Turnaround Consultant vs Turnaround Manager: What to Hire
A turnaround consultant diagnoses the business and writes the plan. A turnaround manager takes the wheel: cash first, then cost, then commercial recovery, with the authority to make the decisions the plan requires in the weeks they still matter.
When a consultant is enough
When the management team is capable and trusted, the board simply needs an independent view of the options, and the lenders want a plan they can rely on. In that case the internal team executes and the consultant validates.
When you need a manager
- Lenders or investors have lost confidence in the current management
- Cash visibility is weak and nobody owns the forecast personally
- The decisions required will be unpopular inside the company
- The chief executive is part of the problem or has already left
- There is less than two quarters of runway
What good looks like at ninety days
Cash is forecast weekly and the forecast holds. The loss making activity has stopped or has a dated closure plan. The management team is smaller and clearer. The lenders have received one set of numbers that has not been revised twice.
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