March 22, 2013

Turnaround Pro Don Bibeault’s Secrets to Great Leadership

Veteran interim executive Don Bibeault has more than 30 turnarounds under his belt, ranging from steel mills to financial services companies.

Bibeault knows something about leadership. He’s been doing turnarounds, 9 of which were interim CEO assignments, since the 1970s. He was the first ever recipient of the Turnaround Management Association’s lifetime achievement award.

His best-selling book, Corporate Turnaround, How Managers turn Losers into Winners, has for years been a key text in the study and practice of turnarounds.

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October 16, 2012

Wait, Turnaround is Not a Dirty Word

It’s not easy being a turnaround artist these days. Just ask Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Romney is taking serious heat for his work at Bain Capital, including recently a derisive Rolling Stone article, “Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital.” The piece outlines Bain’s “epic wealth grab” which it argues both destroyed jobs and entire companies.

Don’t flee, this isn’t a political piece. But a word here, please.

Whatever the opinions about Mitt Romney and his private-equity business history, let’s focus for a moment on the real-live turnarounds of distressed companies, the kind of engagements that attract many interim executives. Turnaround, that is, by definition.

Lonnie Sciambi, for example, is one turnaround artist who would appreciate that shift. Sciambi said he was asked at a party what he did for a living. He said he did turnarounds. “The guy said, ‘So you slash and burn?’” Well, not exactly.

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