Turnarounds push CEOs to make decisions on incomplete information. The problems are almost always the same: too little time, too much noise, and an expectation to act now. But the most costly mistakes are rarely about choosing wrong – they are about choosing too quickly, for the wrong reasons.
We have seen it time and again. A new leader steps into a turnaround. The whole organisation is waiting for action. And then it happens: someone has to be let go to demonstrate decisiveness.
That is not always wrong. But when the decision is made on day three to show the board that "something is happening" – it is usually the wrong person. We saw it recently at an infrastructure client: the right diagnosis (the organisation was too heavy), the wrong consequence (they fired two middle managers who were actually holding delivery together).
The problem is not acting. The problem is tunnel vision. Under pressure, you zoom in on the visible – org charts, cost lines, faces in the corridor. You miss the flows. Who actually gets things done.
The first week is about laying down the right track, not stamping people out.
We worked with a CFO under extreme liquidity stress. Every decision felt binary: pay the supplier or not. Defer salaries or risk a strike. Take the loan or wait.
What he did was simple but unusual: he set 48-hour intervals.
Every decision was made with the best available information at the time. But nothing was locked in. After 48 hours: new data, new assessment, adjust. No grand strategy, no annual calendar. Just short cycles with clear checkpoints.
The result? The company survived. Not because he made perfect decisions – but because he corrected faster than his competitors.
That is iterative leadership. Accept the uncertainty. Shorten the cycles. Adjust more often.
The most expensive mistake we have seen was not a wrong decision. It was a decision that was never made.
A transport company knew their largest contract was unprofitable. Every number said so. The management team had run the figures three times. But going to the client to renegotiate – or terminate – felt too big, too risky.
So they waited. Hoped for volume. Hoped for efficiency gains.
The cost? 23 million over eighteen months.
When they finally acted, the renegotiation went through in fourteen days. The client had been expecting it for six months.
The information was not missing. The courage to act on it was.
Decisions under pressure do not require more analysis. They require the right process: avoid symbolic actions in the first week, work iteratively when uncertainty is high, and have the courage to make the uncomfortable decision when the numbers are clear.
Tunnel vision is not fixed by thinking more broadly – it is fixed by giving yourself time to look twice before you act.
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Dan: 070-729 80 25
Region Syd, Patrick: 070-963 24 56
Christoffer: 072-236 85 10
