Turnaround Strategy

When I heard that my company has hired some renowned turnaround strategists, and that too first time since its inception some 12 years ago, to do some alchemy to the ailing state of the organization, two kinds of emotion stroked me – first, an uncontrollable excitement because when all good vibes were waning due to circumstantial reflections or a long laggard on topline and bottomline, this gave a glimpse of high hope in a sense that the organization will grow and everyone associated with it would be a part of that success story; second, a usual desperation that was still embedded somewhere in the unseen cocoons of my heart because I knew that irrespective of the suggestions put forward by the strategists, the company might fail to walk the execution path. So, in linear perspectives, I have nothing to counter the first outcome, if everything goes well, the end will definitely be well. Now, lets dissect the second outcome, which is majorly associated with the execution ecosystem and a kind of reformation or complete overhaul.

There are few customary caveats that shouldn't be overlooked in this reform as well. Before delving further into the existing pain areas of the organization, let me cite here a similar turnaround strategy executed by one of the leading media conglomerates based out in Delhi. A decade before this media house was struggling to outpace its closest competitor in Delhi for many years, but it was practically impossible to carve it out on stone. There were many reasons though, the prime one was that the editorial team which in all its snobbishness thought that a paper runs because of the intellectual competency of its editors, nothing can stop a paper to increase its circulation if it has a second-to-none editorial policy that drives excellent news stories, opinions, analysis, and blah blah. Remember how dangerous was this proposition in generalizing a concept in a post liberalization market. It was just suicidal. IT industry was booming, the entire nation was dreaming of big achievements in many fronts, a new generation readers were all set to decide the fate of any media product, which the editorial team was not ready to accept that because they always were busy flexing their intellectual muscle on issues those were nothing to do with young readers. It was disastrous. The MD of the company stepped in and spelled out some clear instructions – either follow the market dynamics or get lost. And the rest was history. Since then this paper brought in a number of novelties that anyone could hardly imagine. A strong market research team tapped the pulse of young readers, their likes, dislikes, and day-in-day out pumped in the market insights to the editorial board and they together transformed a laggard newspaper to the most popular newspaper, if not the most intellectual one.

Now it's our turn. Whether we want to succeed or not solely depends on the acceptance of ground realities. Let's not forget that our success as much depends on us, equally depends on the perception of the outside world for which our business is still running – they are our valued customers. If we don't understand their priorities and expectations or cant make them happy or satisfied for whatever service or product we offer, we don't have a choice either. Remember beyond a self-aggrandized collective consciousness, there is a much larger business ecosystem or market that controls every company's destiny. If that was not the case, then why Google, Apple, and Microsoft irrespective of their elephantine size are engaged in a serious customer-driven strategy. This is the high time to follow the market and walk the talk.