1. Establish a comprehensive diagnosis of the situation

Before deploying any system, the manager must conduct a 360° audit of the company: financial, commercial, operational, HR, legal, logistics. This observation phase must answer a few structuring questions:

What are the dysfunctions encountered and what is their real origin (cause vs. symptom)?
What are the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of the company in its market environment?
What is the actual cash position at 13 rolling weeks? What is the breaking point?
Which business segments, contracts or customers are structurally loss-making?

To gain objectivity, it is in the manager’s best interest to surround himself with the main decision-makers (CFO, HR Director, CEO) as well as external experts: chartered accountants, specialized lawyers, interim managers specializing in turnarounds. Objectivity, taking a step back and pragmatism are the key words of this inventory.

The context spares no sector: according to the Banque des Territoires, the picture of business insolvencies remains degraded, which makes anticipation and speed of diagnosis all the more decisive.

2. Build a calibrated and costed action plan

The diagnosis must lead to a structured action plan, which constitutes the roadmap for the turnaround. This plan details the objectives sought, the actions to be deployed, the milestones and deadlines, as well as the human, financial and material resources mobilized.

Adapting the levers to the nature of the crisis

The choice of levers depends on the dominant nature of the difficulty:

Commercial crisis (drop in demand): repositioning of the offer, overhaul of the pricing policy, new marketing and digital strategies, revitalization of the customer portfolio.
Operational crisis : lean approach, process optimization, renegotiation of supplier contracts, inventory rationalization.
Cash flow crisis : tight cash management (daily monitoring, 13-week cash flow plan), fundraising, sale of non-strategic assets, negotiation with creditors.
Structural crisis : capital restructuring, closure of unprofitable activities, employment protection plan (PSE).

Activate amicable and collective procedures when necessary

French law offers an arsenal of preventive and collective procedures. The conciliation procedure allows for confidential negotiations with the main creditors under the aegis of a conciliator appointed by the court. The opening of a conciliation procedure remains strictly confidential, which protects the image and value of the company during the negotiations. In the event of failure or more severe difficulties, the safeguard procedure, the accelerated safeguard or the receivership take over.

To remember. The sooner the manager acts, the wider the range of options remains. Once the cessation of payments has been declared, the room for manoeuvre is drastically reduced.

3. Define the KPIs for managing the turnaround

A turnaround plan is being piloted on the dashboard. The indicators to be monitored fall under four families. To go further on the selection of indicators, see our article dedicated to the 10 performance indicators in management control.

Financial and cash flow KPIs

Daily and forecast 13-week cash position
WCR (working capital requirement) and its components: DSO (customer lead time), DPO (supplier lead time), DIO (stock turnover)
EBITDA and gross margin by business / by site
Bank covenants and leverage ratio (net debt / EBITDA)

Operational KPIs

Customer Service Rate, OTIF (on time in full)
Productivity, capacity utilization rate, scrap rate
Unit cost

Sales KPIs

Evolution of turnover by segment, churn rate, order intake
Margin rate per customer/contract

HR KPIs and Engagement

Absenteeism rate, turnover
Social climate, commitment barometer

4. Onboard employees and stakeholders

Employee buy-in and commitment is a critical factor for success. A plan that is brilliant on paper but rejected by the teams is doomed to failure. To federate, the leader must convey a clear, factual, lucid message on the seriousness of the situation but with a credible perspective.

Communication must be organized on several levels:

Internal : Executive Committee and Executive Committee aligned to the word, middle managers trained in speech, employee representative bodies informed in compliance with the legal framework, regular communication to the teams.
External : shareholders, banks, main customers and strategic suppliers, conciliator or agent if applicable.

Overcoming resistance requires a proven method of change management and, often, specific work to remove the blockages that hinder recovery.

Things to doCommunicate early, factually, at regular intervals. Recognize challenges. To give meaning and concrete perspectives. What to avoidRadio silence, elements of language disconnected from the experience on the ground, untenable promises. The loss of confidence comes at a high price.

5. Case in point: turnaround of an industrial mid-sized company

To illustrate the method, here is a typical case study representative of turnaround missions carried out by interim managers.

Initial situation. A French industrial mid-sized company has recorded a sharp erosion of its turnover over two years after the loss of a major customer. The cash flow is rapidly tightening, bank covenants are at risk, and the social climate is deteriorating.

Diagnosis in 30 days. The mandated interim manager carries out a flash audit: line-by-line review of the income statement, mapping of margins by product and by customer, 13-week cash flow plan, analysis of the cost structure. Three observations emerge: a structurally loss-making production line, a pricing policy that is out of alignment with the market, and an under-managed WCR.

6-month action plan. Closure of the unprofitable line and redeployment of assets, renegotiation of energy and transport contracts, overhaul of the tariff schedule with targeted commercial reconquest, establishment of a weekly treasury committee, opening of a conciliation procedure to reschedule bank debt.

Results at 12 months. EBITDA returned to positive territory, working capital reduced by several days of revenue, return to compliance with covenants, stabilized social climate, and above all: maintenance of activity and most jobs. The turnaround is not an event, it is a management discipline that is taking hold.

6. Follow, adjust, sustain

Throughout the plan, the executive or his interim manager steers the implementation via a weekly turnaround committee that reviews the KPIs and arbitrates the deviations. A turnaround plan is by nature iterative: some stocks produce more than expected, others less, and the environment changes.

Once the trajectory has stabilized, the challenge becomes that of sustainability. Incorporating new practices into the company’s culture, professionalising management control, structuring competitive and financial monitoring, identifying weak signals: these are all levers for anticipating future risks and preventing a similar crisis from happening again. The public authorities are also supporting this logic of rebound, as illustrated by the working group on entrepreneurial failure and rebound launched by Bercy.

Why entrust your turnaround plan to an interim manager

Managing a turnaround remains a complex, time-consuming and emotionally demanding mission. The current manager, monopolized by day-to-day management and sometimes too emotionally involved, often struggles to lead this transformation alone.

An interim manager specialising in turnaround provides:

Operational experience of several similar assignments, transposable to the business context
Fast-to-execute capability: it’s up and running right out of the box and doesn’t need a learning curve
A position of trusted third party with banks, shareholders and employee representative bodies
A results-oriented methodology, with an obligation to deliver on short milestones
A fresh perspective, free from internal inertia and conflicts of interest

At Wayden, we identify the right profile within our pool of executives and managers for your sector and the precise nature of your crisis. The turnaround does not admit of approximation or amateurism: the choice of the right profile is, in itself, a major factor of success.

Is your company going through a turbulent period?

Our interim management experts lead turnaround plans, restructuring and crisis exits in all sectors. Let’s discuss your situation in complete confidentiality.

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To go further

FAQ — Business turnaround plan

What is a turnaround plan?

A turnaround plan (restructuring) is a global mechanism mobilized by a company in difficulty to restore its economic viability. It combines financial (cash management, debt renegotiation), operational (cost reduction, lean), commercial (repositioning, reconquest) and sometimes legal (conciliation, safeguard, receivership) levers.

What is the difference between a turnaround plan, a restructuring plan and a safeguard plan?

Restructuring refers to any structural reorganization (capitalistic, organizational, HR). The turnaround plan is broader: it includes restructuring but also includes the commercial and operational dimension. The safeguard plan, on the other hand, refers to either the judicial safeguard procedure (legal framework) or the PSE (employment protection plan) triggered in the event of collective redundancies.

What are the key KPIs to track during a turnaround?

The priority indicators are daily cash flow and the 13-week plan, EBITDA, BFR (DSO, DPO, DIO), gross margin by activity, customer service rate, as well as HR indicators (absenteeism, turnover). The dashboard should be consolidated weekly by a turnaround committee.

When to trigger a conciliation procedure?

Conciliation is opened at the request of the director when the company encounters a proven or foreseeable difficulty, without having been in suspension of payments for more than 45 days. It is confidential and allows you to negotiate serenely with the main creditors.

How long does a turnaround plan last?

The acute phase of stabilization and implementation of the first actions typically lasts from 6 to 12 months. The consolidation of results and the long-term implementation of the transformations will take an additional 18 to 24 months.

Why call on an interim manager for a turnaround?

The interim manager brings proven expertise, a capacity for rapid execution, a welcome neutrality in negotiations with stakeholders (banks, shareholders, employee representative bodies) and a trusted third party posture. It can be mobilised in a few days and is operational as soon as it arrives.

How to manage a turnaround plan for your company?