You can't turn a distressed business around by pulling a lever. In this episode I sit down with Steve Benger, who has spent over twenty years turning around and restructuring businesses under pressure, as an adviser, an investor, and from the chair and the non-executive seat. We talk about how he learned the craft across Europe, why the management team rather than the numbers carries the change, what private sector leaders get wrong in public sector turnarounds, and what it really takes to do this work, including the failures.

Key Moments

00:00 - Learning turnaround across Europe: a pan-European restructuring and the lesson that never left him

04:30 - Taking people with you: why the management team, not the trade unions, carries the change

12:00 - The lever that doesn't work: what private sector leaders miss when they move into the NHS

19:00 - What makes change actually stick, and the hidden heroes who sustain it after you leave

30:00 - "High-risk surgery": the administration that stayed with him, and why nobody has a perfect record

38:00 - Three ways a founder business changes hands: retirement, carve-out or distress, and what each really needs

Connect with Steve Benger

Accelerus: https://www.accelerus.net

Steve Benger on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevebenger

Connect with Us

Website: kingsgate.uk.com

Email: podcast@kingsgate.uk.com

Newsletter: thevalueagenda.beehiiv.com

LinkedIn: Kingsgate

LinkedIn: Steve Swayne

The Value Agenda is Kingsgate's podcast on turnaround, restructuring and value creation.