Turnaround in times of crisis

For some less fortunate, the world can become an ugly place when the context shifts dramatically or management fails. Either way, unexpected costs or downturns in funding can make life unmanageable. In these moments of crisis, it is hard to see the ‘wood from the trees’. The hardest part of planning a turnaround is recognising that you have problems and that action needs to be taken to avoid a terminal decline. 

Q Partnership has three great examples of changing these stressful conditions. ProGroup, a Zimbabwean commodity trading and feed manufacturing group ran into trouble in August 2010. The dollarization of the Zimbabwean economy and disagreements amongst shareholders brought things to a standstill. In April 2012, the members of the Zimbabwe Aids Network challenged the secretariat leadership and the Board and threatened to disband the network. ZAN were a Global Fund recipient in the fight against Aids. In May 2016, the Zambia Red Cross was shaken by a large fraud and its key donors called for radical change. All 3 were on the edge of terminal decline and in all three cases, Q Partnership facilitated a process to full recovery, helping these institutions to:

• Re-take full control of their cash flows;
• Make sure they had the right team in place;
• Change their business propositions;
• Right-size their fixed costs;
• Ensure they had adequate cash to finance their new turnaround strategy; and
• Communicate their plan to key stakeholders

When embarking on a turnaround the best advice is “work with a trusted external party who is absolutely on your side, with no other agenda than that of looking after your interests and preserving the value in the institution”. Q Partnership played this incredibly valuable role.