1When I first joined the company three years ago, morale among the staff was terribly low.
2Sales had fallen for eight straight quarters, and the debts of the company were mounting dangerously fast.
3The founding family still made every single important business decision informally around their own dinner table.
4My first task as chief executive was simply to listen carefully to everyone on the factory floor.
5The experienced workers on the production line knew exactly which of our products customers had quietly stopped buying.
6Together we made the painful decision to cut half of the product line within just six months.
7We then invested all of those savings in newer machines and serious long-term staff training.
8I also worked hard to separate family ownership completely from the daily management decisions of the business.
9Clear roles and written responsibilities finally stopped the bitter arguments that had paralysed the whole company for years.
10By the middle of the second year, export orders from our old customers abroad slowly began to return.
11Last month we finally and proudly recorded our first real operating profit in five very difficult years.
12In my experience, successful turnarounds are far less about personal genius and much more about honest patient listening.