uncertain and ambiguous. A lot of different expertise is required i.e. technical, human interactions, legal and financial, each needing interpretation as the situation unfolds.
Q: At what point should I bring you in, early or when things get critical?
A: Earlier is always better. The more time passes, the further the situation unfolds, and the more steps are taken that are hard to walk back if necessary, and optionality narrows. The earlier the situation is recognized the more is to be gained from our involvent. One example is the case of capital investments. When the operator starts its economic planning it must look at all other considerations right away, i.e. legal or stakeholder constraints, not after or it messes up timelines.
Q: What does "done" look like?
A: Each special situation, though comparable, gets their own appropriate response. Getting there early is vastly different from a badly deteriorated situation. And as we said the outcome is usually not known in advance. A situation does have a beginning and an end, but we aren’t needed for the entire duration. What “done” means for us is that the situation is understood, a solution is identified that’s workable for everybody with a clear course forward. Pressure and uncertainty have been taken out or reduced having taken control of the situation. Then for the most part our job is done.
Q: What do people often get wrong in these situations?
A: The discomfort of uncertainty makes people compelled to take action, often based on premature conclusions, which leads to mistakes. To avoid this one needs to stay with it in spite until things are better understood.
Also, it’s important to recognize that business problems are fundamentally human interactions problems. Acknowledging that let’s you see people’s interests and their responses more clearly.
Our Introduction
Why Rosemont Advisory
Written by Lennart Huisjes
- 12 April 2026
- 7 min Read