Playbook
01
30 / 90 / 180 days.
A turnaround is not a strategy review. It is a sequence. Cash first. Cost and focus second. Growth last. Skip a step and the business does not survive the next quarter.
The sequence
Phase 01
30 days
Stabilise.
- 01Cash war room: 13-week cash forecast, daily.
- 02Stop the bleed: freeze hiring, freeze non-critical spend.
- 03Top 20 customers and top 20 suppliers, one call each.
- 04Read the books. Real numbers, not management narrative.
- 05Replace the dashboard. One page. Weekly review.
Phase 02
90 days
Cut and refocus.
- 01Kill the products and segments that lose money.
- 02Re-size the cost base for the next twelve months, not the last.
- 03Replace the team members who cannot operate at this tempo.
- 04Renegotiate the contracts that strangle margin.
- 05Lock the focus: one ICP, one offer, one growth motion.
Phase 03
180 days
Grow.
- 01Rebuild the commercial engine around the focused offer.
- 02Reset pricing to reflect value, not cost.
- 03Hire the operators the new plan needs.
- 04Restart marketing with a payback discipline, not a budget.
- 05Hand over to a permanent CEO with a working business.
People also ask
03
How the playbook runs in practice.
Q01What happens in the first week?+
Cash war room stood up. Thirteen-week cash forecast built from the bank statements, not the plan. Top twenty customers and top twenty suppliers called personally. The management dashboard replaced with one page, weekly.
Q02How do you measure success at each phase?+
Day 30: cash runway extended by at least ninety days. Day 90: fixed cost re-sized and top three unprofitable segments closed. Day 180: two consecutive months of growth in the focused offer, with margin above pre-turnaround baseline.
Q03What if the plan is not working by day 90?+
Recalibrate, do not rationalise. If the numbers say the assumption is wrong, the assumption changes. The board sees the same numbers the operator sees, weekly. There is no hidden slippage.
Q04Do you replace the entire management team?+
No. Most teams have two or three people who can operate at the new tempo. Keep them, promote them, give them more scope. The mismatch cases, usually one or two, are replaced in the first sixty days.
Q05How do you avoid destroying value while cutting cost?+
Cut around the focused offer, not into it. Sales capacity for the ICP is protected. Product investment on the winning SKUs is protected. Everything outside that ring is on the table.
Q06What does handover to a permanent CEO look like?+
The permanent CEO is recruited in parallel from around day 120. Thirty-day shadow, thirty-day co-pilot, thirty-day handover. The board keeps the operator on the phone for a further ninety days at low intensity.