INSIGHTS
Notes from inside the work.
Short essays on diagnosis, decision and intervention in stalled situations.
When the Operating Partner has the mandate but not the company
A clear mandate from the fund does not produce traction inside the portfolio company. The two are different problems, and conflating them is one of the costlier patterns we see in 2026.
The IBR is not the decision
An Independent Business Review produces clarity. It does not produce ownership. The two are different exercises, and only one of them changes the company's trajectory.
The district does not save the company
Italian industrial districts entered 2026 polarised, not uniformly stressed. The same shock produces different trajectories — and the difference is built inside the company, not outside it.
The dashboard creates a cadence the decision system cannot match
Faster reporting is becoming standard. The structures that have to act on the reporting are not changing at the same speed. The mismatch is now visible from outside the company.
Private credit is not patient capital
Mid-market borrowers welcomed private credit as a flexible alternative to bank lending. The 2026 reality is more demanding: more options, more reporting, less tolerance for narrative.
Working capital is where governance becomes operational
A working capital build is not a financial problem. It is a record of the decisions the company has not made — written in receivables, inventory, and supplier terms.
When the CFO sees the problem but does not own the solution
The CFO is usually the first person in the company to see what is going wrong. She is rarely in a position to fix it.
When the carve-out is technically possible but operationally fragile
The TSAs are signed. The ERP cutover has a date. The new GMs are in place. The harder question — whether the standalone company can actually decide on its own — has often not been answered.
When the Board understands, but the company still does not move
The hardest situations are not the ones where the Board is uninformed. They are the ones where every member can describe the problem accurately, and yet, week after week, nothing changes.
The successful intervention is the one you can leave
A mandate is not complete when the report is accepted. It is complete when the company can continue without us.
The second turnaround fails for different reasons than the first
After a first attempt has not worked, the company is no longer the same company. The next intervention has to address what the previous one left behind — not just the original problem.
The industrial plan does not fail in the model. It fails in the organisation.
Most plans we see are financially correct. They fail because the organisation that has to absorb them was never asked whether it could.
Negotiated crisis settlement cannot fix a company that cannot decide
Italy's composizione negoziata is becoming the preferred crisis tool. It creates space and time. It does not create decisions.
Management says it is under control. The system says otherwise.
Competent management can produce a coherent narrative while the underlying indicators describe a company that is losing its grip. The two coexist longer than is comfortable to admit.
AI does not remove the accountability problem
Better tools generate faster information. They do not generate clearer responsibility. A Board that could not decide before the dashboard cannot decide after it.
The visible problem is rarely the decisive one
Why the diagnosis you are given is almost never the one you need.
The first 90 days are not for strategy. They are for rebuilding reality.
Before any plan can be executed, someone has to establish which version of the company is actually true.
When liquidity becomes governance
A liquidity crisis is rarely a treasury problem. By the time the bank notices, the cause sits two layers behind the cash.
EBITDA is not control
A better quarter is the most dangerous moment in a stalled company. It is when the room releases pressure on the questions that would have prevented the next decline.
Covenant stress is a credibility test
The breach is not the problem. It is the moment when the lender stops grading the numbers and starts grading the system that produced them.
Exit readiness starts before the company looks ready
Buyers price the trajectory, not the snapshot. The work that determines a sale outcome is done before anyone admits a sale is being considered.