Operational transformation and turnaround
Supporting businesses through periods of significant change or performance pressure.
When you need this
You may recognise one of these:
- The budget has been missed for two quarters running, and the recovery plan is not landing
- An investor or lender has asked for a credible operational plan, and asked for it quickly
- Growth has outrun the operating model, and the business is now tripping over its own processes
- New leadership has inherited an operation that nobody in the building can fully explain
- Everyone is working hard, the reporting looks reasonable, and the results keep coming in short
What Kernva does
The first job is to find out what is actually happening, which is rarely what the management pack says is happening. That means going to where the work is done: talking to the people running shifts, sitting with the teams handling exceptions, following a job or an order or a case from one end to the other.
From there, the work usually covers:
- A clear diagnostic. What is driving the shortfall, what it is worth fixing, and in what order
- Stabilisation. Stopping the immediate bleed on cost, cash, service or quality before attempting anything more ambitious
- Operating model redesign. Structure, spans of control, decision rights, and where accountability actually sits
- Process rebuild. The handful of processes that carry most of the cost or most of the failure, redesigned with the people who run them
- Governance and reporting. A cadence that surfaces problems early enough to do something about them, and measures that reflect reality
- Leadership capability. Coaching the team who will own this after Kernva leaves
In regulated environments the work carries an extra condition, which is that none of it can come at the cost of compliance. Henriette has spent her career in businesses where that is non-negotiable, and plans are built accordingly.
How an engagement runs
It starts with a diagnostic of two to four weeks, ending in a prioritised plan with an honest view of what each element is worth, what it will cost, and how long it will take. That stands alone. If you want to take the plan and run it yourself, that is a perfectly good outcome.
If Kernva delivers it, the delivery phase typically runs three to twelve months, full time or several days a week depending on scale. Henriette works inside the business rather than reporting on it from the outside, on site frequently in the early stages, with a fixed reporting rhythm to the board or investor.
What changes
- A plan the leadership team believes in, because they helped build it
- Margin and service improvement you can trace to specific changes
- Reporting that tells you the truth early, rather than confirming a problem after the quarter has closed
- An operation that holds its shape after the engagement ends
16 years leading operations from front line to C-suite. P&L accountability across businesses up to £70m and 250 employees. PE-backed and public companies, UK, US and Europe, in heavily regulated environments.
Questions people ask
- How quickly can you start?
- Usually within two to three weeks, and faster if the situation warrants it. Turnaround work rarely benefits from waiting.
- Do you bring a team?
- No. You get Henriette, working alongside your people. Where a piece of specialist work is genuinely needed, that is flagged and sourced rather than bundled in.
- What if the diagnostic says the problem is not operational?
- Then you get told that. It has happened. It is a cheaper answer than a twelve-month programme aimed at the wrong thing.
Related services
Worth a conversation?
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. If Kernva is not the right answer, we will let you know and also point you somewhere more useful if we can.