Why is it that lap dancers earn 30% more when they are ovulating, passengers are much safer when a co pilot is flying the plane, and CEOs of distressed businesses go into “mind fixated” inaction?
Yet – our society makes us more accustomed to instant gratification, the timeline for turnarounds are shorter; and everyone has access to more information…
The amount of time a CEO should realistically have to turn a company around is often limited to the cash a company has on hand. Later the engagement – less the time. Companies headed for bankruptcy simply don’t have time to bounce around a heady re-branding. Companies with a relatively reliable stream of cash but a stale business model, such as AOL, have a little bit more leeway, but in fact that is realignment.
“Every retailer in the world will blame the weather for sales,” says Lisa Poulin, chairperson at the Turnaround Management Association and partner at management firm CRG partners. “That’s pretty classic, but at some point?, you’ve got to get beyond that and see what the real issues are.”
Then, little by little, CEOs need to fix those issues. The faster they can, especially these days, the better
Once information is received in our brains it’s often distorted by our minds. Like a retailer that blames the weather on poor sales (that’s a generalization or smokescreen) – a distortion of information received without regard to the real issues. A fixated pilot will often reject screams of terror from a subordinate, but the copilot will listen.
The common link is communication, and having the tools “on the first date” to unravel these interesting scenarios.
The best executive accept there is an issue (they dont know what to do in this new scenario with no previous experience), has the humility to know when to ask for help, the courage to let go of micromanaging the solution. Ironically guys in the board room often get fired. We did some work with a executive with these outstanding traits, and as a consequence of various interventions between 2006-2009 the business generated an additional £45m cash on £91m turnover.
Our issue is that we would like more opportunities to engage with these exceptional executives who have the humility to admit they face a new situation and the courage ask for help..
What next? Call us to meet. We will take your briefing is strict confidence; act as your motivator, to create, support and implement an Action Plan of the steps we would take to motivate you to act, deliver profound technical or operational transformation to get you ahead and get any monkeys off your back.
All our charges will be success related and bespoke to our common objectives PROFIT AND CASHFLOW improvement.
