Abstract:
ORIENTATION: Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP) tasks are complex and involve a wide range
of knowledge, tacit skills and experience not accessible to novices.
RESEARCH PURPOSE: Competencies required by business rescue practitioners (BRPs) to navigate
a distressed venture were investigated. What BRPs actually ‘do’ during a rescue guided the
development of a competency framework to inform future qualification guidelines for BRP
education and accreditation.
MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY: To investigate the research question: ‘What are the competencies
that underlie the activities of a business rescue practitioner?’.
RESEARCH DESIGN, APPROACH AND METHOD: A modified ‘interview to the double’ (ITTD)
process was used to elicit instructions that a BRP would give to an imaginary ‘double’. These
instructions were analysed and rated for importance, transferability, knowledge requirement
and skills requirement; in conclusion, these instructions were ranked and subjected to a
content analysis.
MAIN FINDINGS: Based on the main activities that were derived from the practices and praxis,
one assignment and four supra (higher-level) competencies were consequent to the analysis.
A BRP able to successfully navigate a distressed venture towards normal operations should
demonstrate a high level of competency in sense-making, decision making and integration,
achieved through collaboration as the central competency. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Firstly, the study addresses educators’ need for a framework of
competencies to guide education. Secondly, it paves the way for the Regulator to develop a
qualifications framework for accreditation.
CONTRIBUTION: The findings gave structure to the competencies underlying the activities of a
BRP to navigate a rescue. Pre-business and financial acumen appears limited without these
competencies containing insight, experience, intuition, heuristics, tacit knowledge, perceptive
