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11 Corporate Turnaround Success Stories

Even the most successful businesses have failed at some point in time.

However, if handled correctly, rock bottom could serve as the first stepping stone a company needs to begin climbing back up to the top.

Here are 11 of the most inspiring stories of turnaround success by companies you’ve definitely heard of.

Probably the most well-known turnaround success story is the rise of tech company Apple.

Apple went into a decade-long downward spiral after CEO Steve Jobs left the company in 1985 and lower-priced products from competitors, like Microsoft Windows , took over the personal computer market.

For 12 years its innovation, popularity and sales continued to plummet, almost reaching bankruptcy until Jobs rejoined the company in 1997.

The company was able to turn itself around with a successful rebrand and new technology like the first iMac.

Now, Apple is one of the most well-known and valuable companies in the world, raking in almost $300 billion in revenue each year.

FedEx was founded in 1971 by Frederick Smith with $4 million of inheritance money and $80 million in loans and investments.

Smith first proposed the idea behind FedEx in a writing assignment for one of his classes at Yale University, for which he earned a C.

During the first two years in business, the company accumulated enormous amounts of debt due to rising fuel prices and was at the edge of bankruptcy.

When funds dwindled down to just $5,000, Smith decided to fly to Las Vegas and gamble with the last of the money in an attempt to double it.

Incredibly, Smith managed to turn $5,000 into $27,000 and was able to save the company by raising another $11 million.

By 1976 FedEx had produced its first profit of $3.6 million.

Seven years later FedEx became the first U.S. company to reach revenues of $1 billion within 10 years of the startup with no merger or acquisition and has been thriving ever since.

Reddit, a popular website for news and discussion, was founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian .

When it first launched, it had zero visitors, leading the founders to create several fake accounts to hold fake discussions until visitors eventually started trickling in.

Eventually, Reddit became wildly popular and was bought by Condé Nast , the owner of 20 other brands and media like Vanity Fair , Vogue and The New Yorker .

As of February 2018, Reddit has almost 550 million active users and is ranked as the fourth most visited website in the U.S. and sixth in the world.

Sometimes you just have to fake it until you make it.

When Airbnb launched in 2008 it struggled to find investors, forcing founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia to create custom cereal boxes to raise funds.

With Barack Obama and John McCain as inspiration, they created “Obama-Os” and “Cap’n McCains.”

Within two months, they’d raised over $30,000 and got invited to a training session for a startup incubator, which provided them with training and $20,000 in funding.

The company was able to grow exponentially and by the next year, the Airbnb website had 10,000 users and 2,500 listings.

The company now has over 4 million listings around the world and rakes in over $2.5 billion in annual revenue.

5. Evernote

Evernote, the app designed for taking notes, organizing and making lists, was founded in 2008 by Stepan Pachikov .

Within the same year, Pachikov made the decision to shut the company down because he believed it would never take off.

However, before he shut it down, an overseas investor pledged $500,000 to give Evernote a chance to succeed, and it did.

Despite the recent trouble, Evernote is a leader in note-taking and organization software and has raised hundreds of millions in funding, attracting over 20 million users.

6. General Motors

Perhaps the most dramatic turnaround success story is that of General Motors (GM).

GM was founded by William C. Durant in 1908 and was initially a holding company.

Just two years later in 1910, Durant lost control of GM to a bankers’ trust due to massive amounts of debt and a collapse in car sales.

After a dramatic proxy war in 1915, he was able to regain control, only to lose it again for good in 1918 after the new vehicle market collapsed again.

Then, Alfred P. Sloan took over and led the company into global dominance, which lasted well into the 1980s.

On June 1, 2009, GM went bankrupt, stripping stockholders of almost all of their investment and closing down several brands like Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer.

A month later, the U.S. Treasury invested $50 billion in GM and recovered $39 billion when it sold its shares later that year.

The Treasury invested an additional $17.2 billion into GM’s former financing company, GMAC (now Ally ). The shares in Ally were sold on December 18, 2014, for $19.6 billion netting $2.4 billion.

A study by the Center for Automotive Research found that the GM bailout saved 1.2 million jobs and preserved $34.9 billion in tax revenue.

In 2010, the reorganized GM made an initial public offering that was one of the world’s top five largest IPOs to date and returned to profitability later that year.

Today, GM produces over 9 million vehicles annually, employs almost 200,000 people and brings in $150 billion in annual revenue.

Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman and saw instant success with its creation of the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and Captain America.

Sales amounted to almost $1 million in the first two years of business and continued to rise for decades until the 1980s.

In 1986 Marvel made its first attempt at a film with the theatrical release of Howard the Duck , which was an astronomical flop (even though it was produced by George Lucas ).

The film cost $30 million to make and only grossed $15 million, earning a spot on the list for costliest box-office flops of all time.

Shortly after, Marvel began to lose ground to its rival, DC Comics , when DC began producing series like Watchmen , Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Superman .

Marvel’s financial success began to peak in the early 90s until it suffered a huge blow in 1992 when some its greatest writers left to form their own company.

A year later, the comic book market crashed and Marvel was forced to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996.

With the new millennium, Marvel was able to bounce back from bankruptcy by a merger with Toy Biz and began producing successful film franchises like Spider-Man and X-Men .

Finally, in 2009 Marvel was bought by Disney for $4 billion and has since seen overwhelming success with movies like Iron Man , Guardians of the Galaxy , The Incredible Hulk and Black Panther .

Impressively, the Marvel Cinematic Universe now encompasses 18 films, 10 TV series and a slate of movies planned until 2020.

8. Starbucks

Starbucks is one of the greatest examples of the rewards of hearing the voice of the customer.

Launched in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin , Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker , Starbucks first became profitable in Seattle during the early 1980s.

In 1987 the original founders sold Starbucks to Howard Schultz for $3.8 million.

However, in the late 1980s, the company experienced a brief economic downturn after attempting to expand to the Midwest and British Columbia but made a comeback in the 1990s when it entered California.

By 2002, there were almost 6,000 stores worldwide, showing a 300% growth rate in 15 years.

But, when the financial crisis hit in 2008, Starbucks was forced to close almost 1,000 stores and experienced a 28% profit loss over the next two years.

During this time Schultz took back control of the company and sent out a message to all employees on his first day back: “The company must shift its focus away from bureaucracy and back to its customers.”

Only two months later, the company implemented a new strategy based on technology, free thinking and community involvement.

“ My Starbucks Idea ” was rolled out in March 2008 to give customers a chance to have a say in the direction Starbucks went as a company. Over 90,000 ideas were shared via social media and raised page views per month to over 5 million.

Through this campaign, Starbucks implemented over 100 ideas and developed a community of like-minded baristas and coffee lovers.

Today, the company employs 250,000 people at 27,000 locations worldwide, owns several successful subsidiaries and continues to grow into new markets.

9. Delta Air Lines

Delta began as a crop dusting operation in Macon, Georgia, in 1924.

In 1928 the company was purchased by Collett E. Woolman and began to expand rapidly in South until its service was terminated in 1930.

This led the company to suspend its passenger service until the Air Mail scandal in 1934 when Woolman secured a low-bid contract for airmail service and resumed passenger services.

Over the next few decades, Delta expanded rapidly through additions of routes and the acquisition of several other airlines until 2004.

In an effort to avoid bankruptcy, Delta began a company-wide restructure, which included numerous job cuts and an expansion of operations in Atlanta.

The next year in another desperate attempt to avoid bankruptcy, Delta sold Atlantic Southeast Airlines to SkyWest Airlines for half of what it was worth.

Finally, on Sept. 14, 2015, Delta filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its debts amounting to almost $30 billion.

Over the next few years, Delta cut costs by billions and was able to emerge from bankruptcy in 2007 stronger than ever.

The company established itself as an independent carrier, unveiled a new logo and eventually merged with Northwest Airlines to create the world’s largest airline.

10. Pabst Blue Ribbon

Pabst Brewing Company was founded 174 years ago by Jacob Best in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Pabst Blue Ribbon, named after Frederick Pabst , saw steady sales in the 20th century and gained a reputation as the “blue ribbon” beer for the blue ribbon that was tied around each bottle from 1882 to 1916.

Sales peaked at 18 million barrels in 1977, then began to fall until 2001 when sales were below a million barrels.

That year, Brian Kovalchuk took over as CEO and began to make drastic changes.

Sales began to increase again shortly after due to increasing popularity among urban hipsters and the company’s sponsorship of indie music, local businesses, facial hair clubs, dive bars, radio shows and sports teams.

Now, Pabst Blue Ribbon is known as the official hipster beer and is frequently referenced in pop culture, proving a successful company turnaround.

11. Netflix

Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph to combat late fees for video rentals.

The company didn’t turn a profit until 2003, earning $6.5 million profit on revenues of $272 million.

By 2005 business was booming – Netflix was shipping out a million DVDs daily.

Netflix saw rapid growth until 2011 when CEO Hastings decided to split user subscriptions into two separate categories at a hiked price: DVD rentals and unlimited streaming services.

The company lost over 800,000 subscribers and its stock value dropped by 77% in only four months.

Although Hastings’ decision is now praised as a smart business move, at the time he and his company’s reputations suffered greatly.

“Whatever happened to Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year?” asked Wedbush research analyst Michael Pachter, referring to one of the many awards Hastings had received the year prior.

“Whatever happened to the guy who was invited to the boards at Facebook and Microsoft? What happened to that guy? Do you think Facebook would have invited him to their board now?”

Critics even nicknamed him “Greed” Hastings.

Then, on Sept. 1, 2011, Starz announced that it would pull its movies from Netflix, sending the company into further crisis.

To make matters even worse, Hastings decided to unveil Qwikster , a DVD-only service that only lasted three weeks, a month earlier than he’d originally planned.

The new service was introduced in a confusing, low-quality YouTube video that was later turned into a scathing Saturday Night Live skit .

Over the year, despite massive losses, Netflix was able to bounce back and improve its revenue by 47%.

One of the company’s smartest moves was introducing “ Netflix Original ” movies and TV shows, first launching House of Cards  in 2013 to much success.

As of January 2018, Netflix has 120 million subscribers worldwide and generates over $12 billion in annual revenue.

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Business Turnaround Case Study (With Example)

A business turnaround case study is a detailed analysis of a business that has faced significant challenges and has been able to successfully recover.

The case study provides insights into the reasons behind the business’s struggles and its eventual turnaround. It also highlights the key strategies and tactics that were used to achieve business success like increased productivity or profitability, better reviews or feedback from customers, etc.

The case study can be an invaluable resource for business owners and managers who are seeking to improve their own business performance. By understanding the reasons behind a successful business turnaround, they can learn from the mistakes of others and apply those lessons to their own businesses.

Here’s one example of a business turnaround case study for a manufacturing company.

Manufacturing Company Turnaround Case Study

The challenge:.

• The business was unprofitable, cash negative, and losing customers. Management in conflict & demoralized.
• Customers were very unhappy and were reducing orders and changing suppliers.
• The manufacturing process consisted of extrusion and thermoforming , i.e. a linked batch operation.
• A disorganized and dirty factory that had been put on notice by BRC to improve in 6 months. Poor delivery lead time, weak safety, and bad maintenance.
• Order lead time was very long and OTIF very Management had therefore decided to make trays to a forecast and this had exacerbated the problem further and driven up WIP and FG. WIP and FG stocks were in excess of 6 months.
• Stock counts were uncontrolled and not carried out regularly at month-end.
• Although cash was very tight there was no effective cash forecast regime in place.
• There was an inadequate sales plan in place which was subsumed by the need to constantly deal with customer crises related to late delivery and quality problems. There was excessive dependence on two customers.
• Customers in the UK, Ireland, and Benelux.

The Solution:

• Reduced headcount from 138 to 65, dismissed all directors and two managers, and in the process eliminated two layers of management.
• Developed management team & strategic plan & implemented Lean. Reviewed sales & production through value stream analysis & drove the integration of these functions.
• Changed ‘make to forecast’ to ‘make to order. Reduced FG stock to 10 days & WIP to 5 days, eliminating a 3000 sqm store. Cut order delivery time to 24hrs on identified lines.
• Set up shop floor data collection and installed IT that provided real-time performance measurement on 2 extruders & 8 thermo-formers. Measured Availability, Speed, Quality & OEE reviewed by shift. Implemented asset care system. Improved availability & developed planned maintenance.
• Integrated the order entry and production planning processes, drastically improving service speed, flexibility, and order turnaround. OTIF 99%.
• This process together with Kaizens energized the shop floor and forged strong (e.g. T/F tool change cut from 4 hrs to 2 hrs then 15-30 mins).
• Reorganized management & segregation of rework and reduced bad waste to <0.1%.
• Implemented a safety improvement plan with monthly meetings. Guarding, ASIs, Risk assessments, changed material flow, implemented safe WIP roll handling. Removed FLTs from production areas.
• Reduced NPD lead times from months to 4 weeks through a key alliance with a toolmaker.
• Worked closely with sales team & key customers. Weekly reviews of existing customers and new business development.
• Established detailed monthly financial reporting & 12-month rolling cash flow updated daily.
• Reduced breakeven from £13m to £7m, brought the company to profit in 12 months and reduced stock by 80% in 8 months. Improved OEE by 73% in 18 months.
• Cash positive in 18 months.
• Direct labor reduced from £2.4m to £1m pa, and material cost decreased by 22% in 12 months.
• Reduced low margin business, grew sales profitably to £9m in 2 years.

In business, there are always ups and downs. Companies that can weather the storm and come out stronger on the other side are the ones that are leaders in their industry.

When a company is in trouble, it can be tempting to give up and liquidate assets. However, sometimes the best course of action is to go through a business turnaround.

This involves making changes to the way the business is run in order to get it back on track. Sometimes this means making cutbacks and reducing expenses. Other times, it might mean investing in new technology or expanding into new markets.

Whatever the case may be, a business turnaround can be a difficult but necessary process. If done correctly, it can help a company to come out of a difficult situation even stronger than before.

Written by Mike Stewart , BSc Chem Eng, MBA: Strong practical experience at MD level. International experience includes being ‘parachuted in’ on a number of occasions to turn around troubled companies, as well as entering new markets and growing businesses.

Led 3 turnarounds in 7 years at £40 -£60 m pa businesses (330-500 people). All were complex multi-site manufacturing businesses with very demanding JIT customer service requirements.

Turnaround Strategies: Explained with examples and case study

A turnaround strategy is a plan for reorganizing and revitalizing a struggling business or organization. The following steps can help in developing a turnaround strategy:

• Identify the root cause of the problem: The first step in developing a turnaround strategy is identifying the underlying issues causing the business to struggle. This could be a decline in sales, poor management, a flawed business model, or external factors such as competition.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) can help you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business, as well as any opportunities or threats that exist in the market.
• Develop a plan: Once you have identified the issues and conducted a SWOT analysis, you must develop a plan to address the problems. This plan should include specific actions and timelines for implementation.
• Communicate the plan: It is important to communicate the turnaround plan to all stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and investors. This will help to build support and commitment to the plan.
• Implement the plan: The success of a turnaround strategy depends on the effective implementation of the plan. This requires strong leadership and the support of all stakeholders.
• Monitor progress: Monitoring progress regularly and making adjustments as needed is important. This will help you stay on track and ensure the turnaround plan achieves its goals.
• Evaluate and adapt: Finally, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the turnaround strategy and make any necessary adaptations to ensure continued success. This may require ongoing market analysis, competition, and internal business operations.

Types of Turnaround strategies

Turnaround strategies are plans businesses implement to reverse a decline in performance and improve profitability. Several types of turnaround strategies can be used depending on the specific circumstances of the business:

• Cost reduction involves reducing costs through measures such as layoffs, outsourcing, reducing operating expenses, and improving efficiency.
• Revenue growth involves increasing revenue through product innovation, expanding the product line, increasing market share, and increasing sales.
• Asset restructuring involves restructuring the company’s assets, such as divesting underperforming businesses, selling off assets, and merging with other companies.
• Financial restructuring involves changing the company’s capital structure, such as issuing new debt or equity, refinancing existing debt, or renegotiating contracts with creditors.
• Management restructuring involves changing the company’s leadership, such as replacing the CEO or other key executives and bringing in new management talent.
• Turnaround through acquisition involves acquiring another company to improve profitability or enter new markets.
• Bankruptcy or liquidation: As a last resort, a company may file for bankruptcy or liquidate its assets to settle debts and obligations.

Each of these turnaround strategies has its advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of strategy depends on the specific situation and needs of the business.

Examples of Turnaround Strategies

• The cost-cutting strategy focuses on reducing expenses by cutting unnecessary costs, such as layoffs, reducing inventory, renegotiating contracts, and downsizing.
• A diversification strategy involves expanding the business into new markets or products to reduce dependence on a single product or market.
• The operational restructuring strategy aims to improve the efficiency of the business by streamlining processes, improving quality control, and optimizing the supply chain.
• Brand repositioning strategy involves repositioning the brand to appeal to a new target market or changing consumer preferences.
• A financial restructuring strategy involves restructuring the company’s finances by refinancing debt, raising capital, or selling assets to improve liquidity.
• Innovation strategy focuses on developing new products or services to stay ahead of competitors and meet changing customer needs.
• Marketing strategy aims to increase sales and market share by improving the company’s marketing efforts, such as advertising, promotions, and pricing.
• Partnership or acquisition strategy involves partnering with or acquiring another company to expand the business’s capabilities, market share, or product line.

Case Study on Turnaround Strategy

Here is a case study on a turnaround strategy implemented by McDonald’s in the late 2000s:

Background:  McDonald’s is a fast-food restaurant chain founded in 1940. By the 1990s, the company had become a global icon with over 30,000 locations worldwide. However, by the mid-2000s, the company faced several challenges, including declining sales and negative publicity over its unhealthy menu.

Challenge:  McDonald’s was struggling to attract customers as it faced increased competition from other fast-food chains and changed consumer preferences towards healthier options. The company’s menu needed to be updated, and its image had become associated with unhealthy food.

Solution: In 2003, Jim Skinner was appointed as the CEO of McDonald’s, and he implemented a turnaround strategy called “Plan to Win.” The strategy focused on improving the brand’s quality, service, cleanliness, and value (QSCV).

Skinner realized that the company had to evolve to meet the changing consumer preferences and introduced several initiatives to address the challenges.

• Menu Innovation: McDonald’s introduced healthier menu items like salads, fruits, and yogurt to cater to health-conscious customers. They also revamped their existing menu items by improving the quality of ingredients and removing trans fats.
• Operational Efficiency: The company implemented a system called “Made for You,” which allowed customers to customize their orders, ensuring they received freshly prepared food—this reduced waste and improved efficiency, which allowed McDonald’s to serve food faster and more accurately.
• Marketing and Branding: McDonald’s launched several marketing campaigns to change its image from a fast-food chain that only served burgers and fries to a brand that provided various healthy options. They also started using digital media platforms to connect with their customers.

Results:  The “Plan to Win” strategy successfully turned around the fortunes of McDonald’s. The company’s sales increased, and it regained market share from its competitors. In 2007, McDonald’s reported its highest-ever quarterly profits, and its stock price increased by over 50%.

McDonald’s has continued to innovate and adapt to changing consumer preferences, and today they are one of the largest fast-food chains globally, with over 38,000 locations in more than 100 countries.

Conclusion:  McDonald’s turnaround strategy was successful because it focused on improving the quality, service, cleanliness, and value of the brand. By innovating its menu, improving operational efficiency, and investing in marketing and branding, McDonald’s was able to attract more customers and regain market share from its competitors.

The “Plan to Win” strategy is an excellent example of how a turnaround strategy can help companies facing challenges to reinvent themselves and stay relevant in a rapidly changing market.

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• Quarterly, Issue 3

Case studies: Three successful turnarounds

quarterly issue 3

Author: ICAEW Insights

Published: 13 Sep 2020

VineyardsDirect.com

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Joe McGrath on how online drinks retailer Vineyards.com, automotive giant Ford and coffee chain Starbucks turned business around after COVID-19 hit

With the enforced closure of pubs and restaurants as a result of COVID-19, orders into online drinks retailers soared. Alcohol sales for home consumption for the 17 weeks to 11 July 2020 were up £1.9bn compared with the previous year, according to US data company Nielsen.

One of the companies well-placed to benefit was FromVineyardsDirect.com, a wine distributor which had found itself in administration just 18 months earlier.

ICAEW members Lee De’ath and Richard Toone of CVR Global – Partner and Managing Partner respectively – oversaw a pre-pack sale of the company in September 2019 after the business had got into financial difficulty.

De’ath explains that the company, which specialises in selling hand-selected wines to the retail and wine merchant markets, had previously seen severely restricted cash flow.

“The company had fluctuating profitability from inception, which impacted working capital, ultimately resulting in the decision to seek the protection of an administration.”

However, by entering a formal administration process, it allowed the business to be sold to a new parent in The Wine Company Limited. The new owners have continued to operate the website and have invested heavily in growing the brand through a marketing programme which has set the business up for the busy period.

Tony Harrison, director of Harrisons, says the key to successfully saving a business through a formal insolvency process is to approach a licensed practitioner at the earliest opportunity, in order to weigh up all the options, including avoiding a formal insolvency.

“Get hold of an insolvency practitioner as soon as you can,” he says. “The reason for that is cash flow. When a business gets into difficulty, it enters a period of stress because the cash flow has gone. If you take advice at an earlier stage, you may be able to avoid a formal insolvency altogether.”

It’s really important to work out if you are legally allowed to continue to trade, says transformation consultant Hannah Keartland, and business owners may need to get third-party advice on this. “When making tough decisions it’s important to be clear on the overarching vision for the organisation — why does it exist, what is its purpose?

“Being really clear on that helps with making difficult judgement calls where there’s no clear answer. It may be that the route to delivering that purpose is not through continuing the activities or operations as before COVID-19 — eg a transformation, takeover, merger or asset sale may be the best route forward.”

Alcohol sales for home consumption were up £1.9bn for the 17 weeks to 11 July 2020 compared with the previous year.

The need for a change in corporate direction doesn’t always come with an immediate deadline. For Ford, one of the world’s largest car makers, it has invoked a transformation programme to strengthen long-term viability in an increasingly competitive market with changing customer priorities.

Unveiled in 2017, the company’s Creating Tomorrow, Together strategy is designed to reinvent the business as a leaner, efficient and futureproof organisation. Specifically, it has committed to scaling up its activities in electric vehicles and self-driving cars and to increase its focus on sustainable transport networks.

“We are moving with a renewed sense of urgency to improve the fitness of the business and improve our launches, while at the same time modernising Ford in a way that plays to our strengths,” CEO Jim Hackett explained in a company statement in April 2020.

The strategy includes a commitment to incorporate the UN’s sustainable development goals into the organisation’s thinking, particularly those on promoting well-being, innovation in industry, taking action on climate change and supporting the transition to sustainable cities and communities. Its commitment to the latter includes plans to help customers work in cities in a sustainable way, through the use of smaller mobility vehicles and measured reporting of its progress.

This focus on sustainability is certainly not unique to Ford. In fact, it has instigated transformations across multiple sectors in recent years as management teams recognise that customers and investors are demanding companies consider how environmental, social and governance issues will affect corporate viability in the long term. 

“There is a growing body of evidence that organisations which have strong purpose, and look at more than just financial outcomes, are more successful in the long run,” says transformation consultant Hannah Keartland.

This trend was justified still further last year when the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance published a paper that showed that companies that are working to improve their scores on environmental, social and governance metrics outperform companies that are not.

Accountants and chartered practitioners who are keen to improve their skills in sustainable business transformation may want to visit The Finance Innovation Lab , which was originally set up as a joint venture between the World Wildlife Fund and the ICAEW. In 2015, it became fully independent but continues to offer a range of resources for those who are seeking more information about creating sustainable business models.

Ford is currently planning to increase its focus on electric and self-driving cars and sustainable transport networks.

The coronavirus pandemic has been unkind to many businesses with a large high-street presence, and coffee retailers are no different. But despite a significant drop in sales, Starbucks can take some comfort in the fact that its most recent major transformation started during the last global financial crisis, when the previous CEO Howard Shultz closed hundreds of stores, laid off hundreds of middle managers and employees and embarked on a major acquisition trail of smaller drinks businesses.

When Shultz began the 2008 transformation, he started by slashing more than $500m in costs throughout the business. He used some of this money to reinvest into the workforce through training and enhanced employee benefits.

Key to the changes was encouraging a new corporate culture which, he said at the time, would be felt by customers in stores. The company’s leadership was told to focus more on developing its diversity and inclusion programme and encourage transparent engagement, communication and collaboration.

In July 2020, the Thinking Ahead Institute published a study looking at the importance of corporate culture in successful businesses. It concluded that, to be successful, transformational leadership involves “writing wide-scale change and motivating the organisation to do more than happens incrementally”.

Marisa Hall, Co-Head of the Thinking Ahead Institute, distils the best corporate cultures into three categories. According to Hall: “The goals of organisations should focus on sympathetically combining three things: building a diverse array of people that make up the organisation, recognising identity, and treating people with decency.”

In the Thinking Ahead Institute report, it concludes that achieving a change in culture, however, means challenging prior assumptions and beliefs, which requires innovative thinking. So, while the benefits of a strong and collaborative corporate culture are many, achieving a change can be tough for leadership teams to achieve.

“It has to come right from the top,” says transformation consultant Hannah Keartland. “It has to be something they believe deep in their bones. They may have to go through personal change and that’s hard.

“It involves being humble and recognising the leader they were before is not necessarily who they need to be now. It means working differently and it needs to feel like they’re working differently.”

Starbucks is building its corporate culture around transparent engagement, communication and collaboration.

These case studies are accompanied by this feature on successful business transformation and strategy amid COVID-19.

• Adapting to COVID-19: the Jacobs story
• Cyprus’ financial response to COVID-19
• COVID-19 is changing the way global supply chains work
• The UK’s financial response to COVID-19
• Adapting to COVID-19: the Tesco story

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Turnaround Strategy: A Guide To Efficient Execution

When business throws you curveballs, your response time is the difference between a swing and a miss or a home run. The subtle art? Noticing the delicate wobble of change before the pitch even reaches you. 

In the intense world of business, those who anticipate and strategically recalibrate don't just stay in the game—they set the rules. Whether you're feeling the squeeze or just a gentle pinch, now's the time to rewrite your playbook.

In this article, we’ll show you how to execute an effective turnaround strategy and give examples of how other businesses have successfully executed theirs.

What Is A Business Turnaround Strategy?

A business turnaround strategy is a set of actions and initiatives to steer a company out of financial distress or prolonged challenges, leading it back to profitability and resilience. Some common challenges include: 

• Persistent decrease in sales
• Mounting losses
• Cash flow problems
• Poor management

Turnaround strategies have specific short-term strategic objectives that aim to increase revenue, cut expenses, and restore the business’ former viability after identifying the cause of the issues. 

💡A turnaround strategy is different from a change management strategy. Turnaround strategies are reactive and have a sense of urgency involved. Change management strategy , on the other hand, is a proactive approach that can be applied to situations like growth initiatives and process improvements.

When Is The Right Time For A Turnaround Strategy? 

The right time for intervention varies based on each business's unique situation. However, you'll have better chances of success with early intervention. Here are indicators that your business needs to pursue a turnaround strategy:

• A consistent decline in financial performance over an extended period, evidenced by decreasing revenue, profitability, and cash flow.
• Growing losses that impact financial stability and hinder the ability to meet financial obligations, such as paying bills, meeting payroll, and investing in necessary capital expenditures.
• Increasing liabilities that become unsustainable, especially when servicing the debt becomes a significant burden.
• Significant market disruptions that cause the existing business model to become less competitive or obsolete, leading existing products to lose market share. 
• An underperforming management team that finds it challenging to make effective decisions or adjust to rapidly changing situations.
• Operational inefficiencies from outdated processes, excessive costs, and declining competitiveness. 
• External factors like recessions, economic downturns, regulatory changes, and natural disasters.

Types Of A Turnaround Recovery Strategy

There are several types of turnaround strategies based on the approach and focus:

• Operational cost efficiency: This strategy focuses on improving internal processes, efficiency, and cost reduction. It often involves restructuring operations, optimizing supply chains , and eliminating waste.
• Financial restructuring: This concentrates on improving the company’s financial health, with tactics like debt restructuring, cost-cutting, refinancing, and managing cash flow.
• Strategic turnaround management: This entails re-evaluating and adjusting the company’s overarching business strategy . Actions include entering new markets, discontinuing unprofitable products or services, and diversifying product lines.
• Market repositioning: This strategy concentrates on revitalizing the company’s marketing and sales tactics. It involves rebranding, pricing strategies, and sales force improvements.
• Asset retrenchment strategy: This strategy emphasizes optimizing existing assets, such as real estate, equipment, and intellectual property. Actions include selling or leasing underutilized assets to boost cash flow and improve liquidity.
• Senior management reorganization: This addresses leadership and management deficiencies and involves changes in top management, leadership training, and organizational reforms. 
• Product and service innovation: This focuses on developing new products or services that improve existing ones. ‍
• Crisis management : This strategy is executed during an acute crisis, such as a safety scandal, product recall, or PR disaster. It emphasizes reputation management, crisis communication, and taking corrective actions.

5 Steps Of A Turnaround Strategy

While there may be different types of turnaround strategies, each follows the same basic steps below.

1. Analyze the data to pinpoint the problem

Take a deep dive into your core business metrics , from revenue and profit margins to customer satisfaction scores. 

Don't go at it alone, however. Engage with key stakeholders, including employees, investors, and customers to gain valuable insights and create a shared understanding of the challenge ahead. 

To collect and analyze data in minutes instead of weeks, use Cascade's Metrics Library to centralize all your key business metrics. This will give you better visibility into your business’s overall health and quickly identify areas of concern.

📽Watch this short and informative video giving you a walkthrough of the Metrics Library. 

2. Apply decision-making models to identify the next steps

In times of crisis, you can't afford to suffer from decision paralysis. Delays can result in missed opportunities and deepen financial losses. Indecision also leads to inefficient resource use, with capital trapped in unviable projects.

Use decision-making models and tools to quickly assess your situation and determine the next steps. Tools like a decision matrix , cost-benefit analysis, and SWOT analysis can help you prioritize and choose the most critical focus areas. 

💡Speed is essential during a turnaround. Crises can evolve rapidly and what might have been an effective decision now, may not be the right move tomorrow.  

3. Build a turnaround plan

With a clear understanding of the problem and the critical actions needed, it's time to craft a detailed turnaround plan.  A detailed plan should work like a roadmap, providing a clear direction to get from point A to point B.

An effective plan should include:

• Strategic objectives 
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) 
• Specific actions, initiatives , or projects 
• Assigned owners
• Timeline with key milestones 
• Dependencies, blockers, and risks

💡Use Cascade to translate complex strategies into simple, structured, and actionable plans so you can quickly move into the execution phase and track progress while including all the key elements above.

4. Align and execute your plan

Your turnaround plan is only as effective as your organization’s ability to execute it. Communicate the plan to all key stakeholders and prioritize organizational alignment . 

Ensure that everyone understands key strategic objectives and uses them to guide their daily decision-making. In doing so, your key stakeholders can start moving in sync toward achieving a common goal. This will help you achieve your turnaround plan in the fastest time possible. 

To achieve organizational alignment, you also need regular strategy review sessions, but more on that later.  

Use tools like Cascade's Alignment Map to visualize how different parts of the organization work together to achieve corporate objectives. You can also break down a company-wide goal into operational and functional plans that are easier for team members to follow.

5. Monitor and adapt your strategy 

Keep a close eye on key metrics , focusing on leading indicators that provide insights into future performance. Leading indicators will also help you measure what matters. Some examples of lead indicators include: 

• Customer satisfaction 
• Pipeline growth
• Employee engagement 
• % of strategic projects prioritized 
• Supplier risk

Continuous strategy assessments will help you identify potential risks and vulnerabilities early on so you can take corrective actions before they become major threats to your business. Here are examples of things to cover in strategy review meetings depending on the cadence you set:

Plus, strong and ongoing strategic control will ensure accountability to maintain the execution momentum on the ground. 

Use Cascade's dashboards and reports to simplify monitoring, providing real-time insights into your company's performance.

You get an accurate picture of your business’s strategic performance so you can make quick impactful decisions. You can also easily share this information with key stakeholders in a format that is straightforward and provides context for each data point in your report or dashboard.

Case Studies Of Successful Business Turnarounds 

No business is exempt from drastic changes, not even huge companies. The following businesses recognized a turnaround situation when it happened and took the risk to pursue new strategies.

Chocolate was a luxury item for the wealthy before Hershey made it affordable for the ordinary household. This increased competition as other brands cashed in on the opportunity with their delicious treats. 

Hershey’s initial strategy to keep costs low was to focus on a few product lines and increase production capacity. However, the increased competition forced them to introduce new products and acquire new brands. 

They also pursued diversification strategies, such as acquiring the right to produce other consumer favorites like Cadbury and KitKat, which eventually kept them on the top. 

👉Get inspired by the Hershey Strategy Plan Template to put together your successful turnaround strategy.

In 2006, Ford was in danger of bankruptcy. The company experienced massive layoffs, billions of losses, and a lack of additional financing. 

Bill Ford, the current CEO, recognized that the company needed a new leader and appointed Alan Mulally, a person with little automotive industry knowledge. Despite the shocking move, it proved lifesaving as the company adopted new strategic management practices that eventually turned their financial standing. 

Alan Mulally created a culture of transparency that encouraged team members to seek support when they needed it. He replaced Ford’s pointless meetings with BPRs (Business Process Reviews) that helped leaders quickly identify areas that needed urgent attention using a streamlined prioritization method.

👉 Get inspired by the Ford Strategy Plan Template to put together your successful turnaround strategy.

By 2011, PC global sales had peaked and started a steady decline. Dell was severely impacted and even regarded as a dying company. As smartphones and tablets took center stage, Dell’s annual sales saw double-digit declines, and attempts to bounce back were embarrassingly unsuccessful. Dell’s Streak “phablet” and Venue smartphone were both failures. 

Michael Dell took the company private despite huge pushback from investors. This complex corporate strategy proved successful because Dell could take calculated risks and expand its services to include software solutions that more than doubled its enterprise value.

Before privatization, Dell had made key acquisitions in enterprise software and hardware solutions such as cloud storage and management. When the deal was completed, Dell went full force and offered not just its low-budget PCs but a whole portfolio of solutions, including data storage, systems management, cloud, cybersecurity, and cutting-edge software. 

Dell reinforced its existing salesforce and positioned itself as a trusted advisor for all things tech. In just eight years after privatization, Dell’s equity increased by 625% and enterprise value topped $100 billion. 

👉 Get inspired by the Dell Strategy Plan Template to put together your successful turnaround strategy. 

Execute Your Turnaround Strategy With Cascade 🚀

Challenges are inevitable in the business world, but with a well-executed turnaround strategy, you can transform adversity into an opportunity for growth and success. 

A strategy rooted in data and fast execution can make all the difference in your business rebound. 

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The Dell Deal Explained: What a Successful Turnaround Looks Like

• Walter Frick

A case study of IBM in the 1990s points to what Dell must do to succeed.

You’re CEO of a once great company, now beleaguered on all sides by competitors and a rapidly changing industry. How do you get back on top?

• Walter Frick is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review , where he was formerly a senior editor and deputy editor of HBR.org. He is the founder of Nonrival , a newsletter where readers make crowdsourced predictions about economics and business. He has been an executive editor at Quartz as well as a Knight Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism and an Assembly Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. He has also written for The Atlantic , MIT Technology Review , The Boston Globe , and the BBC, among other publications.

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Critical Success Strategies on Business Turnaround: A Case Study in a Telco Company

This study examined the critical success strategies on a business turnaround in a telecommunication company. It relied on the strategies proposed by Schoenberg, Collier, and Bowman (2013) that consisted of six strategies, namely cost efficiencies, asset retrenchment, a focus on the company&#39;s core activities, building for the future, reinvigoration of the company&#39;s leadership, and culture change. This study used the qualitative case study approach where interviews were undertaken with the officers in the company. It shows that the company adopted all six strategies in their business turnaround process, which led the company to subsequently become the largest network provider in one of the states in Malaysia. Consequently, the financial performance of the company has improved tremendously. The findings in this study serve as a benchmark to other telecommunication companies facing financial difficulties in improving their performance. In addition, this study contributes to the ...

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• Business Restructuring

Three simple and effective steps to business turnaround

The corporate life cycle concept is well understood with a curve that exists as a business approaches the peak of its maturity before embarking through a series of phases on its natural decline. However, not all businesses follow such a trajectory or steadily decline. Rather than accept the corporate life cycle as unavoidable, proactive management teams regularly rethink their business strategy and apply turnaround disciplines to transform operations and performance.

What are the key triggers for turnaround?

Every situation is different and dependent upon a number of factors. These may include:

• A period of loss making performance, or sustained profit/margin deterioration
• An unexpected shock to the business, such as the loss of a major customer/supplier or technological advancements resulting in product obsolescence
• Insufficient cash resources resulting in increasing pressure from creditors and the threat of legal action
• Overtrading, when revenue grows at a faster rate than a business is able to finance.
• Stakeholder issues, such as covenant breaches and being transferred to the high risk team for relationship management within a lender
• A change in the macro economic environment including changes to legislation

The key consideration at the outset of each turnaround will be time – i.e. how much time is available to resolve the underlying business issues or is the runway to achieving a turnaround too short to mitigate a worst-case event?

The steps to business turnaround

Assess the situation.

An initial rapid assessment of the current status of a business is therefore crucial in considering the time that is available and the key factors that would enable a turnaround strategy to be developed and implemented. This will include preparing robust cash and trading projections and giving consideration as to the suitability of the current funding structure.

Develop a turnaround plan

Once cash is stabilised, the next stage is to develop an effective turnaround plan that provides solutions to the issues being faced by the business and supports improvements to operational performance and financial stability. Successful implementation of this plan should then provide a step towards achieving the ultimate goal of value preservation or enhancement, within a new phase of business growth.

Implement the turnaround

Although the turnaround process is conceptually straightforward, management teams can often find the practical implementation difficult, thus making it less likely to succeed. This may be due to competing priorities with the need to continue running the business day to day, a lack of experience in turnaround situations or a shortage of certain skills and capabilities.

We have initially produced a guide for the manufacturing sector that provides a practical hands on solution to management teams with four case study examples.

DOWNLOAD OUR MANUFACTURING GUIDE

Supporting businesses in their search for a new phase of growth

Our turnaround services team is experienced in helping stressed businesses overcome the challenges they are facing, partnering with our clients to assess, develop and implement turnaround plans that deliver improved business operations and financial performance.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the turnaround service in more detail and how it will affect the type of service or product you provide please contact Richard Austin , Chris Marsden  or Stephen Cooney who will be happy to help.

The Three Steps of Successful Turnarounds

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It was November 2010 when Sankar Krishnan, managing director at the global professional services firm Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) and Nikhil Shah a senior director of the firm were called in to investigate claims of irregular activities allegedly involving the senior management of a textile manufacturer in India. As we detail in this INSEAD case study , the seriousness and potential impact of the allegations from a former employee meant they had to tread very carefully. They decided on a covert operation, since it was unclear who was trustworthy at the company and given that a direct approach might have led to evidence being destroyed that could be crucial to the investigation.

After a corporate investigations firm did an initial check and found some substance to the allegations, Shah and Krishnan decided that they first had to mount a swift takeover of the top management to get a handle on the business and the allegations. Krishnan assembled an interim management team and a forensic team to conduct investigations.

After meticulously planning every step of the takeover, the company’s CEO and CFO were invited to what they thought was a regular board meeting. They were immediately suspended, along with three other senior managers implicated in the accusations.

An interim Alvarez & Marsal management team was sent to the company’s headquarters, where they realised the full extent of the task ahead: plant equipment was obsolete; costs of raw materials were soaring; the brand was tired; long overdue payments were coming in at irregular intervals; there was no systematic or scientific inventory management. The challenge was multifaceted and daunting.

Over the years, Krishnan and Shah have implemented successful turnaround strategies in many struggling companies around the world. This particular case was no exception – in fact they assured me it was far from being their most challenging they had seen in their professional careers. In an interview on the case study of this turnaround, I asked them how they start when they first enter a turnaround situation and how they get a company back on its feet.

Getting to Grips with the Situation

“Cash is king”, Krishnan explained. “The first thing you want to do is get to grips with the liquidity of the business. This entails finding out exactly where cash is coming from, how much is coming in, how much is going out, and figuring out how to maximise incoming cash flows. This is crucial, since it ensures that there is enough cash to keep the business going, and buys management time to think ahead and gives them space to maneuver.”

The second step according to Shah is to determine where operational improvements can immediately be made. “We usually try and identify which aspects of the production process can be improved, and where productivity gains can be made. Where possible we also try to identify where wastage can be reduced, and search for better suppliers.”

Finally, the third step entails implementing the short-term turnaround plan. Shah and Krishnan typically spend the first 30-60 days designing a plan around what the business drivers should be going forward, taking into account the stakeholder issues, customer issues and potentially new methods to introduce to improve processes.

However each case is unique, and while these methods are broadly applicable to most cases, there are other company- or country-specific factors that must be taken into account.

Dealing with Stakeholders

Local culture (whether company culture or national culture) is one such factor. In the US, the top-down approach and fast decision-making style sits well with managers and employees; plus the court system is strict and bankruptcy procedures are orderly. “You are then working with secured lenders who really have control of the company” said Krishnan.

But in markets such as India, “upward of 70 percent of the businesses are owned by the founder so you have to have a very consensual agreement with the promoter…we may have the title of “chief restructuring officer” but if we can’t work wih or through the CEO or the chairman, nothing will get done”.”

Employees, suppliers, creditors and customers add to the complexity of executing a turnaround. “It’s very, very important to over-communicate in these situations. You have various stakeholders who can all put a stop to what you’re doing if they want to. Over time, once you build up the confidence and credibility with them, everyone starts moving in the right direction. But in the beginning communication is critical,” said Shah.

Communication is one of the key skills companies like A&M look for in the people they hire. Shah and Krishnan also share that analytical capability, objectivity and the ability to build consensus are essential skills to make a career in the turnaround industry. The ability to carry people and sell the plan can be adapted to most situations despite the varying degrees of distress A&M consultants find themselves involved in.

Warnings signs - The Writing on the Wall for Companies

In their experience, Shah and Krishnan point to a few key warning signs that a business is heading for distress. First, when an organisation expands into areas that distract it from its core business, capital and resources can be allocated to the wrong places and cause its cash flow to dry up. Krishnan cites the story of two brothers who ran an ink-manufacturing company. They decided to go into the aircraft leasing business and ended up losing €120 million. Secondly, expanding into unknown geographies without enough preparation or understanding of local conditions, which can often cause debt to build up and cash generation to suffer. Thirdly, assuming that things don’t need to change as long as the company is generating revenue. There are always things that can improve, from cash flow to operational efficiency. Companies that have become complacent are often those that end up in turnaround situations.

Conduct an assessment of the current and future business situation from a cash flow perspective, to gain a clear idea of the performance improvements needed and (most important) the time available to achieve those results. Conduct a forward looking 13-week cash flow projection (at times done daily in critical situations). This is a critical first step in this process and at times an invaluable tool for the company to stay afloat throughout the Turnaround.   : Clarity of the tools available to improve operational & financial results fast is crucial and the Turnaround team will draw especially on short-term levers. How to make the best use of our “Turnaround Toolbox” is the main focus of the class   : Decides quickly and decisively, being better roughly right – than exactly wrong since time is of the essence. The team ensures effective communication (internal & external) and manages the relationship with key stakeholders (customers; creditors; suppliers etc …) Our course - Managing Corporate Turnarounds – is one of the capstone electives in the INSEAD MBA programme. Taught in the final period of the MBA, it gives our students an opportunity to apply their learning from the last year and combine their expertise to “rescue” companies, engage with Turnaround CEOs & professionals like Sankar & Nikhil from A&M and finally to get their hands dirty in our Turnaround simulation; this is a weekend-long bootcamp where student teams attempt to rescue SAAB, the venerable car-brand that went through bankruptcy in 2010. It goes without saying that the course became quickly one of the most popular courses in the INSEAD MBA programme, when we launched it 6 years ago. My premise at the start is simple: When the times are good, (almost) anyone can lead a firm, but when the storm hits and a company starts down the slippery slope into distress, the rules change completely: Management’s focus changes to cash, cash and cash, simply the most important consideration for a company in trouble. Recovery and survival become the strategic priorities, which means not only juggling the demands and perceptions of clients, employees and pushing creditors and suppliers but also communicating progress and at times painful decisions in a clear and timely manner is critical. Of course the pressure of time in addition to regular business demands makes all these actions that much harder and puts a tremendous strain on management. The case study, "Crisis at the Mill: Weaving an Indian Turnaround - Alvarez & Marsal"  won the Indian Management Issues and Opportunities category at the 2015 EFMD Case Writing Competition .  About the author(s) Claudia zeisberger. is a Senior Affiliate Professor of Entrepreneurship & Family Enterprise at INSEAD, and the Founder of the school’s private equity & venture capital centre GPEI . About the research This post is based on the case study "Crisis at the Mill: Weaving an Indian Turnaround - Alvarez & Marsal" . Share this post View comments, no comments yet., leave a comment, please log in or sign up to comment., related reads. Private Equity vs. The Strategic Acquirer What Could Have Saved Nokia, and What Can Other Companies Learn? Economics & Finance From Stressed to Success: A Middle East Bank’s Turnaround Our website has a lot of features which will not display correctly without Javascript. Please enable Javascript in your browser Here how you can do it: http://enable-javascript.com Turnaround of Cash Position Improved Manufacturer’s Performance How Platinum Group created a path to success by raising capital and navigating debt Overcoming Operational Challenges in a Manufacturer’s Turnaround How Platinum improved operations to support return to profitability Turnaround: From $1 Million Loss to $1 Million Profit in Six Months How Platinum restored a culture of craftsmanship Part 1: Mapping Out a New Venture How Platinum preserved a legacy and created new opportunities out of an outdated family business Mentoring a Family-Owned Business Back to Health How Platinum guided improvements in lender relationships and business operations to get a company back on track Potential Bankruptcy Averted During Cash and Credit Crisis How Platinum led a manufacturer’s quick return to profitability Successful Turnaround: From Foreclosure and Bankruptcy to Restructured Financing and New Lender How Platinum Helped a Nonprofit Board through a Revenue and Litigation Crisis Too Much, Too Fast: Intervention Turned Rapid-Growth Losses Into New-Growth Gains How Platinum helped a manufacturer strengthen operations and recapitalize Suffering Sales Cause Bank and Real Estate Woes for Manufacturer How Platinum led quick restructuring and refinancing efforts Crisis Management Team Breathes New Life into Company Slated for Closure How Platinum’s immediate action is eliminating a significant loss to the owner Harvard Business School → Faculty & Research → March 2000 (Revised November 2000) HBS Case Collection IBM Corporation Turnaround Format: Print | Language: English | Pages: 19 About The Author Richard L. Nolan Related work. Faculty Research IBM Corporation Turnaround (TN) IBM Corporation Turnaround (TN)  By: Paul W. Marshall and Jim Sharpe MBA Knowledge Base Business • Management • Technology Home » Management Case Studies » Case Study: IBM’s Turnaround Under Lou Gerstner Case Study: IBM’s Turnaround Under Lou Gerstner “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance” describes how Louis Gerstner lead the organizational turnaround at IBM when it was at the verge of extinction. Louis Gerstner was the chairman and CEO of IBM from April 1993 to March 2002. Before joining IBM, he had worked on various consulting assignments at McKinsey and led successful organizational changes at American Express and RJR Nabisco. During the early nineties, IBM was rapidly losing its market share in most of the markets it catered to its competitors. The management was planning to break the organization into individual businesses. Soon after his appointment as CEO, Gerstner identified that the unique competitive advantage of IBM was due to its scale and broad-based capabilities, and therefore advocated that “keeping the company together” will help IBM to utilize this unique advantage by positioning itself as software integrator. Gerstner was instrumental in shifting the mental model of employees from self-centric to customer-centric. He found that most important aspect of organizational change at IBM was its culture — “I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game–it is the game”. Gerstner handled the severe financial crisis of IBM and kept IBM financial health solvent. In the early ’90s financial position of IBM was precarious. Gerstner repositioned corporate strategy of IBM to keep IBM together and pulled off a successful turnaround for IBM. Gerstner delivered results for IBM. Many insiders and Industry experts criticized IBM for selecting a CEO with non-technology background. On analyzing performance of IBM during Gerstner’s reign, Gerstner was definitely the right choice for the job. Gerstner’s transformation of IBM was one of the most successful corporate turnarounds story of the century. Turnaround Strategy Gerstner believed that the key to fixing IBM’s problem was “All about execution”. Gerstner decided to analyze the behavior of company’s employees and customers and apply his own interpretation of the company’s inherent strength. In doing so he turned the business of IBM around from the brink of bankruptcy . At the end of Gerstner’s reign as the Chairman and CEO, the company employed 65,000 more people and the US$13 billion in losses notched up in the two years prior to his arrival turned into huge profits. Gerstner realized that IBM had a unique and expert capability to “genuine problem solving, the ability to apply complex technologies to solve business challenges and integration.” These sustainable value proposition enabled Lou Gerstner to bring IBM back from the verge of near extinction. Gerstner realized that IBM needed not only a corporate makeover. Gerstner provided a complete facelift to IBM. Gerstner realized that a difficult, painful and massive re-engineering effort was required to get IBM to dedicate resources in bringing value to the customer in the competitive marketplace. Gerstner developed the theme of the “new” IBM. Many Senior executive referred to Re-engineering process in a humorous way. One of Senior Executive quotes “Reengineering is like starting a fire on your head and putting it out with a hammer.” IBM needed a top-to-bottom overhaul of its basic business operations, which Gerstner implemented. Gerstner appointed as Chairman and CEO of IBM set out a vision for IBM which led to the major cultural changes and subsequent financial turnaround of the organization. In July 1993, Gerstner identified (and later implemented) four major strategies for the recovery of IBM; Keep the company together – This strategy was implemented in order to help IBM to utilize its competitive advantage (resulting from its scale) and offer integration services to clients. Change the fundamental economic model – This strategy started by comparing expense-to-revenue of IBM with its competitors. Due to higher expenses at IBM as compared to competitors, a massive program for expense reduction was launched. Re-engineer how business was done – Gerstner saw that the IBM processes were cumbersome, highly expensive as well as redundant. He introduced a re-engineering initiative which drastically reduced the overhead expenses of IBM. Sell under-productive assets in order to raise cash – Under this strategic objective, IBM sold off unproductive assets to raise cash. The marketplace is the driving force behind everything we do At our core, we are a technology company with an overriding commitment to quality Our primary measures of success are customer satisfaction and shareholder value We operate as an entrepreneurial organization with a minimum of bureaucracy and a never ending focus on productivity We never lose sight of our strategic vision We think and act with a sense of urgency Outstanding, dedicated people make it all happen, particularly when they work together as a team We are sensitive to the needs of all employees and to the community in which we operate. Later, he formulated a strategic vision for IBM around “Services-Led Model”. His vision was to position IBM as technology integrator in this industry. He also made a bet towards “network-centric computing” which later gave rise to “e-business” – the convergence of internet and business. Later, he implemented a strategy to further strengthen the IBM’s software business by acquiring middleware firms as well as product firms such as Lotus. In order to keep a strong focus on the existing IBM portfolio, he divested the application software business which opened partnership doors with application software leaders such as Seibel. This also helped IBM to cut its losses in application software business, free up its resources and spend more time in focusing what customers want. Another important aspect of IBM’s strategy was its marketing strategy . Earlier, IBM used to have multiple advertising agencies hired by various product managers. Gerstner hired Abby to analyze the marketing strategy of IBM and she suggested a need to consolidate all of the IBM’s advertising relationships into a single agency. This approach not only saved the unnecessary huge advertising expenses resulting in confusing message for customers but it also gave rise to innovate advertising (“Solutions for a Small Planet”) which helped IBM transform its brand image to a global centralized firm with the ability to become world class integrator. Another campaign coined the term “e-business” which helped IBM to establish itself as a leader of the most important trend in the industry. Gerstner had a sheer knowledge and attention of customers’ notions of success. Gerstner’s single-minded focus was how IBM should respond to marketplace needs. Gerstner’s market-driven approach of doing business really helped to develop the “new” IBM culture. Gerstner helped IBM to turnaround as a dominating technology landscape player at the start of the current century, just as IBM was in most of the last century. Gerstner set new goals, newer direction and newer priorities for IBM by starting IBM Global Services. IBM shifted its focus towards selling optimized solutions rather than just products alone. The new thrust in IBM was for the on-demand solutions. Gerstner helped IBM concentrate on the higher end of customer solutions consulting rather than the lower end outsourcing business. Lou Gerstner initiated the on-demand concept (or solution offering). Gerstner focused on the idea that customers always wanted bundled solutions of services, software and hardware customized to the requirements of company and industries rather than a sheer catalog of standard products. Gerstner basis for building IBM Global services was that an integrator, acting in a service role, and this integrator controls every other major industry. Gerstner led IBM’s transformation from geographical organization to a global, customer-oriented organization. Lou Gerstner created a Global Enterprise based on capitalizing IBM’s ability to “integrate all the parts” for the customers. Another of the Gerstner insight was that every big industry is built around open standards. This realization by Gerstner led IBM software products to enable and to build upon open standards in a network-centric world. Gerstner led IBM to abandon proprietary development and to embrace open software standards (J2EE and Web Services). Lou Gerstner argues that the most valuable technology and service companies are those OEM suppliers who leverage their technology wherever they find a huge opportunity; therefore, he remodeled IBM so that it can actively license its technology to be successful in the market place. Gerstner remodeled the IBM structure so that IBM could cater to e-business requirement of its customers ( IBM IT On Demand, grid computing and autonomic initiatives). When Gerstner took up the assignment of Chairman and CEO of IBM, he found that IBM had an unclear culture. Employees were confused whether it was their teamwork or their individual aspirations that will help them get top management’s appreciation. Employees were apprehensive and not familiar about issues such as consensus building, corporate protocol and risk taking. Another important feature that figured on the employee list of IBM was the dress code at work. In one of his first meetings at IBM, Gerstner saw that all participant employees were wearing stark white-collared shirts except him. Lou Gerstner introduced flexibility in dress at the work, giving employees the freedom to choice to wear what made them most comfortable provided they adhered to decency. Gerstner viewed the dress code at work as a severe cultural problem that the IBM employee faced. IBM was obsessed with conflicts and internal rules, each employee trying to be overpower the other. Lou Gerstner observed that there was a great amount of jealousy among employees, each employee fiercely protecting his own privileges. There was unhealthy competition among teams which led to lost productivity. The teams spent more time debating on the transfer-pricing terms rather than incorporating a smooth product transfer system for its employees. Gerstner addressed to resolve these problems by fostering more collaboration among teams and employees. Gerstner changed the “we are the best” attitude which the employees reflected despite IBM’s faltering health. The reason behind this was IBM’s software was compatible only with IBM hardware. Customers were compelled to buy IBM’s products. With increased competition in the marketplace, there were better bargains that customers were getting without having to rely on IBM. Gerstner established the process of setting standards that enabled IBM’s solutions to be compatible with competitor’s products. This helped business opportunities to increase. Gerstner opened channels of communication and send regular e-mails to employees across the globe keeping them aware of the process changes. Gerstner’s quotes, “fixing IBM was all about execution” and “ IBM needed – an enormous sense of urgency.” Gerstner’s approach which is quoted as “Drive all we did from the customer back and turn IBM into a market-driven rather than an internally focused, process-driven enterprise.” IBM turnaround was all about execution and after that it was optimal ways to measure its effectiveness . Before Gerstner joined, IBM had a tendency to use data and indices (subjective product milestones and customer satisfaction numbers), but Gerstner changed all these processes of measurements. Information & Decision Support The compensation system at IBM was revamped. The focus of compensation shifted to a total corporate performance from a unit performance. The criteria’s for promotions were vastly reformulated. Gerstner changed the attitude of those in senior management at IBM who were more used to getting work done rather than getting to work. The pay structure was made performance based and variable component was introduced in the pay structure. Stock-based compensation was also provided and the bonus was linked to overall IBM’s performance Lou Gerstner was a pragmatic leader who took action based on good quality information and who showed great respect for the collective knowledge that existed in an organization on the brink of collapse. Lou Gerstner made the firm decision to keep IBM intact, and he changed its fundamental economic model, re-engineered how the company did business, and sold the under-productive assets. He focused on customers–and he used his ability to drive the focus into the employees by holding the leadership and management accountable. And these steps helped IBM turn around and rise above all the expectations. In his 9 years at the helm, the company had grown by around 40% with the majority of the growth coming from the services and consulting division. Also the stock price of the company during that period increased by 8 times. He had laid a vision on what should be the focus areas for the company in the future. So the services and consulting led growth had now catapulted the company back to its glorious days. Lou Grestner will always be remembered as the architect of one of the world’s most successful corporate turnaround stories. Related posts: Case Study: Nissan’s Successful Turnaround Under Carlos Ghosn Case Study: Delta Airlines Successful Business Turnaround Strategy Case Study: Qantas Crisis Case Study: FedEx Success Story Case Study: Kraft’s Takeover of Cadbury Case Study: The Business Strategy of Apple Case Study: Competitive Advantage of Boeing Case Study: Dell’s Competitive Advantage Case Study: Causes of the Recent Decline of Tesla Case Study: Pfizer’s Strategy Analysis One thought on “ Case Study: IBM’s Turnaround Under Lou Gerstner ” Leave a reply cancel reply. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Strategy & Growth Financial Management Business Turnaround Case Studies Testimonials Why Playfair? Accreditation & Partners Join the Playfair Partnerships Team Warehousing & Distribution | Business Turnaround This privately owned business was a major supplier to large supermarkets. Trading difficulties and currency issues threatened the firm's survival... National supermarket supplier – tackling major issues in business turnaround. This second-generation family firm specialised in high-volume fresh fruit ripening but had suffered reduced volumes through loss of work from its main customers. This had been precipitated by trading and cashflow problems, resulting from the poorly managed FX position and its effect on profitability. The situation was exacerbated by inadequate financial reporting, which was hindering the effective management of the business. Address the main commercial issues The boat was leaking and needed to be plugged. This was done by highlighting the FX issue, which had caused large losses, and negotiating price arrangements which allowed prices to be agreed with reference to the prevailing exchange rate and to forward buy, locking in the exchange rate for the period of the contract. Once confidence in the commercial and delivery arrangements had been re-established, our client could then set about regaining the volume which had been lost, and these two actions helped restore profitability. Establish financial management and reporting systems We overhauled the financial management and reporting systems, enabling the business to exert control over its activities and move towards a proper financial strategy. Assist with ongoing recovery programme, raising new funds and formulating strategy Once the basics had been addressed and financial stability had been achieved, we were able to negotiate additional funding to allow our client to invest in increased capacity, which allowed it to further increase throughput and profit. Following the turnaround and financial management assistance, this food-based business is now profitable, and in a commanding market position. This has allowed our client to grow substantially, with the turnover increasing from £60m to £160m, diversify into new related ventures and establish a very secure and promising future. Testimonial “The team at Playfair Partnerships tackled a variety of business and financial problems within the company with skill and professionalism, which helped overcome the business difficulties, restore profitability and cashflow and generate confidence in the business both internally and externally.” – Managing Director and Shareholder Relevent Case Studies Diversified family business – significant reorganisation and financial improvement Situation This medium-sized land owner dates its origins back more than 100 years and was Playfair Partners... Agriculture | Business Turnaround, Restructuring & Transformation Early stage construction business – buyout and financial management Situation This new start construction business had enjoyed a successful beginning and returned good profits. However, the ... Construction | Strategy & Growth, Financial Management Specialist construction business – turnaround and financial management Situation This specialist construction firm had suffered a severe decline in profits and been subject to poor financial... Construction | Business Turnaround & Financial Management International law firm - turnaround and financial management Situation This specialist international law firm had suffered a severe decline in profits and had also been subject to poor financi... Legal | Business Turnaround & Financial Management Manufacturing & installation business – long term financial management and strategic advice Situation The bank of this family manufacturing business was concerned by its lack of direction an... Manufacturing | Strategy & Growth, Financial Management Motor dealership – business review culminating in assisted exit strategy Situation This motor dealership franchise had been operating at a loss for some time. 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Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Joe Camberato is the CEO and Founder of National Business Capital , a leading FinTech marketplace offering streamlined small business loans. Have you ever wondered why some companies succeed in unimaginable ways while others fade into obscurity? The best way to understand how to scale a company is to look at how the most successful companies have done it. Let’s look at four companies that started out small and become global players in their industries. Amazon is one of the best-known companies in the world, so it’s easy to forget that founder Jeff Bezos started the company out of his garage . In 1994, Bezos financed Amazon, which began as an online bookseller, with $10,000 of his own money. Amazon experienced many losses during its early days, but its revenue quickly grew from $4.2 million to $8.5 million in 1996. The company went public in 1997, and the following year, it expanded beyond books. One of its biggest game changers came in 2005 when the company launched Amazon Prime, its subscription service. There are 180 million Prime members in the U.S. alone. DNC Day 1: Hillary Clinton, Harris Salute Biden Ahead Of President’s Speech (Live Updates) ‘the acolyte’ reportedly cancelled ahead of season 2, which is no great shock, project 2025 explained: democrats assail controversial right-wing policy map for trump at dnc. Amazon’s continued commitment to innovation has led it to be one of the world’s most successful companies. Amazon provides its customers with almost unparalleled convenience. Under Armour In 1996, Under Armour was founded with the idea of creating a T-shirt that wicks sweat away more efficiently and keeps athletes dry. The company started small , with founder Kevin Plank selling T-shirts out of the trunk of his car and to his former teammates on the University of Maryland’s football team. Under Armour made several iterations of its original prototype, and the T-shirt was a huge success. The company began growing organically. Plank wanted to increase the company’s growth, so in 1999, he decided to take out an ESPN ad for $25,000 . It was a risky move at the time, and employees agreed to go without pay for a couple of weeks so the company could afford the ad. However, the risk paid off, and Under Armour generated $1 million in sales the next year and dramatically increased its brand recognition. Under Armour’s initial funding came from Plank , but the company went public in 2005 . Under Armour began to diversify and release new products, but it never lost focus on its central mission—improving the performance and comfort of all athletes. In 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia couldn’t afford the rent for their San Francisco apartment, so they decided to rent out their loft space to earn some extra money. They didn’t want to post an ad on Craigslist , so they decided to create their own rental site. In 2009, they were accepted into Y Combinator and received $20,000 in funding . Airbnb later received another $600,000 in funding in a seed round, despite receiving a lot of early resistance. By 2014, Airbnb had more than 550,000 properties listed worldwide and 10 million guests. One of its keys to success is its focus on the user experience. By allowing people to rent out their homes, the company gives the average person a way to earn an additional stream of income. In 1997, Netflix was started as a DVD rental service to help customers avoid getting hit with late fees. Customers selected the movies and TV shows they wanted online and could then have them delivered to their homes. In 1999 , founder Reed Hastings introduced a subscription-based model. Once customers were locked into a monthly subscription, they were more likely to rent more movies. In 2000, Netflix released its Unlimited Movie Rental program, which allowed customers to rent an unlimited number of movies each month for a monthly subscription of $19.95. In 2007, Netflix launched its online streaming service, and that was the first year the company surpassed $1 billion in revenue. The company later began entering into content licensing deals with television studios and, in 2011, started producing its own original programming. Netflix has been a success because the company is flexible and able to adapt quickly to changes in the marketplace. And Netflix’s founders were able to see the long-term vision for what the company could become, unlike companies like Blockbuster. Tips On Scaling Your Business Scaling a business is the ultimate goal for most entrepreneurs, but how can you make it happen? First, it’s important to understand the difference between growth vs. scaling. Growing businesses focus on getting bigger and acquiring more customers and more team members. In comparison, scaling focuses on efficiency. Scalable companies can serve more customers without significantly more effort. It’s near-impossible to scale a company by yourself, so you should ensure you have the right team in place. This isn’t just about bringing on more employees. It’s about finding those few, highly specialized employees who can help you move the company forward. Research from McKinsey found that the highest performers are 800 times more productive than average employees in the same role. Focus on finding and keeping the right staff of people who believe in the company’s mission. My company started with me. I worked as hard as I could and made some great progress in the beginning, but a business can only reach a certain level with only one person. It started with one hire, then two, then three. Before long, I was surrounded by amazingly talented people, and the business started to grow beyond what I was able to achieve on my own. You also need to focus on understanding your customers and maintaining quality customer service. As companies start to scale, maintaining a high level of customer service becomes increasingly difficult. Ensure you’re meeting your customers’ needs by creating standard operating procedures, automating what you can and investing in 24/7 live chat. Scaling your business requires investing in technology and systems, which aren’t cheap. Even if you don’t need the funds yet, start identifying potential banks or online lenders where you can access a loan or ongoing line of credit. Finding the right financing opportunities allows you to build the infrastructure necessary to scale. Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms. Do I qualify? Editorial Standards Reprints & Permissions Asking the better questions that unlock new answers to the working world's most complex issues. 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Pfizer is staking its turnaround on cancer drugs BOTHELL, Wash.—At a recent company town hall here, Pfizer’s cancer-business chief looked over some 100 scientists, marketers and other staffers who had just joined the giant drugmaker through a $43 billion acquisition and asked them to reach below their chairs. Ten of the new Pfizer employees in the large conference room pulled out Ray-Ban sunglasses that had been taped under their seats and put them on, as colleagues in the crowd laughed. “The future is bright for everyone in oncology," said Chris Boshoff, Pfizer’s chief oncology officer, donning his own pair of the black Wayfarers. Pfizer is counting on it. The drugmaker is betting much of its future on cancer drugs, wagering they can ring up billions of dollars in new sales and turn around a company struggling with falling Covid-19 revenue and the lower-priced competition that looms for some big-selling products. Seagen, whose Seattle-area offices Boshoff was visiting, is central to Pfizer’s cancer strategy. Through its purchase of the biotech, Pfizer got three next-generation cancer therapies on the market and at least a dozen drugs in development. Pfizer expects Seagen drugs, known as antibody drug conjugates or ADCs, to generate $10 billion in annual sales by 2030. The company needs a win. One of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies by sales, Pfizer had enjoyed unusual gains during the pandemic thanks to its Covid-19 vaccine, developed with BioNTech. Revenue in 2022 topped $100 billion. But after the pandemic emergency receded, Pfizer miscalculated demand for its Covid-19 vaccine and drug. Sales from several new drug launches underwhelmed, and the company’s first stab at a closely watched weight-loss pill faltered. Wall Street soured. Pfizer stock is down more than 50% since its record high during the pandemic, a loss of $180 billion in market value. At least $4 billion in cost cutting failed to lift investor sentiment, while layoffs hurt morale inside the company. Success rests on the shoulders of Boshoff, an accomplished but spotlight-shy cancer researcher whose knowledge of the disease has earned him the nickname Oncopedia and whose strong people skills have propelled his rise at Pfizer since he joined the company in 2013. Boshoff was recently installed in a new, executive role overseeing both Pfizer’s cancer R&D and marketing. “He’s got something rare for a scientist: He’s a very good manager," Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said. Incorporating the nimble Seagen into corporate Pfizer—and advancing the biotech’s cancer-drug technology to new and broader cancer uses—will be a stiff management test. And the $211 billion cancer-drug market is fiercely competitive. Above all, Boshoff must find a way to keep Seagen’s talent from leaving. Mass departures usually follow acquisitions by big pharmaceutical companies. The workers behind a biotech’s success don’t want to work in a large bureaucracy and often depart, taking their expertise with them. Boshoff said he aims to preserve Seagen’s culture and cutting-edge science, while holding on to its researchers, by letting Seagen operate as a biotech within Pfizer. He aims to spur the company-inside-the-company to find additional uses for the biotech’s drugs and develop a new generation of the medicines. Roughly half of Boshoff’s leadership team comes from Seagen. Its logo still adorns some walls, and scientists from Seagen and Pfizer are writing papers together. “They have the secret sauce to develop successful ADCs," Boshoff said. Seagen pioneered ADCs, which connect chemotherapy to a cancer-homing antibody so it can directly attack tumors with toxins, sparing healthy cells. It took Seagen decades to work out the kinks in the technology. Now its drugs are approved to fight lymphomas as well as bladder, cervical and other cancers. Boshoff, 61 years old, grew up in South Africa and studied to be a doctor. Before joining Pfizer, he built an academic career kicked off by the charitable trust of Freddie Mercury, the late Queen singer, who was suffering from a rare cancer called Kaposi sarcoma when he died. The trust helped fund Boshoff’s initial salary as a doctoral student at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, so he could research the disease. Later, his lab at University College London contributed breakthroughs to discoveries on the origins of Kaposi sarcoma, as well as a key gene that protects against lung cancer. After joining Pfizer’s San Diego laboratories, Boshoff combined a detailed knowledge of cancer with empathy for its victims, according to people who worked with him. He discussed data with bench scientists in labs and distilled it into sound bites for Pfizer’s board. He also accompanied colleagues who had been diagnosed with the disease to doctor’s visits and treatments. Boshoff didn’t seek the spotlight, according to people who worked with him. He is known to skip big Pfizer affairs, preferring smaller groups for socializing, and keep to the back of the room at corporate gatherings. His reputation inside the company grew due to his deft skills navigating the Pfizer bureaucracy and championing, over internal dissent, experimental drugs that turned out to be successful. Among them was a lung-cancer drug called Lorbrena, which some people inside the company didn’t consider a priority because there were rival treatments already on sale and the market wasn’t big. Lorbrena won approval in 2018. Analysts expect the drug to generate more than $1 billion in sales in 2027. Boshoff was a leading voice in Pfizer to acquire Seagen, according to people familiar with the matter. Pfizer now has five of the 11 ADCs on the market. One of them, Padcev for bladder cancer, should generate roughly $4 billion in annual sales by 2029, according to analysts. Boshoff said he wants more research into how ADCs work in combination with other drugs, including immunotherapies and targeted therapies. “There’s a lot of opportunity, to refine, to optimize, to get the best possible medicines in the tumor microenvironment," he said. His other priority is merging Seagen into Pfizer’s cancer division with minimal disruption. “You can’t do anything if people are not happy," he said in an interview. “You can’t do anything if you don’t have colleagues that are talented, that are motivated, that are driven by purpose." During a recent visit to Seagen’s offices, he mingled with the biotech’s rank-and-file during lunchtime at the company’s parking lot, where local food trucks had parked. Wearing the same Ray-Bans from the town hall and sipping on a flavored seltzer, he chatted up workers, telling them he was a space enthusiast and confiding he sometimes looks through his telescope into the night sky. In Pfizer’s cancer business, Boshoff is trying to introduce some changes to make drug development easier and faster. He is giving employees greater autonomy by dropping managerial approval for certain decisions and helping arm commercial teams with scientific data faster to help with selling drugs. He is also using artificial intelligence to help build a comprehensive oncology dashboard combining data sets from study results to trial recruitment progress to rivals’ own research. When Boshoff met with deputies at Seagen after the sunglass town hall, Roger Dansey, a former Seagen official now running Pfizer’s cancer-drug trials, urged caution making employees learn too many new programs at once. “They’re trying to find their way to the bathroom," he said. “Now we’re offering three other versions of a bathroom." At the meeting, Boshoff discussed how Seagen workers prematurely uploaded information about development of a lung cancer drug to a public government website of clinical trials. A trade publication reported the news, which Pfizer wouldn’t have wanted because of rival companies finding out. Boshoff said he wasn’t angry. Seagen may have had different procedures, he said. He said the companies would work together more closely going forward. Write to Jared S. Hopkins at [email protected] MINT SPECIALS Wait for it…. Log in to our website to save your bookmarks. It'll just take a moment. You are just one step away from creating your watchlist! Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image. Your session has expired, please login again. Congratulations! You are now subscribed to our newsletters. In case you can’t find any email from our side, please check the spam folder. Subscribe to continue This is a subscriber only feature Subscribe Now to get daily updates on WhatsApp The New Equation Executive leadership hub - What’s important to the C-suite? 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PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. Data Privacy Framework Cookie info Terms and conditions Site provider Your Privacy Choices Share full article Advertisement Supported by Kamala Harris’s Muscular Patriotism In recent weeks, the vice president’s message has revolved around progressive patriotism. By David Leonhardt At her first rally with Tim Walz, Kamala Harris delivered a riff about their quintessentially American backgrounds. She grew up in Oakland, Calif., raised by a working mother, while he grew up on the Nebraska plains, she explained. They were “two middle-class kids,” she said, now trying to make it to the White House together. “Only in America,” Harris said, as the Philadelphia crowd burst into a chant of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” This sort of unabashed patriotism doesn’t always come naturally to today’s Democratic Party. But it has been central to Harris’s presidential campaign. In her ads and speeches, she portrays herself as a tough, populist, progressive patriot. It has made a difference, too. Harris has persuaded — for now, at least — a meaningful slice of swing voters that she is not the out-of-touch California liberal who Republicans claim she is. In Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, she has surged ahead of Donald Trump partly because she is performing better with working-class voters and rural voters than President Biden was (even before his disastrous debate), according to Times/Siena College polls. Across both the Midwest and Sun Belt swing states, she is faring better with independents. Today is my first newsletter after an August break, and I am struck by how much Harris’s message has revolved around progressive patriotism over the past couple weeks. With the Democratic convention about to begin, I’ll explain why you can expect to hear more of this theme from Harris and Walz. Who’s patriotic? I know that many Democrats already consider their party to be the patriotic one. Republican protesters, after all, were the ones who violently attacked Congress in 2021, and Donald Trump regularly portrays modern America as a hellscape. But it also the case that Republicans are more comfortable with many expressions of patriotism than Democrats are. Republican voters are much more likely to describe themselves as “very patriotic” than Democratic voters are, according to YouGov polls. And Republicans are more likely than Democrats — especially highly educated Democrats — to say that the United States is the world’s greatest country: We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber?  Log in . Want all of The Times?  Subscribe . 410 IMAGES Turnaround Case Study (Caribel) The Business Turnaround Top 10 Business Turnaround Plan & Strategy Templates with Samples and Top 10 Business Turnaround Plan & Strategy Templates with Samples and Strategic Transformation as the Essential Last Step in the Process of Business turnaround opportunity and strategy example COMMENTS 11 Corporate Turnaround Success Stories Here are 11 of the most inspiring stories of turnaround success by companies you've definitely heard of. 1. Apple. Photo by Mike Segar of Reuters. Probably the most well-known turnaround success story is the rise of tech company Apple. Apple went into a decade-long downward spiral after CEO Steve Jobs left the company in 1985 and lower-priced ... Business Turnaround Case Study (With Example) A business turnaround case study is a detailed analysis of a business that has faced significant challenges and has been able to successfully recover. The case study provides insights into the reasons behind the business's struggles and its eventual turnaround. It also highlights the key strategies and tactics that were used to achieve ... Turnaround Strategies: Explained with examples and case study Here is a case study on a turnaround strategy implemented by McDonald's in the late 2000s: Background: McDonald's is a fast-food restaurant chain founded in 1940. By the 1990s, the company had become a global icon with over 30,000 locations worldwide. However, by the mid-2000s, the company faced several challenges, including declining sales ... Lessons from Eight Successful M&A Turnarounds As a result, the company increased revenues from $590 million in 2014 to $970 million in 2017, an annual growth rate of more than 18%. It also increased profit margins to 4% in 2017, up from a loss of 5% in the acquisition year. The company now has a stable order book out to 2024, and productivity continues to climb. Case studies: Three successful turnarounds Tony Harrison, director of Harrisons, says the key to successfully saving a business through a formal insolvency process is to approach a licensed practitioner at the earliest opportunity, in order to weigh up all the options, including avoiding a formal insolvency. "Get hold of an insolvency practitioner as soon as you can," he says. Turnaround Strategy: A Guide To Efficient Execution 4. Align and execute your plan. Your turnaround plan is only as effective as your organization's ability to execute it. Communicate the plan to all key stakeholders and prioritize organizational alignment . Ensure that everyone understands key strategic objectives and uses them to guide their daily decision-making. The Dell Deal Explained: What a Successful Turnaround Looks Like A case study of IBM in the 1990s points to what Dell must do to succeed. ... What a Successful Turnaround Looks Like ... Walter Frick is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, ... Jamba Juice's Turnaround Strategies| Strategy Case Study The case traces the company's growth into an international brand and its continuous losses since 2006. It details the turnaround efforts taken under the Blend Plan by CEO James White to help the company recover from losses. The case examines Jamba's new business model based on franchises and its benefits. Restructuring and turnaround strategy Restructuring and turnaround strategy. Today's disruption will require organizations to reshape. Strategic change focusing on financial and business restructuring or turnaround must be implemented with speed and certainty. We provide trusted leadership in critical and complex situations to transform, create, preserve and recover value. (PDF) Critical Success Strategies on Business Turnaround: A Case Study This study examined the critical success strategies on a business turnaround in a telecommunication company. It relied on the strategies proposed by Schoenberg, Collier, and Bowman (2013) that consisted of six strategies, namely cost efficiencies, asset retrenchment, a focus on the company's core activities, building for the future, reinvigoration of the company's leadership, and ... Three effective steps for business turnaround An initial rapid assessment of the current status of a business is therefore crucial in considering the time that is available and the key factors that would enable a turnaround strategy to be developed and implemented. This will include preparing robust cash and trading projections and giving consideration as to the suitability of the current ... The Astonishing Turnaround of LEGO: A Strategic Thinking Case Study Founder of smarketer.in and its insightful, case-study driven newsletter. Leveraging 15 years of experience to help startups build growth engines. Leveraging 15 years of experience to help ... The Three Steps of Successful Turnarounds Of course the pressure of time in addition to regular business demands makes all these actions that much harder and puts a tremendous strain on management. The case study, "Crisis at the Mill: Weaving an Indian Turnaround - Alvarez & Marsal" won the Indian Management Issues and Opportunities category at the 2015 EFMD Case Writing Competition. Business Turnaround Case Studies Platinum Group 12301 Whitewater Drive, Suite 10 Minnetonka, MN 55343. Phone: 952-829-5700 Fax: 952-829-9103 Leading companies out of crisis: Ten tips from a veteran turnaround artist a Leading company companies in distress out of crisis: Ten tips from The biggest a veteran thing turnaround you can do to avoid artist. ible to come up with one working definition of a com. any in distress—anddistress is periodically review yo. ss plans. When you're creating them, whether at the beginning ofExhibitThere are numerous signs ... Case Study: Delta Airlines Successful Business Turnaround Strategy Case Study: Delta Airlines Successful Business Turnaround Strategy. In 1924 Collet Everman Woolman and an associate started the Huff Daland Dusters crop dusting operation, this was the first agricultural airplane made for the purpose of crop dusting for getting rid of boll weevils and insects. The dusting speed was 80-85 mph and the advantage ... IBM Corporation Turnaround Describes the details of IBM's dramatic corporate turnaround in the early 1990s led by CEO Louis V. Gerstner. Accounts of events are from interviews with IBM executives. Covers the factors that led to the company's decline and actions taken to recover. ... "IBM Corporation Turnaround." Harvard Business School Case 600-098, March 2000. (Revised ... Case Study: Nissan's Successful Turnaround Under Carlos Ghosn Nissan's return to profits after years of losses (Nissan earned a record profit of 230 bn yen in first half of 2001) mark a spectacular win for its savior and turnaround strategist Ghosn. It was a mandate for his style of functioning, considered so far unthinkable in the conservative Japanese society where lay-offs were pariah. Case Study: IBM's Turnaround Under Lou Gerstner Case Study: IBM's Turnaround Under Lou Gerstner. "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" describes how Louis Gerstner lead the organizational turnaround at IBM when it was at the verge of extinction. Louis Gerstner was the chairman and CEO of IBM from April 1993 to March 2002. Before joining IBM, he had worked on various consulting assignments ... Business Turnaround Following the turnaround and financial management assistance, this food-based business is now profitable, and in a commanding market position. This has allowed our client to grow substantially, with the turnover increasing from £60m to £160m, diversify into new related ventures and establish a very secure and promising future. Case Studies in Business Management, Strategy, Restructuring Turnaround Shantanu Dutta is currently the Vice Dean for Graduate Programs at Marshall School of Business USC. Restructuring Turnaround Strategies Case Studies , IBSCDC, IBSCDC, Case Development Centre, Case Studies in Management, Finance, Marketing, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Industry Analysis, Economics, Government & Business, International ... Turnaround Case Studies Turnaround Case Studies, Turnaround Case Study, ICMR develops Case Studies, Micro Case Studies, Latest Case Studies, Best Selling Case Studies, Short Case Studies, business research reports, courseware - in subjects like Turnaround Cases, Marketing, Finance, Human Resource Management, Operations, Project Management, Business Ethics, Business strategy, Corporate governance, Economics ... 4 Case Studies Of Businesses That Scaled To Greatness Joe Camberato is the CEO and Founder of National Business Capital, a leading FinTech marketplace offering streamlined small business loans. Have you ever wondered why some companies succeed in ... Consulting In this case study, learn how leading pharmaceutical company Takeda is creating value for patients through finance innovation and process excellence. Frederik Schmachtenberg + 2 How emerging technologies can usher in the dawn of pervasive intelligence Pfizer is staking its turnaround on cancer drugs Chris Boshoff, top oncology executive, counts on gains from the $43 billion Seagen merger. BOTHELL, Wash.—At a recent company town hall here, Pfizer's cancer-business chief looked over some ... Q3 2024 Quarterly sustainability webcast 2024 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey Board governance issues C-Suite insights Case studies ESG Policy on Demand Podcasts PwC Executive ... Deals strategy Deals technology Divestitures JVs and strategic alliances M&A integration Portfolio company value creation Turnaround and restructuring. Menu. ... Business Outcome Managed Services Risk ... Kamala Harris's Muscular Patriotism The most prominent left-wing movement of the past year — the Gaza protests — is a case study. The movement has not merely called attention to the high civilian death toll in Gaza; it sometimes ... assignment homework phd report resume review speech thesis