This comes out of the Wall Street Journal. The Monday, February 11th 2008 edition, on the Front page of Market Place section is an article entitled "Can Circuit City Survive Boss's Cure?" The article is about a man by the name of Philip Schoonover who took over as chief executive in 2006. He has made some major changes to the company including a $200 million annual budget cut, and layoffs of 3000 employees. The company he says is headed for a long progress turn around, but is still reporting losses, and talk on Wall Street wonders if the company will actually be able to get itself back on its feet. On page B3 the article continues and Schoonover gives 5 Tips for Managing in a Turnaround. "#1: Listen to employees. The best strategies come from the bottom up, not the top down. #2: Refresh management. Different stages of the a turnaround require different skill sets. 3#: Embrace your heritage. Play to and upgrade your company's historic strengths. #4: Protect the future. A CEO must make decisions that protect the company after a turnaround. #5: Stay the course. There will be bumps along the way; stay focused on the big picture." (from the WSJ, pg B3 from the cover of the Market Place section. Monday February 11th 2008)
I think these are great tips. I think that even in other situation, not turnarounds, these tips can be useful. If you play to your companies historic strengths all the time your bound to build those strengths even stronger. Same with any of these tips, Ford during the Hybrid SUV development even played out one of these, "refresh management, by bringing in Mary Ann Wright.
Jonathan Fairbank
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