Olav Kjell Holtan "The chair of a turnaround"

"The chairman of a turnaround"
Gunnar Eckbo has challenged me to say something about "the chairman's role in a turnaround," and within 12 minutes!
Since I have worked with many turnarounds over the past 25 years, I could probably go on all day on this subject. But just as in a turnaround, where there is a shortage of time, it is important to prioritize and choose the most vital issue.
There are many different problems that can bring a business into trouble. The way out can be just as many.
The Board and, not least, the chairman will in a difficult situation, in my opinion, experience an acceleration of responsibility and commitment. It requires first and foremost, detailed knowledge about the business itself and the "world" we are operating in. More than what normally are required by the Board in an ordinary situation.
The EKORNES situation in 1990 was that over the last 10-year period there had been a series of wrong decisions of strategic nature. This developed into a situation with defocused management and generally poor working relationship within the organization. The company lost a lot of money and lost control capability.
In this situation, the chairman has to put himself in the driver's seat in order to:
1. Clarify whether the business has a commercial base that is solid enough for future operations.
2. Conduct an independent assessment of the organizational and managerial resources that are available, alternatively missing.
The Board has an overall responsibility to ensure that the business has an organization that is able to manage and develop the business.
The Chairman, in particular, must in a situation like this, make himself thoroughly familiar with all aspects of the organization and especially the management.
What is required of changes to build a strong management team? Do we have the team leader on board, or must he or she be identified?
Nor the chairman or the board can succeed without having a skilled executive management team. To put in place the team leader, support him and follow up his work in building the overall team must have first priority.
Creating good internal conditions for developing good leaders is crucial. It is the Board's responsibility and obligation to ensure that the top management makes it possible for leaders at all levels to develop in their role. The same applies to ensure that management talents will be discovered and given the right challenges. This is essential to create a basis for good internal recruitment, which in my opinion and many others provides the most stable development for any business.
In EKORNES we have focused on this and to some extent got it right. We have over the past 20 years had a management team, meaning everyone from foreman to group managers, which consist of strong individuals, but that through common values and a strong team leader, has added interaction. Or in Norwegian; samhandling, referring to a rather well known Norwegian coach.
These interactions have really included the trade unions. Based on the trust established between management and employee representatives, the trustee's have taken a substantial part of the responsibility for creating the foundation for efficient and good solutions for company. Of course, this has given the employees pay-off when the results have given room for so.
When this interaction was reestablished, it was possible to find back to the "roots" of EKORNES. These “roots” started to grow in 1934, and have been an excellent platform to build the company upon into a new century.
Thank you for your attention!