From 2% to 12% EBITDA: Anatomy of a Mid-Sized Turnaround

A mid-sized machinery and plant engineering company, food processing equipment, 500 employees. Not the company you would first expect for this topic. Its EBITDA margin had fallen from 10 to 2 percent, not because the market had collapsed, but because R&D costs had run out of control, time-to-market had grown too long and field defects had become too frequent. Good product, good people, but processes that had not grown with the company.

What three years of work produced

• EBITDA margin up from 2% to 12%
• R&D costs halved
• Field defect rate down 95% within six months
• Employee turnover down 70%
• Innovation output tripled
• Company value more than doubled

Same team, same product and a structured approach built on systems engineering and clear PMT governance. If those numbers sound improbable together, note what drives them: the same root causes that destroy margin (rework, late changes, unclear priorities) destroy morale and customer trust too. Fix the causes and every symptom moves at once.

What we deliberately did not do

No expensive software nobody understands. No voluminous strategy paper that ends up in a drawer. We found the real bottleneck, built a structured transformation process together with the team, and stayed until it worked and the team could carry it forward alone. The decisive part was not a single measure but the sequence: first the real constraint, then the governance, then the tools.

Where to start in your own numbers

If your margin is eroding while revenue holds, look at the R&D and engineering engine first: how long does an idea take to reach the market, how often does it come back for rework, and who decides when priorities collide? Those three answers usually locate the bottleneck, and with it the leverage. For companies that recognise themselves in this picture, we offer a structured Quick-Check: five days, fixed price, a concrete finding with an action plan.

Which numbers we watch in a transformation like this, and the benchmarks behind them: 7 Most Important R&D and Engineering Metrics for Automotive & Machinery Equipment.

This case study describes a transformation from the professional experience of Christian Doisl, founder of Change Consulting. The company’s name and the time frame remain confidential.

If you recognise your own organisation in this story, get in touch. The first 90 minutes of consultation are free.