Turnaround & restructuring
Turnaround & restructuring
A turnaround operates on a different clock. Cash is the constraint. Stabilise the cash position first, reset the plan, then return the business to a defensible footing.
In short
Turnaround and restructuring led by a former turnaround CEO. We stabilise cash first, diagnose the real causes, reset the cost base and operating model, then return to growth. Fast, hands-on, and honest about whether the business is recoverable.
What a turnaround involves
A genuine turnaround proceeds in phases. The order is critical. Attempting growth before cash is stable is how distressed businesses fail twice.
Control cash flow. Understand the true position, secure liquidity, stop the bleeding, and buy time for the subsequent plan phases.
With breathing room, identify root causes, not mere symptoms. Distressed businesses typically suffer from two or three structural issues causing the most damage.
Restructure the cost base, organisation, and operating model to ensure viability at the actual demand level.
Once stable and viable, rebuild a focused plan to grow from a defensible position, not an overextended one.
Restructuring, crisis management, and turnaround
Crisis management is the acute phase when time and cash are critically short. The priority is control. Restructuring is the structural work on cost base, organisation, and operations that restores viability. Turnaround is the full arc from distress back to growth. Action Is Now covers all three, led by a single operator. This ensures continuity, rather than work being handed between advisors. The dedicated turnaround CEO practice lives at turnaroundceo.biz.
Turnaround CEO, turnaround manager, or restructuring advisor?
A turnaround CEO and a turnaround manager are the same operator role: someone who takes command and runs the recovery from inside the company, owning the result. A restructuring advisor handles debt and the balance sheet from an advisory seat. Serious crises often need both. Most of our work is a commercial turnaround: lasting recovery comes from fixing pricing, sales and margin, not only from cutting costs. See turnaround CEO and turnaround CEO vs restructuring advisor.
Warning signs it is time to act
Most turnarounds are initiated too late. The signals are typically evident earlier than owners acknowledge.
- Cash is consistently tighter than profit-and-loss statements suggest it should be.
- The same plan is repeatedly presented because previous iterations failed to deliver.
- Suppliers are paid later. Conversations with the bank become more challenging.
- Valued personnel are departing. Those remaining are firefighting, not building.
- Leadership is busy and exhausted but cannot articulate the two most critical problems.
Stakeholders, banks, and the human element
A turnaround is rarely lost on numbers alone. It is lost when stakeholders lose confidence faster than the plan can restore it. Part of the work involves keeping banks, investors, suppliers, and key employees informed and confident. An external operator can navigate difficult conversations that an owner, too close and invested, often cannot.
Related services
Frequently asked questions
What does a turnaround consultant do?
Stabilises a distressed business, diagnoses root causes, restructures the cost base and operating model, and rebuilds a plan for viability and growth.
What is the difference between turnaround and restructuring?
Restructuring is the structural work that restores viability. Turnaround is the entire process from distress back to growth, of which restructuring is a phase.
How quickly must a turnaround begin?
As rapidly as possible. In distress, delay compounds and narrows options. Diagnosis and stabilisation should commence within days.
Can every distressed business be saved?
No. An honest operator states this early. Part of the work involves an unsentimental assessment of recoverability and on what terms.
Tell us the goal. We make it happen.
We deploy senior operator firepower and produce massive results. No excuses, just results.
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