Cash is tight, and the clock is running.
A turnaround is won in the first weeks, on cash and on trust. It is rarely won by a report.
What makes it hard to act
In a Dutch company under strain, the same things stall action:
Cash is seen monthly and the crisis is weekly
A monthly view of a problem that moves by the week.
Lenders and the tax authority want answers
The bank, the landlord and the Belastingdienst each want a plan and a name to call.
Staff cannot be reduced quickly
Reducing headcount in the Netherlands is slow and has to be done properly, and that sets the timeline.
Too close to cut
The person who built the company cannot easily cut it.
We match operators who have been through this before. They fill the seat, bring cash under control, rework the plan and lead the conversations that are too heavy for the founder to have alone. The agreement is between our two companies, and it winds down when the business is stable again.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- A cash crisis that needs visibility and control now
- A business in operational or financial distress
- Lender or investor pressure that needs a credible plan
- A leadership vacuum that has stalled key decisions
- Stabilising the business before planning recovery
Not for
- A business that only needs advice or a written report
- A situation whose primary need is a formal insolvency practitioner
- A stable business planning improvements at its own pace
- A one-off review with no mandate to act
How we support a turnaround
In a turnaround the executive carries the decisions. We carry the governance around them for as long as the engagement runs.
A tighter rhythm
We check in more often in a turnaround, and speak up the moment the cash plan and reality part.
Experience of hard rooms
Lender talks, supplier standstills and cost cuts are familiar ground to colleagues in our collective of 800+, who your executive can call on.
Steady if people change
A turnaround cannot pause for a change of leader. If yours has to go, we search again with the cash plan and lender history already on file, and lead the handover.
Matched for pressure
We match on situation and temperament. A turnaround needs a leader who stays calm with the bank and direct with the team.
The turnaround engagement
Each engagement moves from crisis to recovery with structured urgency.
Rapid assessment (week 1)
Financial position, operational status, commercial pipeline and team capability, mapped with a structured diagnostic framework.
Priority triage (week 2)
The 3–5 interventions that will have the most impact on stabilisation are identified and begun. Ruthless prioritisation.
Stabilisation (weeks 3–8)
Cash flow is visible and managed. Acute operational failures resolved. Lenders or investors briefed with a credible recovery narrative.
Recovery (month 2 onwards)
Processes rebuilt. Commercial momentum recovered. Financial infrastructure strengthened. Business guided from crisis to sustainable operation.
Turnaround triage
The leadership a situation calls for depends on where the business is breaking.
The roles a turnaround usually calls for.
For a complex turnaround, we can deploy more than one operator at once and layer in further specialists as recovery progresses.
Restructuring experience from
The questions buyers ask first
Fractional Amsterdam provides operational and executive leadership support. Where a situation requires insolvency, legal, restructuring or regulated financial advice, we work alongside the appropriate specialist advisers.
