Turnaround strategy at ‘skills for Southern Sudan’ organization

Abstract

Many firms experience trends of deteriorating financial performance at some point in the organizational life cycle as a result of internal and external factors. Management can respond by selecting strategies that redirect the resources in an attempt to improve firms’ competitive position. The aim is not only to halt the decline, but also to generate the means for a substantive recovery. Therefore turnaround is considered to have taken place when a firm recovers adequately and regains performance. Skills for Southern Sudan was established in 1995 in UK as a programme of Windle Trust International (WTI). However the organization lack of clear corporate strategy and other external factors resulted to decline in performance. The study was modeled on a case study design whereby qualitative data were collected focusing on turnaround strategy at Skills for Southern Sudan. Primary data was collected using an interview guide and secondary data were collected from organization annual financial report for various years and the organization brochure and website. Content analysis was used considering the qualitative nature of the data collected through in-depth personal interviews. The research findings indicated that to confront the declining performance the organization employed operational restructuring coupled with change of senior management team, which saw the exit of previous chairman of Board of Trustees and Board members in Africa. It also changed its Finance & Administration Manager and the Programme Manager, but they did not change the Director. In operational restructuring the organization reduced costs, increased revenue generation, reducing direct costs and slimming overheads in line with volume. The process involved all the stakeholders to provide support for the much needed changes. Based on the findings it can be concluded that for turnaround strategy to be effective, an organization needs to make the turnaround process all inclusive and in order to reduce internal conflict an external consultant