Look, I’ve seen my fair share of corporate “turnarounds.” Most of them look like putting lipstick on a pig — fancy marketing campaigns, splashy rebrands, CEO interviews about “exciting new directions.” But here’s the thing: real turnarounds aren’t about the show. They’re about the soul.

Let me tell you a story about perception versus reality. Remember when Red Bull first came out? The drink tastes like someone bottled battery acid (sorry, Red Bull, but you know it’s true). Yet they sell billions of cans every year. Why? Because they don’t sell taste — they own human performance. That’s not marketing magic. That’s positioning genius.

But before we dive deep, let’s get something straight: most “experts” are full of it when it comes to positioning. They treat it like a marketing exercise, like picking the right font for your logo. Here’s why they’re wrong.

Think about doctors and athletes for a second. A surgeon can’t decide whether kidneys belong in your elbow. An athlete can’t decide gravity doesn’t exist. They’re bound by physical laws. But in positioning? The only limits are in your head.

As Al Ries and Jack Trout (the gods of positioning) put it in their book “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”: “Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect.” Mind-blowing, right?

Let’s look at some companies that came back from the dead—not through marketing tricks but through the hard work of rebuilding from the inside out.

Take Apple. When Steve Jobs returned in 1997, the company was 90 days from bankruptcy. What did he do first? Launch a fancy ad campaign? Nope. He cut 70% of their products. “Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things,” Jobs said. He knew that fixing the inside (IQ — Strategy) had to come before polishing the outside (EQ — Brand).

Here’s what happened:

• 1997: Losing $1.86 billion
• Cut product line from 350 to 10
• 2007: Making $3.5 billion
• Stock price: From $3.30 to $94.00

But here’s where it gets interesting. While Jobs was cleaning house internally (the IQ part), he was also rebuilding Apple’s soul—its positioning—not as a computer company but as the intersection of technology and liberal arts. That’s the EQ part, and it’s pure genius.

Or look at Microsoft under Satya Nadella. When he took over, Microsoft was the tech world’s grumpy uncle — rich but irrelevant. Nadella didn’t start with a rebrand. He started by changing the culture from “know-it-alls” to “learn-it-alls.”

“The learn-it-all does better than the know-it-all,” Nadella wrote in his book “Hit Refresh.” That’s not just a cute saying — it’s positioning that starts from the inside out.

Now, here’s where most companies mess up. They try to fix their brand before fixing their business. It’s like putting a fresh coat of paint on a house with a crumbling foundation. As marketing guru Seth Godin says, “You can’t out-market a bad product.”

Think about Netflix’s epic fail in 2011. Remember Qwikster? When they tried to split their streaming and DVD services, they lost 800,000 subscribers in three months, and their stock dropped 77%. Ouch.

But here’s what’s fascinating: Reed Hastings didn’t blame marketing, he didn’t launch a PR campaign, he fixed the core business. They poured billions into original content, built better technology, and focused on one clear position: the future of entertainment.

The result? They went from near-death to 230 million subscribers globally. That’s not a marketing win. That’s a positioning win backed by operational excellence.

Here’s what I’ve learned watching these turnarounds:

Fix the Inside First (IQ — Business Strategy)

• Get your operational house in order
• Build systems that work
• Create a culture that delivers
• Make your product actually good

Then, Align the Outside (EQ — Brand Strategy)

• Find your unique position
• Own a concept in people’s minds
• Let marketing amplify truth, not create fiction
• Build emotional connections

As Peter Drucker (the OG of management thinking) said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But I’ll add to that: Position eats marketing for lunch.

Want to know if a turnaround will work? Ask these questions:

• Are they fixing the core business or just the marketing?
• Do they own a clear position in people’s minds?
• Does the inside (IQ) match the outside (EQ)?
• Is the CEO focused on perception or reality?

Here’s my favourite example of getting it right: When Satya Nadella took over Microsoft, he knew they needed both IQ and EQ. Inside, he rebuilt the culture and focused on cloud computing. Outside, he positioned Microsoft not as the Windows company but as the enabler of digital transformation.

The result? Microsoft went from tech’s dinosaur to a $2.8 trillion cloud giant. That’s what happens when you nail your business’s IQ and EQ.

Look, turning around a dying company isn’t rocket science. But it is brain surgery—you’re literally rewiring how people think about your business. Start with the core, fix the foundation, and build your brand on truth, not tricks.

As Steve Jobs put it, “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.” That’s what real turnarounds are about making things better from the inside out and then letting the world know about it.

Want to fix your company? Stop thinking like a marketer. Start thinking like an architect of perception. Because, in the end, positioning isn’t about what you say. It’s about what they think. And that’s the truth about bringing dead companies back to life.