Restructuring for Tougher Times

How Responsible Leaders Reduce Cost, Strengthen Capability, and Protect Performance

There is a particular moment many Managing Directors recognise.

You are looking at the numbers. Not casually, but properly. Payroll, overheads, energy, borrowing, and insurance. You already know what they are going to say before you finish reviewing them.

The business is not failing. But it is no longer absorbing costs in the way it used to.

You can feel it tightening.

For months, you may have told yourself that things would stabilise. That demand would pick up. That one more contract, one more quarter, one more small improvement would rebalance things. That instinct is understandable. Most leaders are optimists by necessity.

Eventually, though, optimism gives way to responsibility.

At that point, the question is no longer whether change is needed. It is about making that change without damaging the business you are trying to protect.

This is where restructuring enters the conversation.

Not as a sign of failure, but as a normal and often necessary act of leadership when conditions shift.

Why Restructuring Becomes Unavoidable

Very few organisations become inefficient overnight.

What usually happens is far more subtle.

Roles evolve without being redesigned.
Promotions are made without removing old responsibilities.
Processes accrete workarounds instead of being simplified.
People step in to help, and never quite step back out again.

Over time, the organisation continues to function, but it carries more weight than necessary.

In calmer conditions, that inefficiency is tolerable. Under pressure, it becomes expensive.

When costs rise across wages, materials, energy, insurance, and finance, and demand softens at the same time, leaders are forced to look at the business differently. The focus shifts away from who is in post and towards what capability the organisation genuinely needs.

That shift is uncomfortable, but it is also healthy.

Restructuring, done properly, is not about cutting for the sake of cutting. It is about aligning the shape of the organisation with the reality it now operates in, not the one it grew up in.

From “Who Do We Have?” to “What Do We Need?”

One of the hardest transitions for leaders is moving away from personal attachment towards structural clarity.

Most businesses ask the wrong question first. They look at headcount and start asking who might go.

The better question is capability.

What work actually needs to be done?
Where does accountability genuinely sit?
Which decisions are being slowed by structure rather than complexity?
Where is effort being duplicated without adding value?

Once those questions are answered honestly, the shape of the organisation becomes clearer. Often, cost reduction follows naturally from better design rather than from blunt reductions.

This is where experienced support matters. Without it, restructuring can easily turn reactive, driven by urgency rather than judgement.

Simplifying Management Layers

One of the most common sources of hidden costs in growing businesses is management layering.

As organisations expand, supervisory roles are added to cope with scale. Over time, those layers are rarely reviewed. The result is often a structure in which responsibility is diffused, and decisions take longer than they should.

In practice, this can look like managers with very small teams, supervisors overseeing work that largely runs itself, or multiple roles involved in decisions that could sit clearly with one person.

When leaders step back and objectively review management layers, opportunities often emerge to simplify.

The benefits are not purely financial, although payroll savings can be significant. Clearer structures also lead to faster decision-making, improved communication, and stronger accountability. Fewer layers mean less bureaucracy and fewer points where intent can be diluted.

The aim is not to remove leadership, but to make leadership effective.

Redesigning Roles and Combining Responsibilities

Another common inefficiency lies in job design.

Over time, roles tend to fragment. Responsibilities are split to relieve pressure, or new positions are created to deal with specific problems. The original intent may be sound, but the outcome is often a set of narrowly defined roles that rely heavily on handovers.

Each handover adds delay, cost, and risk.

When roles are reviewed with fresh eyes, it is often possible to combine responsibilities in a way that improves ownership rather than reducing it. Well-designed combined roles can simplify workflows, reduce duplication, and make the organisation more agile.

This is not about overloading individuals. It is about creating roles that make sense in the context of how work actually flows through the business.

When done properly, costs are reduced without output suffering. In many cases, performance improves.

Redundancy as a Leadership Responsibility

There are times when restructuring leads inevitably to redundancy.

This is where leadership becomes most visible.

Redundancy is rarely easy, even when it is necessary. Leaders carry the weight of these decisions personally, particularly in smaller organisations where relationships are close, and histories are shared.

Handled poorly, redundancy can damage trust, morale, and reputation for years. It can also expose the business to significant legal risk.

Handled well, it can be respectful, lawful, and clear. People may not like the outcome, but they understand the reasoning and the process.

At Progressa, redundancy programmes are approached with that responsibility firmly in mind. The focus is not only on legal compliance, which is essential, but also on protecting the integrity of the business and the dignity of the people involved.

This includes building a clear business case, designing fair selection criteria, planning consultation properly, and supporting managers through difficult conversations. Communication is considered carefully, not left to chance.

The aim is to reduce harm, not simply reduce numbers.

Protecting the Leaders Who Remain

One of the most underestimated risks in restructuring is what happens afterwards.

When roles are removed or combined, the remaining leaders often inherit broader responsibilities and larger teams. Without support, this can quickly expose capability gaps.

Nothing undermines restructuring faster than discovering that the next layer of leadership is not equipped to operate at the new level.

This is why leadership support is not an optional extra. It is a core part of responsible restructuring.

For this reason, responsible leaders look beyond headcount alone. Before cutting deeper into capability, they explore whether other, less disruptive cost levers can be pulled first.

Reducing Cost Without Cutting Capability: The Energy Lever

Headcount is not the only lever available to leaders under pressure.

One of the most overlooked opportunities for cost reduction sits in energy. Not because energy is exciting, but because it is often unmanaged. Many organisations have never properly reviewed whether they are on the right tariff, whether their contract is competitive, how their usage patterns affect cost, or whether they are exposed to expensive rollover rates.

In a volatile market, those blind spots can quietly drain cash month after month. Then, when conditions tighten, energy suddenly becomes “a problem”, when in reality it has been a controllable cost for years.

Energy optimisation is not a procurement exercise. It is a strategic decision that can materially reduce pressure elsewhere in the business. Done properly, it can also buy you time. Time to restructure thoughtfully rather than reactively, and time to protect capability while still reducing cost.

For this reason, Progressa often introduces clients to Modenergy, led by energy specialist Dave Cribbs. Modenergy provides whole-market comparisons, detailed usage reviews, and ongoing contract management to reduce cost volatility and prevent businesses from being rolled onto punitive out-of-contract rates.

Typical savings for businesses often range from 10% to 30%, depending on consumption and contract history. In some cases, the financial impact can rival, or even exceed, the savings achieved through restructuring alone.

To make that real, here are examples of outcomes Modenergy has delivered for clients:

• Client A: Insurance company with 5 sites
  Previous annual spend: £296,968
  New annual spend: £188,839
  Annual saving: £108,129, a 36% reduction

• Client B: Food manufacturing company with 1 site
  Avoided a rollover tariff that would have increased the cost by 26%
  Final negotiated rate resulted in an annual saving of £83,234

• Client C: Serviced offices with 34 electric and gas meters
  Time saved on energy administration and renewal management: 170 hours per year
  Tariff cost reduction: 12%

These results add an important perspective. They show that redundancy is not the only lever available when reducing cost. In the right circumstances, a focused energy review can release meaningful savings quickly, and reduce the urgency to cut deeper elsewhere.

The value is not only financial. It gives leaders breathing space to make better decisions.

What Responsible Restructuring Really Looks Like

Restructuring is not about panic. It is about design.

It is about creating an organisation that is lean enough to be affordable, clear enough to be effective, and resilient enough to cope with further change.

That requires experience, judgement, and a steady hand.

Progressa exists to provide that support. Not from a distance, and not through generic advice, but through practical, hands-on involvement rooted in real leadership experience.

When times are tough, leaders do not need platitudes. They need clarity. They need support they can trust. And they need partners who understand that these decisions carry real consequences for people as well as performance.

If your organisation is facing difficult choices around structure, cost, or capability, the right support can make the difference between reactive cuts and responsible change.

That conversation is always worth having before pressure removes your options.