Turnaround
Turning Around Your Underperforming U.S. Subsidiary
This may be the most painful situation: you made the effort, invested, believed in the project — and the results are not there. Before concluding that “the U.S. market is not for us,” it is worth understanding why.
Turning around an underperforming American operation is one of my specialties. I have led several turnarounds, including some in especially difficult situations.
The most common causes
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A business model that was never truly adapted to local realities.
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A local team that was poorly recruited or poorly managed.
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A sales strategy that is too closely modeled on the French approach.
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Limited visibility from France into what is really happening on the ground
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Underinvestment in customer relationships and after-sales service.
What the mission includes
• A candid diagnosis of the real situation: commercial, operational, financial, and human.
• A prioritized recovery plan, with the corrective actions to take and the order in which to take them.
• Execution oversight: setting up a KPI dashboard, performance reviews at the right cadence, and the ability to make decisions quickly.
• Remote management or on-site presence, depending on urgency and the level of deterioration.
A second chance, if you act fast
The first six months of an operation always reveal gaps between assumptions and reality. That is normal — provided you spot them in time and adjust. The later the diagnosis, the heavier the recovery.
Your U.S. operation may deserve a second chance.
What matters is understanding, without euphemism, what went wrong.