Professional Documents
Culture Documents
March 1, 2010
1 THE TURNAROUND LEADERSHIP
When the turnaround decision is taken, or the It has to be realized that the new leadership
management is taken over by new investors, team, no matter how brilliant, will not be able
the first thing that is needed is to build a team to bring about a successful turnaround unless
of new leadership. It makes business sense to there is a strong support from within the
get subject experts from successful existing human resource base at all levels.
organizations with a reasonable command on
the best practices in their respective fields There is a general fallacy in perception about
with demonstrated track record of success. these people. Mistake of branding the entire
These may be expensive resources for the loss or a predominant lot of these people as
making organizations but they are essential for inefficient and useless proves very costly to
the value addition needed during turnaround. the organization in transition.
This breed of leaders is normally not available Leaders generally fail to understand that
within the other turnaround organizations within them there is a critical mass of
because the best of the talents there have employees who have the invaluable
limitations of operating within legacy understanding and knowledge of the
organization with limited exposure to the organization, systems, processes and people.
modern business knowledge and practices. There can be no success without an in depth
Another limitation with such managers is that understanding, partnership and effective
over period they become strongly status quo utilization of these resources.
oriented with little flexibility to drive change.
Existing employees are nevertheless generally
The new leadership team in most cases is a perceptive about the change in ownership or
combination of professionals from best in class management. Their biggest fear is about their
organizations with diverse corporate cultures job security and the way new management
and orientation in divergent successful will treat them. They can be easily engaged
business practices. Many of such leaders carry in a positive way through active consultation
loyalty to their organization’s way of doing and communication, by providing a sense of
things, which to them is better than others. In security and very importantly, by treating
their own experience they may have good every one with respect and dignity.
reasons for their views but it becomes a big
March 1, 2010
Having been integrated into a team and Labor and union factor:
building a strong internal partnership, the
leaders need to have the ability to revamp Labor and union factor is normally a
the organization structure, purely driven by challenge of a much bigger magnitude in
the business needs and requirements. turnaround organizations. While normal
organizations managed effectively all along,
The challenge here is to manage the battle of rarely see large numbers of unionized
turf within the new leadership team. It is a employees, the turnaround organizations
common observation that individual leaders have generally been impacted by poor
define their role and significance in the governance and at times, political influences.
hierarchy by their span of control and number Accordingly, the numbers of unionized
of people reporting to them. The challenge at employees assumes a disproportionate ratio
the top level at this stage is to review the new over the period. At times the headcount of
organization structures proposed for all the workmen is much higher than the
functions. Normally a number of new positions management employees who are more
are created, backed by identified individuals involved in core business activities.
(generally from the previous organization
The unionized employees, on the other hand
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3 THE TURNAROUND LEADERSHIP
No organization turnaround can be successful will always be a welcomed proposition for the
over a longer period until the ratio between vested interest groups.
management and unionized employees is
brought to an appropriate level relevant to There is a need for a very special handling of
the business needs and the surplus employees this aspect of business. The leaders normally
are either separated or redeployed in take this as a less significant task within their
ventures independent of the turnaround overall priorities. The challenge of perception
organization structure. management therefore needs to be handled
with the highest level of professionalism using
Perception management: top quality resources with full commitment.
and questioning the credibility of the Zafar has been involved in key institutional transformations like
transformation process and the leadership. Federal Board of Revenue of Government of Pakistan in
association of the World Bank and IMF.
March 1, 2010
Employees within the organization are used to He has played key role in post privatization restructuring and
the old systems and processes and the way of transformation of HBL the largest private Bank in Pakistan.
doing business. They feel insecure with the
He has also been part of the leadership team involved in
change process and actually deep within turnaround of the Karachi Electric Supply Company as Chief
their hearts look forward to the failure of the Operating Officer – Organization Management.
new management. Any value they can add
zafarosmani@gmail.com
towards complimenting negative perceptions