David Davis: The turnaround expert?

I'll post on David Cameron's homeland security speech later today - when I've digested the full text.  In the meantime George Trefgarne has unearthed some interesting quotes from a book by David Davis - How To Turn Round A Company. Mr Davis wrote the book after serving as Tate & Lyle's strategic planning director.  Mr Trefgarne quotes Lord Moynihan, a colleague of DD at T&L, as saying "David's reputation in the company was extremely high." 

George Trefgarne:

""The turnaround expert," Mr Davis writes in the introduction to his book, "is often portrayed as a hero. In the aftermath of a rescue it may look that way but when he enters the company this is rarely the case."  He adds: "In a typical crisis situation the key decision is the change of the leader. From this decision virtually all others flow."

A new leader must have "psychological control", "challenge everything" and "follow up everything". He must take brutal decisions, such as redundancies, first. And his brisk demeanour should "ripple through the organisation".

Mr Davis says any successful turnaround expert will have two characteristics. "Firstly, it will be very apparent, or he will make it apparent, that without radical action on his part all will be lost"; and secondly, because he is not associated with past disasters, he will have a honeymoon period of about 100 days."

It is not clear whether Mr Davis regards the Conservative Party's electoral plight as as serious as a troubled company but we now have a little more insight into what a Davis CEO-style leadership might look like...

Comments

[Selsdon Man]

My immediate thought is why did we need to employ David James to undertake the efficiency review? If Mr Davis is a turnaround expert, surely he could have done it for nothing! That would have been more cost-effective!

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