Turnarounds
The most help as urgently as possible. For businesses under real financial pressure that need someone to take charge of cash, costs and build a plan, quickly.
Turnaround leadership for businesses under financial pressure
Interim CEO and turnaround support from an operator who has done it. I led Compass Offices, a $75M workspace operator with 30 centres in seven countries, back to cashflow positive within six months of my arrival.
The first weeks are spent on the true position: cash, liabilities, and what makes or loses money.
The situation
Turnarounds rarely begin with a single crisis. More often the numbers have drifted for a year or more: margins thinning, discounting creeping up to hold volume, a footprint built for growth that didn't arrive, payables stretching as goodwill with suppliers and landlords is used up. By the time the board or the founder asks for help, the runway is short and the team is tired.
What the business needs then is not a report. It needs someone who will establish the true position quickly, make the decisions that have been put off, and keep customers, staff, lenders and shareholders on side while it happens.
What you get
- A clear picture of the real position within the first weeks: cash, liabilities, and which parts of the business make or lose money
- A cash plan, and the decisions needed to protect it
- A restructuring plan: what closes, what is renegotiated, and what changes in the team
- Reporting and accountability that keep the business on track after I leave
How the work runs
- 01
Foundation
Find the true financial position, entity by entity. Stop the bleeding: cash, discounting and the costs that fund nothing. Separate what is structural from what is situational.
- 02
Stabilisation
Put in the reporting, the accountability lines and the handful of numbers that predict trouble. Decide who the business needs, and keep them.
- 03
Growth
Once the business can breathe, return to product, pricing and position, so it doesn't drift back.
The case: Compass Offices
Compass Offices is a Hong Kong-headquartered flexible workspace operator with $75M in turnover and 30 centres across seven countries. When I took charge in 2024, the business had grown quickly through the pandemic and was carrying the consequences. Cash was critically short, heavy discounting was propping up sales, several markets were losing money, and many leases were coming due at once.
In my first weeks I rebuilt the financial picture entity by entity, reviewed the full payroll and organisation, and set out a restructuring plan. It covered the cost base and the team, the sales function and how it was paid, underperforming centres, and a refresh of the brand, pricing and product.
Within six months of my arrival, the business was back to cashflow positive.
The founder side
Distress rarely comes from one bad decision. It usually builds from habits that once served the business: selling the story of growth while costs creep up, or taking everything on rather than making the hard call. Part of a turnaround is changing those habits, or the business drifts back.
Questions
- Do you take the CEO role, or advise the CEO?
- Both. Some engagements are interim CEO with full authority. Others are a turnaround lead working beside the existing CEO and board.
- What if the business can't be saved?
- Then I'll say so early. Sometimes the right outcome is a sale, a managed closure of part of the business, or bringing in insolvency specialists.
- How is it priced?
- A day rate from USD 4,000, with the scope and end point agreed before we start.
- Where do you work?
- I'm based in Asia and have led teams across Asia-Pacific. I work on site wherever the business needs it.
Talk it through in confidence
A free 20-minute call. I'll ask about cash, creditors and timing, and tell you honestly whether I can help.
Book a confidential call