Norwegian Parliament, Oslo

Turnaround in Norway

Industry & Scope :

• Security project & service business, including monitoring and alarm handling center in Norway, being a business unit of the local country organization for a globally active technology group

Role / Function :

• Started as a Turnaround Manager, and turned into the local Business Unit Head.
  

Business Context :

• The business results had been unsatisfactory for quite some time, and further deteriorated in the last few years. Earlier attempts to turnaround the situation did not result in a sustainable improvement of the situation.
• Earlier acquisitions were - on a cultural dimension - not fully integrated, and some other parts of the bsuiness, which were no longer considered to be core, were in the process
  of being divested.
• As a consequence, moral was low and the level of absenteeism was far above the 'normal' range.
  

Actions :

• A thorough analysis of the root-cause for the current situation revealed a significant
  deficit in terms of local leadership, such that it was decided to take over the local management role by myself.
• Consequently, appropriate management structures and systematic internal communication activities were introduced.
• The scope of activities was optimized in order to fit the market needs, which translated into a reduction of the cost base and the business mix was adapted to improve the margin quality of order intake, as well as the processes were streamlined and further improved to reduce the margin slippage during execution.
• Last but not least, in line with these changes, corporate culture was further developed
  and harmonized across different parts of the organization, such that a strong sense
  of ownership and dedication was achieved.
  

Outcome :

• The budgeted results in terms of volume were achieved and in terms of profit significantly overachieved. I.e. the turnaround was completed successfully and the organization has remained profitable ever since.

• Moral was on a good level again and absenteeism was reduced to a normal level.