Operational & Financial Rebuild
When an operation has no leadership or no financial discipline, the first move isn't a plan; it's understanding why no one had solved it before.
Knowing which key to turn, and when, is what separates legal advice from business judgment.
For CEOs, CFOs, general counsel, and boards facing decisions that don't fit neatly into one function.
Start a conversationPhilosophy
Before the path is chosen
The work usually starts the same way: someone calls in to "take a look," and what surfaces isn't what anyone expected: a conflict of interest no one had caught, a control that was never built, a jurisdiction no one had translated.
Garrote Advisory connects legal, financial, and strategic perspectives before an organization commits to a path. We don't replace the lawyer. We don't replace the CFO. We connect those perspectives, so the decision gets made with all three in the room, not one at a time.
What follows isn't a report. It's rebuilding the operation, the documentation, or the agreement until it holds.
What We Do
Complex & Contested Situations
When money disappears or a business relationship turns into a dispute, the advantage isn't just knowing the law; it's knowing how to build the file that turns suspicion into a case.
Cross-Jurisdiction & Ownership Reporting
An HR policy that works in Puerto Rico can be illegal in Ireland and unnecessary in the U.S. Translating across jurisdictions, and between operations and the board, is where the most value quietly gets lost.
Contract & Relationship Structuring
Every contract has a before and an after. Counsel drafts and evaluates it, but the implementation and operational judgment that follows is rarely part of that advice, even when they end up as an unwilling sounding board. That after is where a contract actually earns its keep.
Engagement
How we work
Start a conversation
A short call or message. No cost, no commitment, just enough to know if this is the right fit.
Diagnosis
We look at what's actually happening, not just what's been reported. This is usually where the real problem surfaces.
Defined scope
Once we know what we're solving, we agree on exactly what the engagement covers, and what it doesn't.
Execution
We stay in it until it holds, not until the report is delivered.
Situations
If any of this sounds familiar
Your operation has grown past the systems built to run it. Nobody can say exactly where it starts leaking value.
A business relationship just turned into a dispute. You need someone who can build the case, not just react to it.
You're operating across jurisdictions, or reporting to a board. Nobody is translating the legal requirement into the operating reality.
You signed a contract months ago. Now you're living with the terms nobody negotiated.
Perspectives
Ideas and case patterns from the field
Companies Don't Make Legal Decisions
A client owes you $180,000. Your lawyer confirms you have a case. But before you litigate, there are other questions worth asking, because winning the case doesn't always mean winning the business.
Read on LinkedIn →
Posted in Spanish; LinkedIn's "See translation" option converts it instantly.
Distribution agreements get negotiated by lawyers. Inventory gets managed by operators.
The gap between them is where the money goes. Most companies negotiate commercial terms and forget to negotiate the exit, and whoever fails to negotiate the exit owns the inventory.
The System Is Wrong: The Most Expensive Sentence in an Operation
An inventory discrepancy isn't the problem; it's the evidence. How to investigate it like a crime scene: working backward, without touching anything, until you find where the chain broke.
Read on LinkedIn →
Posted in Spanish; LinkedIn's "See translation" option converts it instantly.
About
Douglas "Mácar" Garrote, Esq.
Mácar Garrote has spent over 30 years across CFO, COO, and General Manager roles, always in businesses where the hard part wasn't the numbers or the org chart; it was the judgment call underneath them.
He holds a finance education from Babson College (BS), a JD from the Inter American University of Puerto Rico where he was admitted to the Puerto Rico Bar in 1996, and an Advanced Management Program from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, a combination that shows up less in credentials on a wall and more in how he reads a situation: as a legal question, a financial question, and an operational question, at the same time, before deciding which one actually matters most.
With a background spanning succession law, civil procedure, and contract work, his experience runs across Puerto Rico, the U.S., and Europe, jurisdictions that rarely agree with each other, which is often exactly the problem a client is facing.
He founded Garrote Advisory to bring that same judgment to owners, executives, and boards who need someone who has actually run the operation, not just advised on it from outside.
What that means in practice: a client working with Garrote Advisory gets a single point of judgment across legal exposure, financial impact, and operational reality, instead of piecing together three separate opinions and reconciling them on their own.
Credentials
- Bachelor of Science, Babson College
- J.D., Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Admitted, Puerto Rico Bar
- Advanced Management Program, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management
Contact
Start a conversation
If something in your business needs a second set of eyes, whether legal, financial, or operational, reach out.
connect@garroteadvisory.comPlease don't include confidential or privileged information in this initial message; we'll set up a secure channel once we connect.
Note: Garrote Advisory provides business advisory services. This does not constitute legal representation or create an attorney-client relationship.