Turnaround of a Enterprise Software Company
Industry & Scope :
- CRM software company based in Switzerland, with subsidiaries in Germany & Austria.
Role / Function :
- Being Partner of the lead investor and in parallel CEO of the respective software company.
Business Context :
- It was a late-stage investment, i.e. the company was already well established in the market and had an excellent reputation.
- Due to an unfortunate coincidence of internal and external adverse effects the company got into financial distress.
Actions :
- Reduced the cost base and discontinued the geographic expansion to compensate for the sudden market contraction (burst of the ‘Internet Bubble’).
- Compensated the leadership vacuum, caused by the resignation - due to personal reasons - of the highly respected CEO and co-founder of the company.
- Implementation of an appropriate controlling to achieve the required financial transparency and in order to improve processes and structures.
- Focusing of the R&D activities to ensure the timely release of the new software version.
- Preparations and initial negotiations for a trade sale to a strategic investor.
Outcome :
- The company was back on its growth path and the operative turnaround was achieved.
- The motivation of the employees and their faith in the company was restored.
- Trade sale to the identified strategic investor was subsequently executed sucessfully.
