Services
Turnaround & Transformation
Stabilising performance and delivering structured transformation to restore growth.
What This Service Is
We support businesses facing performance challenges, delivering structured turnaround and transformation programmes that stabilise operations and restore growth.
Our Capability
What We Actually Do
- 01Performance diagnostics and root cause analysis
- 02Cost restructuring and efficiency programmes
- 03Leadership alignment and governance improvement
- 04Operational restructuring
- 05End to end transformation delivery
How We Work
We take a direct, structured approach to turnaround and transformation.
Our focus is on rapid diagnosis, decisive action and disciplined execution. We work alongside leadership teams to stabilise performance, restructure where necessary and build a credible path back to sustainable growth.
Application
Where We Apply It
Performance Decline
Identifying root causes and stabilising businesses facing declining performance.
Cost Pressure
Restructuring cost bases to restore margin and operational viability.
Leadership Change
Aligning leadership teams and governance structures during periods of transformation.
Operational Reset
Redesigning operations to support a sustainable path back to growth.
Problems Addressed
What This Work Is For
- 01Cash visibility is insufficient to know how much time is available for decisions.
- 02Performance has declined over several periods without a settled explanation.
- 03Lender, investor or creditor confidence is eroding faster than the operational position.
- 04A transformation programme is under way but is not changing the financial trajectory.
Engagement Triggers
When Leaders Get In Touch
Covenant pressure, a funding gap or a refinancing that is no longer straightforward.
Loss of a major customer, contract or supplier.
A lender, investor or board requesting an independent view of the position.
A transformation programme that has lost credibility internally or externally.
Typical Workstreams
What The Work Involves
- 01Short-term cash and liquidity work to establish the available runway.
- 02Independent assessment of the underlying business: what is viable, what is not, and on what evidence.
- 03Stabilisation actions sequenced by effect on cash and by reversibility.
- 04Stakeholder management with lenders, investors, boards and, where appropriate, creditors.
- 05A recovery or transformation plan with milestones tied to the cash position.
Deliverables
What You Are Left With
- A short-term cash forecast the leadership team maintains and understands.
- An independent view of the viable core of the business and its dependencies.
- A prioritised stabilisation plan with owners and sequencing.
- A stakeholder-ready plan setting out the position, the actions and the assumptions.
Our Approach
How An Engagement Runs
- 01
Establish the facts and the runway
Before anything else we establish the cash position and how much time it buys. Every subsequent decision depends on that number being right.
- 02
Stabilise
We act first on what protects cash and preserves optionality, deferring irreversible decisions until the position is understood.
- 03
Separate viable from unviable
The core that can be sustained is identified on evidence, along with what has to change, shrink or stop. This is where independence matters most.
- 04
Rebuild confidence
Stakeholders are given a consistent, candid account of the position and the plan. Credibility is recovered through accurate forecasting far more than through optimism.
- 05
Deliver and hand back
We work alongside management through the recovery milestones and hand back to a leadership team able to run the plan without us.
Around The Table
Who Is Usually Involved
- Chief executive and chief financial officer
- Board and chair, particularly where directors' duties are engaged
- Lenders, investors and other funding stakeholders
- Legal and insolvency advisers, where formal processes may be in contemplation
Capability
What This Makes Possible
- 01A reliable view of cash and of the time available for decisions.
- 02Decisions taken in sequence rather than simultaneously and under pressure.
- 03A single, consistent account of the position for all stakeholders.
- 04A plan whose milestones can be tested against the cash position as it evolves.
Questions
Questions We Are Asked
At what point should we be talking to you?
- Earlier than most organisations do. Options narrow as cash tightens, and the difference between an early conversation and a late one is usually the range of choices still available.
Are you insolvency practitioners?
- No. Our work is aimed at stabilising and recovering the business. Where a formal process may be required we say so early and work alongside the appropriate legal and insolvency specialists.
Do you take over from management?
- Only where that is explicitly agreed. In most engagements we work alongside management, adding capacity and independence, because the team's knowledge of the business is an asset in a recovery.
How do you handle lenders and investors?
- With one consistent account of the position, delivered candidly and supported by forecasting that proves reliable over successive weeks. That is what restores confidence.
What if the conclusion is that the business is not viable in its current form?
- We will say so, plainly and early, and set out what a viable core would look like. Directors are better served by an honest assessment than by a plan that assumes recovery.
Where To Next
Related Capabilities And Perspectives
- Distressed Companies
Senior advisory for companies facing distress, restructuring or urgent operational pressure, with a focus on stabilisation and credible transformation.
- Operations & Efficiency
Improve operational performance through clearer operating models, cost discipline and better decisions about capacity, delivery and accountability.
- Management Consulting
Work with senior management consultants to address complex organisational decisions, improve performance and turn leadership priorities into action.
- Insights
Timely perspectives and expert analysis for leaders navigating complexity, growth, transformation and strategic decision-making.
- Solvent but Stuck: How to Tell a Bad Year from Structural Decline
Insolvency figures measure failure, not health. Beneath them sits a large group of UK businesses that are entirely solvent and entirely stuck: servicing debt, paying staff, running their fourth cost programme, and no better off than three years ago. The critical question for their boards is whether this is a bad patch or a business that has structurally stopped working. Here is how to tell the difference, and what each answer demands.
- The 52-Point Gap: Why Your Reorganisation Works on Paper but Stalls on the Floor
Most reorganisations look finished the moment the new org chart is signed off. The data says otherwise. A 52-point gap between what leaders believe and what their people experience is where the value leaks. Here is how to find and close it.
Under financial or operational pressure?
A short, confidential conversation will establish whether an independent assessment would help and how quickly it could start.
Request a confidential discussionFacing a performance challenge?
We help organisations stabilise, restructure and return to sustainable growth.
Work With Us