Turnarounds are won or lost in the first three months. Not because every problem is solved by then — they aren’t — but because the early weeks set whether the organization believes change is real, and whether momentum builds or stalls. Here is the playbook we use.
Weeks 1–2: Get to the truth, fast
Resist the urge to act before you understand. Spend the first two weeks on a hard diagnostic: the real numbers, the real constraints, and candid conversations at every level. The goal is a single, shared picture of reality — because most struggling organizations are operating on several conflicting ones.
Weeks 3–4: Name the few things that matter
A turnaround dies under a list of forty initiatives. Pick the three to five moves that will actually change the trajectory, and say no — out loud — to the rest for now. Clarity is a gift to an anxious organization.
Weeks 5–8: Land an early, visible win
Credibility compounds. Choose one move you can deliver quickly and unambiguously, and deliver it. It signals that things are different now, and it buys you the patience to tackle the harder, slower work.
Weeks 9–14: Build the engine
With trust established, stand up the operating rhythm that will carry the rest: clear owners, a weekly cadence, a small set of metrics everyone watches. The work shifts from heroics to system.
Momentum is a strategy. In the first 100 days, a visible win is worth more than a perfect plan.
None of this requires heroics — it requires discipline and an outside view at the moment it’s hardest to find one. That’s the work we do.