Relocating Operations After a Cartel Killing — Without Losing Staff or Shutting Down the Mission
A trusted staff member gets a call: someone close to them has been killed—broad daylight, cartel-linked, blocks from your headquarters.…
When everything's on fire, we bring water. Complex crises demand experienced operators who've navigated chaos before. We stabilize operations, protect what matters, and build the path forward while you focus on leading your team.
Contractors going rogue. Cash flow collapse. Regulatory pressure. Market exits. Leadership implosions.
From the inside, your crisis feels unique, overwhelming, and impossible to navigate.
But with enough pattern recognition, crises follow recognizable trajectories. The contractor who seems loyal until suddenly they're not. The cash flow problem that appeared manageable until it wasn't. The market that worked yesterday but won't work tomorrow.
We're business operators turned advisors who've navigated crises across multiple continents and industries. We've survived fraud that destroyed a 7-figure business. We've managed forced exits from markets we operated in for years. We've rebuilt after catastrophic failures that would have ended most ventures.
That experience taught us something valuable: crisis follows patterns. Once you recognize the pattern, you can navigate it. We help you see what's actually happening, separate signal from noise, and make decisions that stabilize chaos instead of accelerating it.
For these scenarios, we work directly with you to assess damage, contain the crisis, and execute recovery plans. We provide the strategic guidance and operational support you need.
Your contractors went rogue. Your key partner is threatening to walk. Your vendor network just imploded. These relationship crises can destroy a business faster than any market downturn—especially when they involve fraud, contract disputes, or coordinated defection.
We help you assess the damage, identify who's salvageable and who needs to go, and build containment strategies that protect your reputation and cash flow. We'll help you communicate with affected stakeholders, coordinate with legal counsel on evidence preservation, and design new operational structures that prevent repeat scenarios.
This isn't about playing therapist to your team—it's about making hard decisions quickly. We help you determine whether to rebuild relationships or cut losses, how to transition critical functions without operational disruption, and how to communicate changes to clients and partners without triggering panic.
We advise and support your team. We don't take operational control. You remain the decision-maker. We bring pattern recognition, execution frameworks, and honest assessments of what's salvageable and what isn't.
Revenue dried up overnight. Your operations are hemorrhaging cash. Key systems are failing. Your team is overwhelmed and you're not sure what to prioritize first.
Operational distress rarely announces itself cleanly—it compounds. One failing system cascades into three others. Team burnout leads to quality issues. Quality issues trigger client departures. Client departures accelerate cash problems. By the time you realize how deep the problem runs, you're fighting fires on six fronts simultaneously.
We help you triage ruthlessly. We assess which operations are critical and which are draining resources, identify the 20% of problems causing 80% of the pain, and build stabilization plans that stop the bleeding without requiring perfect information. We'll help you have difficult conversations with your team about priorities, design interim operating procedures that keep essentials running, and create space for you to think strategically instead of reactively.
This work is about buying time and clarity. We help you separate symptoms from root causes, make hard resource allocation decisions, and build the foundation for sustainable recovery—not just temporary Band-Aids that fail three weeks later.
Regulatory changes made your model illegal. A key market collapsed. Political instability is making operations untenable. You need to exit a market—fast—without destroying everything you've built.
Forced exits are expensive and chaotic when done poorly. Clients feel abandoned. Vendors panic. Staff become liabilities instead of assets. And if you're operating across borders, every market has different legal requirements for winding down operations cleanly.
We help you design exit strategies that preserve relationships, protect intellectual property, and minimize legal exposure. We'll assess what's transferable to other markets, coordinate with local counsel on compliance requirements, manage communication strategies that maintain trust, and identify which partnerships are worth preserving for future opportunities.
We've operated in markets that became untenable. We understand the psychology of cutting losses while maintaining dignity. We help you exit strategically, not desperately, so when you're ready to re-enter or pivot to adjacent markets, you haven't burned every bridge or left legal time bombs behind.
Your core business model stopped working. Market conditions shifted. What made you successful for years is now actively destroying value. Revenue is declining and you're not sure whether to pivot, rebuild, or exit entirely.
We help you assess whether the problem is execution or fundamentals, identify what's salvageable from your existing business, and design transition strategies that don't require burning everything down. We'll help you make honest assessments about whether your market still exists, evaluate pivot options against your actual capabilities (not aspirations), and build plans that account for limited runway and demoralized teams.
This isn't about inspiration—it's about cold assessment of what's real, what's possible, and what's fantasy. We help you see your situation clearly, make difficult strategic decisions, and execute transitions that preserve optionality instead of accelerating decline.
The founder is leaving (voluntarily or otherwise). Key leadership departed unexpectedly. You're facing a transition that could destabilize everything—client relationships, team morale, investor confidence, operational continuity.
We help you manage the transition without operational collapse, design communication strategies that maintain stakeholder confidence, and build interim structures that keep the business running during leadership uncertainty. We'll help you assess internal succession options honestly, coordinate with your team on continuity plans, and navigate the politics of leadership change without pretending it's simple.
Leadership transitions expose every weakness in your organization. We help you identify what will break first, shore up critical relationships before they fracture, and design transition processes that acknowledge reality instead of projecting false confidence.
Client trust evaporated. Your brand is damaged. Former advocates are now critics. Whether justified or not, the market's perception of your business has fundamentally shifted—and it's affecting everything from sales to recruiting to vendor relationships.
We help you assess the root causes honestly (even when painful), determine what's repairable versus what requires structural change, and design recovery strategies that rebuild credibility through action, not messaging. We'll help you identify which relationships are salvageable, make operational changes that address legitimate criticisms, and communicate in ways that demonstrate accountability instead of defensiveness.
Trust collapses are rarely about one incident. They're about accumulated disappointments or spectacular failures that confirmed people's worst suspicions. We help you face hard truths about what broke, make credible commitments to change, and execute recovery plans that restore confidence over time, not overnight.
Not Sure If This Is a Crisis Yet?
Sometimes you just need someone who's been there to tell you honestly what you're dealing with. Reach out. We'll assess your situation and give you our unfiltered perspective on whether you need help now or can handle it yourself.
We don't pretend to be experts in everything.
When your crisis needs specialized knowledge, we help you build the right team and coordinate the response.
We provide crisis coordination and business decision support, then help you assemble the specialized experts (legal, technical, regulatory) your situation demands.
You're facing lawsuits, regulatory investigations, or compliance failures that threaten your business. Government agencies are asking questions. Former clients or partners are threatening legal action. You need legal defense but also need to keep operations running.
We help you coordinate response efforts across legal, operational, and communications fronts, maintain business continuity while under scrutiny, and make strategic decisions about settlement versus defense. You'll need specialized attorneys for legal representation and regulatory compliance experts for technical requirements. We provide the operational coordination and strategic decision support while legal specialists handle defense and compliance.
Your core technology infrastructure is failing. Critical systems are down or compromised. You're facing data loss, security breaches, or platform failures that threaten operations.
We help you coordinate incident response, manage stakeholder communication, and design operational workarounds that keep the business running. You'll need technical specialists (cybersecurity experts, infrastructure engineers, forensics teams) to diagnose and remediate the technical problems. We bring crisis management and business continuity planning; they bring technical expertise and system recovery.
You're facing bankruptcy, debt restructuring, or capital requirements you can't meet. Investors are threatening intervention. Banks are calling loans. Your capital structure is fundamentally broken.
We help you assess strategic options, coordinate with financial advisors, and maintain operational focus during financial restructuring. You'll need bankruptcy attorneys, restructuring advisors, and financial experts to navigate legal processes and negotiate with creditors. We provide operational strategy and decision support while financial and legal specialists handle the technical restructuring work.
Someone inside your organization has been stealing. You've discovered irregularities in the books. You're not sure how deep it goes or who else is involved.
We help you assess operational impact, design containment strategies, and coordinate across legal, forensic accounting, and HR teams. You'll need forensic accountants to trace the money and criminal attorneys to navigate prosecution. We provide the operational stabilization and strategic coordination while specialists handle investigation and legal action.
You're in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, or another heavily regulated safety-critical industry facing compliance failures, adverse events, or clinical trial problems.
We help you coordinate cross-functional crisis response, manage operational continuity, and design communication strategies. You'll need specialized regulatory consultants, clinical experts, and industry-specific attorneys who understand FDA, EMA, or other regulatory bodies. We bring operational coordination and strategic decision-making; they bring technical regulatory expertise and compliance navigation.
You're facing environmental contamination, workplace safety failures, or public health incidents connected to your operations. Regulators are involved and community backlash is building.
We help you coordinate response efforts, manage stakeholder communication, and maintain operations under intense scrutiny. You'll need environmental consultants, safety engineers, and specialized legal counsel for regulatory compliance and remediation. We provide strategic coordination and operational decision support while technical experts handle assessment, remediation, and regulatory navigation.
Crisis feels overwhelming because everything seems urgent.
Our structured process helps you know what happens when and what to expect at each phase.
Starting within 24 hours, we assess threats, stabilize operations, design strategic response, and guide you to resolution with clear milestones at every phase.
The first 24 hours determine whether your crisis gets contained or spirals. We assess immediate threats, identify what needs protecting, and establish basic control.
We conduct rapid damage assessment to understand scope and severity, identify critical vulnerabilities that could cascade into larger problems, and establish communication protocols so your team knows who's deciding what. We help you prioritize ruthlessly—what needs immediate attention versus what can wait—and design initial containment actions that stop the bleeding.
This isn't about perfect information or elegant solutions. It's about making the best decisions possible with incomplete data under time pressure. We help you see clearly when everything feels chaotic, separate genuine emergencies from loud distractions, and take decisive action while others are still processing what happened.
Outcome: Immediate threats contained, critical operations protected, clear command structure established.
Once immediate fires are out, we focus on stabilization. The goal is preventing new problems while buying time to think strategically.
We conduct deeper operational assessment to understand full crisis impact, design interim procedures that keep essential operations running, coordinate across teams so everyone understands their role during instability, and identify quick wins that restore confidence and momentum. We help you manage stakeholder communication so clients, partners, and team members aren't operating on rumors or assumptions.
This phase is about creating enough operational stability that you can shift from reactive crisis management to strategic response. We help you establish new normal operating procedures, even if temporary, that give your team structure and reduce constant firefighting.
Outcome: Operations stabilized, team organized, breathing room created for strategic planning.
With stability established, we design comprehensive response strategies that address root causes, not just symptoms.
We analyze what actually caused the crisis beyond surface explanations, design structural changes that prevent recurrence, build recovery roadmaps with clear milestones and accountability, and develop stakeholder management strategies for clients, partners, investors, and team. We help you make difficult resource allocation decisions about what to rebuild, what to abandon, and what to redesign entirely.
This is where pattern recognition matters most. We've seen how crises unfold and how recovery actually works versus how people wish it worked. We help you avoid common mistakes, design credible recovery plans, and make realistic commitments you can actually keep.
Outcome: Comprehensive recovery strategy, structural improvements designed, stakeholder confidence rebuilding.
Final phase focuses on sustainable resolution and building resilience against future crises.
We guide implementation of structural changes, monitor recovery progress against milestones, adjust strategies based on what's actually working versus planned, and design systems that reduce future crisis vulnerability. We help you transition from crisis management back to normal operations without losing the lessons learned or reverting to the behaviors that created vulnerability.
This phase includes honest post-mortem assessment, documentation of what worked and what failed, and building organizational muscle memory so your team handles future challenges better. We stay engaged until you're genuinely stable and have systems in place to maintain that stability independently.
Outcome: Crisis resolved, structural improvements implemented, organizational resilience strengthened.
Get Direct Access to Operators Who've Lived Crisis
Whether you're facing fraud, operational collapse, a market exit, or team implosion, we've navigated similar situations. Reach out and we'll tell you honestly whether we can help.
If your situation is urgent, contact us on Signal at pholus.01.
Process without the right people is just theory.
Here's what makes Pholus different from typical crisis consultants.
We've navigated fraud, market collapses, and operational disasters in our own businesses across multiple continents. That lived experience shapes how we guide you through yours.
We're not consultants who studied crisis management in business school. We're operators who've lived it. We've discovered fraud schemes destroying businesses we built. We've navigated contractor revolts, market collapses, and forced exits from countries we operated in for years. We've made payroll during cash flow disasters and rebuilt operations after total team implosions.
This experience matters because crisis management isn't theoretical. When your world is falling apart, you don't need frameworks and best practices. You need someone who's felt that same sick feeling in their stomach, made impossible decisions with incomplete information, and come out the other side. We know what actually works versus what sounds good in a conference room.
We bring pattern recognition from operating businesses across multiple continents, managing remote teams that went rogue, navigating regulatory systems in foreign languages, and rebuilding after catastrophic failures. We've been humbled by crisis. That humility makes us better advisors.
We operate fluently in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. This isn't just convenient. It's often critical.
Language capability signals cultural competence. We understand how business actually works in these markets, not how Americans think it should work. That understanding prevents costly mistakes during crisis when you can't afford to learn through error.
Crisis doesn't wait for convenient scheduling. We respond within 24 hours and can deploy anywhere in the Americas within 48-72 hours when physical presence matters.
Fast response isn't about appearing busy—it's about preventing cascade failures. The contractor who's stealing today will steal more tomorrow. The client who's angry today will be publicly trashing you tomorrow. The team member who's confused today will make expensive mistakes tomorrow. Speed contains damage.
We're structured for rapid deployment because we've learned that crisis windows close quickly. The difference between responding immediately versus next week often determines whether you're managing a problem or fighting for survival.
We strengthen your team's capability to handle crisis. We don't take over and run your business for you.
You remain the decision-maker. We provide assessment, options, recommendations, and execution support, but you make the calls. This approach builds organizational resilience instead of creating dependency. When we leave, your team is stronger and more capable of handling future challenges independently.
We've seen too many consulting engagements where external advisors become permanent crutches. That's not our model. We guide you through crisis, teach your team our thinking process, and exit when you're genuinely stable—not when it's financially convenient for us to stay engaged.
This experience matters because crisis management isn't theoretical. When your world is falling apart, you don't need frameworks and best practices. You need someone who's felt that same sick feeling in their stomach, made impossible decisions with incomplete information, and come out the other side. We know what actually works versus what sounds good in a conference room.
We bring pattern recognition from operating businesses across multiple continents, managing remote teams that went rogue, navigating regulatory systems in foreign languages, and rebuilding after catastrophic failures. We've been humbled by crisis. That humility makes us better advisors.
Real Crisis Response, Real Outcomes
See how we've help business like yours.
The cases below represent real crisis interventions, anonymized to protect every client's privacy. No company names, locations, or identifying details appear as written.
Every hour you wait to address a crisis costs you options, relationships, and leverage.
Let's talk about your situation today.
"Most people think business crises are rare, dramatic events. They're not. The vendor network that implodes. The regulatory pressure that appears overnight. The market disruption you didn't see coming. These situations happen constantly. What's rare is having advisors who've navigated them before and know the difference between situations that require aggressive intervention versus those that need patient management."
All conversations are completely confidential. We assess whether immediate intervention is needed or if guidance is sufficient. No situation is too sensitive to discuss with us.
Initial contact focuses on understanding your situation and determining if we can help. Some crises need immediate action. Others need perspective. We'll tell you honestly which is which.
If your crisis is escalating right now and can't wait for email, contact us directly on Signal at pholus.01. We prioritize urgent requests and provide rapid assessment.
Clear answers about response times, geographic reach, legal coordination, and how we work with your team during the most challenging moments.
We offer Crisis Advisory & Emergency Response in the following regions where we've built deep operational expertise:
Beyond our core regions: We remain open to conversations about engagements elsewhere when the situation warrants it. Learn more about our geographic focus.
You're operating in active conflict zones requiring armed security or evacuation planning. We don't provide physical security services.
You need someone to take operational control and run your business for you. We advise and support, but you remain the operator and decision-maker.
You want reassurance everything will be fine. We tell hard truths about what's salvageable and what isn't, even when it's painful to hear.
You need legal representation in court or regulatory proceedings. We work alongside your attorneys but don't provide legal services.
You're looking for the cheapest option. Crisis advisory requires experienced operators, and our fees reflect that expertise. If budget is your primary constraint, we're likely not the right fit right now.