Leadership Transitions: The Watkins Collection (4 Items)

3

Match Strategy

to Situation

B

Y THE END of his first few weeks at Beta, Paul

knew he was in for a rough ride. During the

recruiting process, his new CEO admitted there

were serious problems and that the company was in turnaround

mode. So Paul arrived prepared to dig in.

But what he found was still a shock. The company was hem-

orrhaging market share, having lost three major accounts and

several smaller ones in the past four months. Now Beta’s largest

customer, Omega Corporation, was threatening to go elsewhere.

The loss of Omega, which accounted for almost 5 percent of

Beta’s revenue in the previous year, would be a crippling blow

to the company.

As Paul learned more, he found that Beta’s problems had

been long in the making but came to a head with startling ...