Blog: Restructuring, Turnaround & Leadership

The Four States of a Company: Where Does Yours Stand?

Transformation, optimization, restructuring or turnaround: the 10-P state model shows whether a company solves its problems faster than new ones arise – and which approach each state calls for.

Insights

What Your Contribution Margins of the Last Five Years Reveal

Revenue and annual results warn too late. Contribution margins by product group over five years show early whether price and performance still match – four patterns and what they reveal about your company.

Black-and-white photo of an office with a project board, people walking past in motion

Insights

Insight Problem or Execution Problem? The Four Fields of Problem Solving

Not every company that knows a problem has understood it – and not every one that has understood it solves it. How insight and execution decide between peak performance and muddling through.

Operational due diligence: site visit to production at an industrial company

Methodology

Operational Due Diligence: What Buyers and Investors Need to Know About an Industrial Company Before Signing

Methodology: What the data room does not show – how operational due diligence checks before signing whether business model, core processes and organisation can carry the business case.

Product range rationalization: from many variants to the core items

Insights

Product Range Rationalization: When an Item No Longer Pays Its Way

A positive contribution margin is not enough: how three tests per product group show which items no longer carry their complexity – and what a product range rationalization frees up.

Cover image for the article “Premises, Not Numbers”

Insights

Premises, Not Numbers: What Makes an Annual Plan Reliable

An annual plan is not decided by its figures but by the assumptions behind them: the seven premises every plan has to answer – and two mechanisms that make it hold through the year.

Cover image for the article “Chronic Loss-Makers”

Insights

Chronic Loss-Makers: Why the Exit Needs an Automatic Effect

Almost every company carries a unit that has been losing money for years. How to recognise a chronic loss-maker – and why the exit needs an automatic effect rather than another decision.

Cover image for the article “Price Cuts in a Downturn”

Insights

Price Cuts in a Downturn: The Cascade Nobody Plans

In a downturn the price cut is the first proposal on the table. What follows runs to a script in five stages – and ends with a lower price and higher costs than before.

Case Studies

Restructuring Case Study: How a Global Component Manufacturer Returned to Profitability

Case study: how a global component manufacturer returned to profitability within 24 months after a revenue collapse and negative earnings – with transparency, a new footprint, systematized sales, and the House of Excellence as a steering instrument.

Insights

How SMEs Achieve Peak Performance through Strategic Focus

The Mittelstand is considered the backbone of the economy. Yet nine out of ten SMEs fail to sustainably optimize their earnings situation. Clear positioning and strategic alignment are the key to peak performance.

Methodology

Institutional Learning (Part 1/2)

Despite billions spent on consulting, many companies see no lasting impact. Institutional Learning focuses on learning in daily work: leaders solve problems on their own – supported by Learning Agents, right in the work context.

Methodology

Institutional Learning (Part 2/2)

Institutional Learning: from measuring to improving. With Learning Agents, leaders develop their own solutions – practical, lasting, effective. The true advantage: problem-solving capabilities in-house.

Insights

AI in Consulting: When One Consultant Works Like a Team (Part 1/2)

Why AI agents are changing consulting for industrial companies: standardized methodology, team output from a single consultant, multiplied experience, and analyses in hours instead of weeks. Part 1 of 2.

Insights

AI in Consulting: The Structure Still Comes from the Consultant (Part 2/2)

AI in consulting only works with cleanly defined standards – and with consultants who provide structure, quality, and judgment. Part 2 on the prerequisites and limits of using AI in the SME sector.

Case Studies

Turnaround Case Study: When the Flagship Product Becomes a Risk

Case study: How a long-established power tool manufacturer set its turnaround in motion after patent expiry: strategic focus, resolution of the investment backlog, and a socially responsible workforce transition.

Insights

Entrepreneurs within the Company

Entrepreneurs within the company – how clear responsibilities, suitable controlling structures, and a resilient culture help you develop leaders who act independently, think ahead, and deliver real results.

Case Studies

Restructuring Case Study: From Crisis to Peak Performance

Case study: how a mid-sized industrial company mastered its restructuring with the Corporate Health Check, House of Excellence, and Institutional Learning – +23% revenue and a margin gain of 7 percentage points.

Methodology

Peak Performance through Transparency (Part 1 / 2)

Peak performance starts with transparency: real-time operational KPIs enable forward-looking steering, faster decisions, and true excellence – a key to sustainable success in the Mittelstand.

Methodology

Peak Performance through Transparency (Part 2 / 2)

Operational metrics create clarity on delivery reliability, project pipeline, and margin development – not just in large corporations. In the Mittelstand, too, transparency becomes the key to predictability, efficiency, and peak performance.

Case Studies

Optimization Case Study: When Technology Leadership Is No Longer Enough

Case study: How a globally positioned special-purpose machine builder recognized, at the height of its success, the limits of its technology base – and launched its optimization with six building blocks and its own teams.

Methodology

The Leadership Control Loop: From Goal to Execution

The leadership control loop translates strategic goals into measurable responsibility at every level. Achieving peak performance takes clear success factors, standards, and daily steering – not gut feeling and hope.

Cover image for the article “Defining KPIs”

Methodology

Defining KPIs: How a Business Goal Becomes a KPI That Management Trusts

Methodology: how a business goal becomes a KPI that management trusts – four steps from lever to KPI profile, using on-time delivery as an example.

Case Studies

Strategy Coaching Case Study: When Innovation Needs a Strategy

Case study: How a long-established metal construction company developed its product innovation into a market-ready positioning with 10-P strategy coaching – through self-diagnosis, 50 customer interviews, and three two-day workshops.

Methodology

Restructuring: Mastering the Crisis

Restructuring means prioritizing problems deliberately, clearly defining responsibilities, and quickly fixing operational weaknesses – with the goal of strengthening problem-solving capabilities and realigning the company for the long term.

Methodology

The BASICON Method

BASICON is a structured leadership model that helps companies work through problems and opportunities systematically – in eight clear steps. It creates clarity, fosters ownership, and sets the organization in motion for the long term.

The Four States of a Company: Where Does Yours Stand?

What Your Contribution Margins of the Last Five Years Reveal

Insight Problem or Execution Problem? The Four Fields of Problem Solving

Operational Due Diligence: What Buyers and Investors Need to Know About an Industrial Company Before Signing

Product Range Rationalization: When an Item No Longer Pays Its Way

Premises, Not Numbers: What Makes an Annual Plan Reliable

Chronic Loss-Makers: Why the Exit Needs an Automatic Effect

Price Cuts in a Downturn: The Cascade Nobody Plans

Restructuring Case Study: How a Global Component Manufacturer Returned to Profitability

How SMEs Achieve Peak Performance through Strategic Focus

Institutional Learning (Part 1/2)

Institutional Learning (Part 2/2)

AI in Consulting: When One Consultant Works Like a Team (Part 1/2)

AI in Consulting: The Structure Still Comes from the Consultant (Part 2/2)

Turnaround Case Study: When the Flagship Product Becomes a Risk

Entrepreneurs within the Company

Restructuring Case Study: From Crisis to Peak Performance

Peak Performance through Transparency (Part 1 / 2)

Peak Performance through Transparency (Part 2 / 2)

Optimization Case Study: When Technology Leadership Is No Longer Enough

The Leadership Control Loop: From Goal to Execution

Defining KPIs: How a Business Goal Becomes a KPI That Management Trusts

Strategy Coaching Case Study: When Innovation Needs a Strategy

Restructuring: Mastering the Crisis

The BASICON Method

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