Turnaround (revive a struggling business): The turnaround process involves a series of steps aimed at improving a firm’s performance when it faces decline. The stages typically include:

1. Realignment – This is the phase where the company reassesses its strategies, realigns its goals, and refocuses on core competencies to set the stage for recovery.
2. Retrenchment – In this stage, the company takes actions to cut costs, shed non-profitable divisions, and reduce its operations to stabilize financially.
3. Recovery – The final stage involves efforts to rebuild and grow, using the foundation set in realignment and retrenchment to drive long-term profitability and stability.

Note: Re-engineering, a radical redesign of business processes, is an essential and integral to Turnaround Strategy

🏭 What is Business Process Reengineering (BPR)?

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a management approach that involves fundamentally rethinking and radically redesigning the core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical performance measures such as:

• Cost

• Quality

• Service

• Speed

🔍 Definition

• Michael Hammer, one of the pioneers of BPR, defined it as:

  “The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance.”

⚙️ Key Characteristics of BPR

• Fundamental Rethinking: Don’t just improve or tweak existing processes; question the very assumptions behind how work is done.

• Radical Redesign: Make drastic changes, not small incremental ones.

• Dramatic Results: Aim for big leaps in performance, not just marginal gains.

🔑 Key Principles of Business Process Reengineering (by Michael Hammer)

1. Organize Around Outcomes, Not Tasks

   • Traditional businesses organize work by tasks (e.g., departments like sales, billing, shipping).

   • BPR emphasizes organizing work around the desired result or output, not just functions.

   • Example: One team manages an entire order process from initiation to delivery.

2. Have Those Who Use the Output of the Process Perform the Process

   • Push decision-making and action closer to the customer.

   • Reduce handoffs, delays, and bureaucracy.

   • Example: Customers can enter orders directly via online systems instead of through sales reps.

3. Subsume Information-Processing Work into the Real Work

   • Don’t separate data processing from the core activity.

   • Let the person performing the task also collect and process data.

   • Example: Salespeople enter their own data into CRM instead of handing it to clerks.

4. Treat Geographically Dispersed Resources as Though They Were Centralized

   • Use technology to connect distant teams and resources as if they were in one location.

   • Encourages virtual teams and global integration.

   • Example: Cloud-based tools allow real-time collaboration across continents.

5. Link Parallel Activities Instead of Integrating Their Results

   • Coordinate parallel processes in real-time rather than waiting for them to finish and merging results.

   • Increases speed and reduces inconsistencies.

   • Example: Engineering and manufacturing teams working together on new product development from the start.

6. Put the Decision Point Where the Work Is Performed

   • Empower employees at all levels to make decisions.

   • Reduces delays caused by approvals and escalations.

   • Example: Call center agents can resolve customer issues without manager approval.

7. Capture Information Once and at the Source

   • Avoid redundancy by ensuring that data is entered once at its origin.

   • Enhances accuracy and reduces time wasted.

   • Example: Customers enter their own details into the system, avoiding re-entry by staff.