Turnarounds
Food for thought
How Sondra Lehman turned a floundering LSG Sky Chefs into a financial winner by focusing on efficiency and diversification
By Kristy J. O’Hara
Smart Business Dallas | November 2008
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When Sondra Lehman joined the North
America group of LSG Sky Chefs as its chief
financial officer in 2005, she was walking into
one of the worst times in the industry’s and
company’s history.
“After 9/11 the company lost 40 percent of
its revenue pretty much overnight,” Lehman
says. “It had stayed in that state and continued to lose revenue when I joined.”
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the previous
management had tried restructuring LSG Sky
Chefs, an airline catering company that is
part of LSG Lufthansa Service Holding AG.
“If you were not boarding the aircraft
with product or getting the product there,
your job was at risk,” Lehman says. “They
took out some of the brains of the organization. Instead of working smarter, they
were muscling through.”
They cut about 40 percent of employees,
but this proved ineffective, and Lehman
recognized it in the company’s numbers.
“We were losing $1 million a week,” she
says. “As CFO, each week I needed $1 million funding just to make payroll. That’s
how dramatic of a situation I walked into.”
Lehman had to get the company back on
track financially. A year after joining, she
took the top reins as president and chief
operating officer, and through both positions she faced the challenge of turning
around a company severely off course.
“I do enjoy a challenge,” Lehman says.
“Maybe I underestimated how big this was
at times, but my biggest challenge was to
lead the company out of the industry’s
worst downturn in its 66-year history.”
