The Graveyard of Good Intentions: The 10 Don’ts In A PE Turnaround

A field-tested playbook to avoid value killers and convert intent into cash, customers, and capability

In a turnaround, time is expensive and patience is short. Deals are closed, capital is at work, and the mandate is clear: create value. Yet most efforts stall in the same places: soft-pedaling talent decisions, mistaking volume for velocity, writing ornate plans that no one can run, and chasing buzzwords that do not touch the P and L. What follows are the 10 don’ts that quietly bury turnarounds, with precise countermeasures you can put on the calendar this week.

1) Don’t hide behind “do no harm”

Listening and learning is wise. Using it as a shield is not. In a turnaround, inaction is harm because yesterday’s habits created today’s problems.

Do instead

• Publish a short Day 10 memo: three behaviors to stop, three you will reward, three decisions due in 30 days.

• Move on the top 2 people risks immediately. Keep, coach, or exit with dignity.

• Put your first irreversible improvement on the calendar before Day 30.

2) Don’t dictate strategy from a tower

Plans that arrive as edicts die in meetings. Plans co-built with the people who must run them survive contact with reality.

Do instead

• Run a 2-week co-creation sprint. The output is one page per lever: objective, three actions, single owner, one success metric.

• Treat your value creation plan as a people plan. Every line names a leader, a team, and the capability that must be built.

3) Don’t let complexity choke execution

Sixty-page decks and multi-tab models look thorough and produce drift. If your team cannot recite it, they cannot run it.

Do instead

• Enforce the One Page, One Owner, One Number rule for every initiative.

• Make before and after swimlanes for each workflow so everyone sees exactly what changes on Monday.

4) Don’t ignore culture and talent

You cannot brute-force adoption. If the plan meets a culture that will not change, the culture wins.

Do instead

• Run a 20-day “trust and truth” diagnostic: manager quality, internal fill rate for scarce roles, time to competence in critical seats.

• Make the CEO the Chief Culture Officer. Publish three trust-building acts you will complete by Day 30.

5) Don’t skip organizational due diligence

Financial and market DD is a science. Org DD often is not. Skipping it is how elegant plans die.

Do instead

• Test change readiness and growth readiness. Identify capability gaps in pricing, commercial ops, supply chain, and service delivery.

• Pair each gap with a concrete uplift program: coaching, apprenticeship lanes, role redesign, or a focused external specialist.

6) Don’t mistake busyness for effectiveness

Calendars fill. Decisions thin. Rework becomes normal. Busyness is a tax.

Do instead

• Limit each exec to three live initiatives. If everything is critical, nothing is.

• Review actions, not just metrics. Every important number has an owner and a next step due in seven days.

7) Don’t defer AI and data literacy

This is not a fad. It is tool-augmented work. Being hands-off means slower cycles and missed signals.

Do instead

• Tie every AI use case to a lever you can underwrite: demand forecasting, price guidance, assisted service, collections prioritization, or working capital control.

• Require four gates before funding: strategy fit, owner and workflow, data readiness, risk and ROI with kill criteria.

• Train leaders to use the tools themselves for one hour a week. Adoption starts at the top.

8) Don’t treat marketing as theatre

If marketing is not tied to revenue and margin, it is a cost center with good fonts.

Do instead

• Move to investment marketing. Track ROMI, price realization, revenue per seller hour, and cohort lifetime value.

• Kill vanity metrics. Require a weekly bridge from spend to margin impact.

9) Don’t cling to annual strategy cycles

Locking the plan in January belongs to a slower world. Turnarounds need continuous course-correction.

Do instead

• Install an operating rhythm that compounds: Weekly Flash, Monthly Bridge, Quarterly Reset.

• Use real-time telemetry. Forward cash, price realization, funnel velocity, contribution margin by SKU or cohort, throughput and rework, talent leading indicators.

10) Don’t underestimate inertia

The old system will quietly pull you back to yesterday. Your job is to be the external force.

Do instead

• Put a stop list next to your start list. Every new practice retires an old one in systems, training, and incentives.

• Celebrate adoption stories weekly. Culture changes when the new way earns status.

The 30–60–90 install that turns don’ts into value

Days 1–30

• Publish the one-page charter per lever and stand up the Weekly Flash.

• Execute one commercial move, one cash move, and one people move.

• Start a 13-week cash view and an exceptions-only deal desk for discounting.

Days 31–60

• Scale what worked and convert to standard work. Remove the old steps from systems.

• Launch two capability sprints: pricing conversations for revenue teams and “first invoice perfect” for order-to-cash.

Days 61–90

• Tie incentives to the two levers moving enterprise value most.

• Draft the exit-back two-pager: why a buyer will pay a premium and which underexploited drivers still remain.

Bottom line

Turnarounds fail in predictable ways. They also succeed in predictable ways. Keep the plan on one page, the focus on adoption, the cadence tight, the telemetry forward, and the culture in view. Treat capability like capital. Stop what no longer serves the goal. Move first on people and price. Measure what changes on Monday. That is how you keep good intentions out of the graveyard and move a buyer to pay for what you built.

Copyright © 2025 VCI Institute. All rights reserved.

References and source notes

• Bain Global Private Equity Report 2024 highlights the dealmaking and exit slowdown under higher rates and frames the need for stronger value creation and liquidity solutions. Bain

• Bain notes the diminished reliability of multiple arbitrage in higher-rate environments, especially for leveraged assets, reinforcing the shift to operational value creation. Bain

• McKinsey’s Global Private Markets Reviews 2024 and 2025 describe a slower era with tougher fundraising, fewer exits, and a premium on operational improvements and repeatability. McKinsey & Company+1

• HBR and related strategy-execution research emphasize that clarity and adoption matter more than ornate plans, supporting the One Page rule and cadence discipline. Harvard Business Review+1

• NIST AI Risk Management Framework and its Generative AI profile provide practical guidance on ownership, controls, and monitoring that align with the four-gate funding model for AI use cases. NIST+1

• Gartner’s AI and GenAI Hype Cycle commentary, and reporting on agentic AI project cancellations, support caution against novelty-driven initiatives without clear ROI. Gartner+1