When the milestone slips and the runway does not stretch.
A result came in late, a round fell through or a customer left. The company needs an operator with the authority to act, starting this month.
What a company in trouble is usually up against
One problem is unusual. Three at once is normal:
Runway shorter than the next result
The money ends before the data does, and every choice trades one risk for another.
Investors who disagree
Some funds want to double down, some want out, and the company is stuck in the middle with no agreed plan.
The team is waiting for news
People can cope with bad news. Silence is what sends the best of them elsewhere.
The founders are too close to it
Founders see the company from inside, and that is exactly the view an outsider can correct.
Our operators have run a company through this before. They step into the seat, get cash under control, rebuild the plan and lead the conversations with investors, lenders and partners that the founders cannot manage alone. The services agreement ends cleanly once the company is stable.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- A cash crisis that needs visibility and control now
- A business in operational or financial distress
- Lender or investor pressure that needs a credible plan
- A leadership vacuum that has stalled key decisions
- Stabilising the business before planning recovery
Not for
- A business that only needs advice or a written report
- A situation whose primary need is a formal insolvency practitioner
- A stable business planning improvements at its own pace
- A one-off review with no mandate to act
Calm authority when the plan has failed
A recovery needs one operator who can act and a structure that holds around them. We match the operator and keep the structure in place.
Close reviews while the pressure is on
We check in with you and the executive often during the recovery and say early if the plan drifts.
Specialists one call away
Behind your executive sits our collective of 800+. A cash question that is really about the contracts goes to someone who has faced it.
A changeover we run
Should your executive need to step away, the next search starts from our notes, and we manage the changeover while the recovery continues.
Calm in the room
When things are bad, a calm person in the room counts for more than a title. We match for temperament first.
The turnaround engagement
Each engagement moves from crisis to recovery with structured urgency.
Rapid assessment (week 1)
Financial position, operational status, commercial pipeline and team capability, mapped with a structured diagnostic framework.
Priority triage (week 2)
The 3–5 interventions that will have the most impact on stabilisation are identified and begun. Ruthless prioritisation.
Stabilisation (weeks 3–8)
Cash flow is visible and managed. Acute operational failures resolved. Lenders or investors briefed with a credible recovery narrative.
Recovery (month 2 onwards)
Processes rebuilt. Commercial momentum recovered. Financial infrastructure strengthened. Business guided from crisis to sustainable operation.
Turnaround triage
The leadership a situation calls for depends on where the business is breaking.
The roles a turnaround usually calls for.
For a complex turnaround, we can deploy more than one operator at once and layer in further specialists as recovery progresses.
Restructuring experience from
The questions buyers ask first
Fractional Boston provides operational and executive leadership support. Where a situation requires insolvency, legal, restructuring or regulated financial advice, we work alongside the appropriate specialist advisers.
