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Practice turnaround management every day.
How can 21st century management teams do that? First, do not wait for performance to slip. Know that all functions and systems increase and decrease. 
Be aware of all the operational and financial statistics and their interdependence.
Prevent corporate distress by intervening as soon as decline is detected.
In the 21st century, failure to detect the early stages of decline is a breach of fiduciary duty because the tools are easily accessible.
Use the tools of turnaround management to:
- Understand, predict, monitor, halt and transform corporate failure.
- Anticipate, recognize, avoid, neutralize and adapt to interior/exterior threats to long-term survival.
- Recognize, analyze and deal with declining performance before the value evaporates.
The General Principles
Remain vigilant and proactive.
Time is of the essence. Maintain a sense of urgency.
There are no sacred cows – not projects or people.
No wishful thinking. Of course there is more to every decision than the numbers . . . but it all starts with the numbers.
In addition to keeping a constant eye on the metrics:
Liberate cash by reducing working capital requirements.
Create value by taking on projects with a positive return and refusing those that don’t. Use value-based management and performance measurement systems to calculate return and understand profit drivers.
Engage the people who work with the organization. Without their active participation, the organization will never achieve all that it can.
Remain vigilant and proactive:
- Understand exactly where and how value is created in the organization
- Predict future cash flows with budgets and models, and understand variances to perfect forecasting
- Monitor whatever performance measures are found to predict cash flows and profits, if not daily, no less than weekly
- Halt decline so as to ensure the firm’s survival -- by whatever means necessary
- Transform from a complacent organization that only reacts to crisis to one that is constantly changing from a position of strength
- Anticipate the downward facing performance curve and taking action in advance
- Analyze accurate, real-time accounting data to know where the entity has been and where it is going
- Avoid projects that destroy value
- Neutralize decline by shedding unproductive assets
- Adapt to external threats by understanding the environment
- Recognize when clusters of predictive indicators are sending alarms
- Deal with performance problems immediately upon notice