To deliver a corporate turnaround is one of the most difficult management activities within any business.  Recognition of the need for a turnaround is the start point.  Whilst there may be a defining moment when the need for a turnaround is apparent –due to creditor pressure, the banks insisting on a reappraisal; loss of a large customer; staff departures; the journey for improvement begins with recognition.

The plan itself may require external input in order to identify the hard choices necessary,  and possibly to make those changes whilst the existing management maintain the everyday activities.

Most corporate turnarounds require cash lubrication either from better credit terms, new funding sources or the banks in order to make the changes necessary to make improvements.  Clearly the turning a business into profit will improve the cash position but often it takes weeks to achieve this.

Choosing the right business people or corporate firms who can advise, analyse, develop plans and provide the resource to implement are important.   QR Ventures are one such firm –they quote examples of turnarounds where they have pitched for the opportunity to deliver turnarounds when the competition never asked any questions about the current financial position or issues.

Many firms were willing to quote to do work without understanding the underlying problems.  They are also honest about the difficulties  -in one classic case study they were asked to say how difficult the turnaround would be:

The quote was:

        Business sector           -straight forward

        Key Problems to address   -moderate

        Size of losses to turnaround  -extremely challenging

They took on the client, brought the company from losing £80-£100k per month to a profit of £25k a month in 3-4 months and refinanced the company within 6 months; thus enabling many of the underlying problems that caused the fall into losses to be resolved.

The stages in any assignment would involve diagnosis/analysis;  preparation of a plan –all on a tight timeframe; and the implementation.  The difficulty for the company requiring a turnaround is to decide which of several offers should they accept.  Our correspondent can not speak highly enough of QR Ventures.

Having a discussion about your business and getting a second opinion is confidential, free and may well stimulate a number of opportunities.  There is nothing to lose and everything to gain.  It is always preferable to find partners before a turnaround is absolutely necessary and to work to avoid these issues.