1. The journey for every business is different. We listen to you and
your objectives before proposing a plan for survival and growth.
We work alongside you and your team and focus on protecting
and improving your wealth.
Published on 9 November 2010 by Tony Groom
Survival Sometimes Means Making Fundamental Change
Any successful business would be expected to be constantly monitoring its activities
and modifying them where necessary to improve the efficiency and its various offers.
Continuous business improvement does two things: it optimises existing processes
and keeps them optimal by continually updating them.
But on its own, especially when there are significant challenges in the wider
economy, such as the current global economic downturn, continuous improvement
may not be enough.
Such unexpected challenges can plunge a business into difficulties where its survival
may be at stake and this may mean looking at a fundamental change to the way it
operates.
Too often businesses struggling to survive, are characterised by hard work and trying
to improve the existing business model before they fail. Business improvement is all
about laying foundations, tweaking the system and improving.
Fundamental change is a more radical look at the whole operation but it also needs
care to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater by looking hard at the
business and what needs to be preserved in order to survive and grow in the future.
However, if a business tries to grow before bedding in new foundations following
fundamental change it will reinforce problems that had not been sorted out.
For example in a downturn it is an understandable reaction for a business to trim its
costs when it may be better to have an in-depth look at its business model and be
open to more radical changes.
K2 Business Rescue
The Emergency Service for Business
Call Tony Groom on 0844 8040 540

2. This can all seem too much when a company’s directors are struggling to keep a
business afloat at a difficult time. It is possible to be too close to the problem,
however, and a combination of worry and a sense of urgency is not ideal for taking
an objective look at the whole business model.
This is where calling on a business turnaround adviser could make all the difference
between success and failure. While the adviser is motivated to help a business
succeed and will expect to work with committed managers and staff, they are not
so immersed in the day to day minutiae of the operation and can therefore look at
all aspects of the business, identify what is viable, what processes are draining the
company and what actions can be taken.
In a recent case, a business turnaround adviser was brought into a manufacturing
company to help it through difficult times when orders had dropped dramatically.
The company occupied an expensive factory with consequent high overheads.
Having examined the business in depth and established that there was a market for
its products given some changes, the adviser proposed two fundamental solutions to
cut back on overheads: that the company reinvent itself as an assembly house with
outsourcing production of components and that it should also get rid of its fleet of
delivery vehicles and outsource that too.
Both gave the company much more flexibility by cutting back on its fixed costs in
favour of variable costs. It could then focus on what it was good at, which was
developing good products.
In a turnaround situation fundamental change may involve such things as radically
changing the accounting system from a costly enterprise management system,
which depends heavily on everybody knowing and doing their job perfectly, to a
more simple order processing and accounting system that takes things back to more
manageable basics.
We are not Insolvency Practitioners. We operate within the law to protect our clients and their wealth.
Our team has worked for over 20 years to help stabilise and return hundreds of businesses to
profitable growth. Once appointed, Insolvency Practitioners do not work for you, they work for creditors
and use your company’s assets to pay themselves. We work for you, not creditors.
More Free Resources for Directors and Business Owners in Difficulty
www.rescue.co.uk
K2 Business Rescue
The Emergency Service for Business
Call Tony Groom on 0844 8040 540

3. We Save Businesses
We provide experienced advice to directors
We negotiate with HMRC and creditors
We are on your side
Need Immediate Help – Call Tony Groom on 0844 8040 540
K2 Business Rescue
The Emergency Service for Business
Call Tony Groom on 0844 8040 540