HOW TO TURNAROUND A COMPANY

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Hi! Friend,

Further to my preceding article of a typical case of not focusing on the BIG Picture, it is a known fact that there is a great shortage of people who have such skills to turn around a company. They are also commonly called "Turnaround Managers" who have all the necessary knowledge, experience and skill to do the job as expected from them. No wonder that the turn around manager is highly in demand especially in the current global financial tumults.

As a result, many companies could not be turned around due to lack of skill or expertise in this area. This skill is totally different from the skill of the ordinary Manager who manages the daily operational matters of the company. They can't be put there to do the turn around jobs, as it is not routine workdo. Consequently, even company which have a niche market and sound business model could not be turned around even after a couple of years. Worst still, at times you may not be able to see the light.

1. Evaluate and Assess your current situation

Before you embark on any turnaround plan, you need to get a firm grasp and understanding of your company's financial, operational costs, business model and competitive positions. You need to work closely with your key financial personnel to identify the inefficient areas and figure out, why your customers are shying away from you especially those from your core business. 

2. Develop a comprehensive turnaround plan. 

From the above assessment, you should be able to see clearly on what it takes to fix your problem. Rebuild your core business so that it can bring in the revenue to the company speedily. Time is the essence of the business. You cannot afford to delay because the longer you delay, the company will bleed more may lead to natural death if no rectification is taking place at the end of the day. The length of period required for turnaround is very much dependent on its nature; complexity of the case and the attitude of its senior management. Usually you tend to find that most of the turnaround managers are decisive and firm in their decisions. This is because they know what they are doing and they need to response speedily. They are normally no nonsense people who hold themselves accountable for their own action, and don't blame others.

3. Sell your plan confidently

Once you have completed your plan, you should go out all the way to sell your plan confidently to your board, investors, bankers, creditors, management teams and your employees. Because you need to gain their confidence, trust and believe in the plan that can work. 

It is also equally important that you need strong persuasive power not only to convince all the relevant parties, but make them to work with you wholeheartedly. Here, you need to have more than a good and sound foresight of not only the industry you are involved, but the global trends so as to address the BIG picture. 

To refresh your memory, please click at the title of this article.

4. Carry out your plan with full dedication, commitment and wholeheartedness 

Executing the plan with full dedication, commitment and wholeheartedness is very crucial to ensure that the turnaround plan is implemented as planned. You must note that no matter how good and sound is the plan, it will not fruition if it was not implemented accordingly or appropriately. Cases in point are overwhelming found in the recent US financial tumults. No further elaboration is required here. 

However, at times, plans may be very painful to implement especially where you need to lay off a sizeable amount of your workforce. Yet, you have to carry out the tasks even though it hurts certain quarters of your staff.

Above all, you need to put in place an accountability mechanism within your entire organization, so as to ensure that it really works out effectively and efficiently. At times, you may need to allot large amount of members, if not all to keep the plan moving accordingly without any delay.

5. Constantly review and improve consistently

You can't just stop here, but you need to constantly review those key success areas because they will determine your result at the end of the day. Having said that, you are also required to constantly monitor and take remedial action, if the need arises. By doing so, you will not only improve it, but also maintain sustainable growth in the long term.

Happy reading and get rewarded accordingly.

James Oh