Emergence Plan

It sounds like the title of either a self-help book about emerging as your authentic self, or a sci-fi TV show about surviving an attack of alien zombies. In actuality, it's about bankruptcy. But it's about the hopeful side of bankruptcy: i.e. leaving it.

There are two main forms of bankruptcy that you'll hear about. There's Chapter 7, which means the company will liquidate its assets, give what it can to its creditors, and then go away forever.

Then there's Chapter 11.

In Chapter 11, the company reorganizes its debts, but the ultimate plan is to get back to business eventually. Those companies emerge from bankruptcy. This is the kind of thing airlines like to do. It's become popular with retailers as well, since Amazon started trying to kill them all.

Once the lawyers figure out all the legal stuff, and the creditors work out how the debts will get restructured, companies in Chapter 11 get to become real companies again. They...emerge. Hence, they need an emergence plan. This details the formal program for leaving bankruptcy.