Across my career, I’ve worked in a range of businesses and firms. Some on the front foot, pushing boundaries as they look to grow, and others on the opposite side of the coin: large, established organisations struggling to adapt to a new world that’s trapped them in the past.
I’ve progressed from an entry level legal administrator role to Director and Partner of a national law firm with over 400 staff, and a £50 Millon annual budget.
That journey has taken me on the full rollercoaster: the elation of climbing through layers of management or structuring major M&As, and the fear and anxiety of leading a business with insufficient funds to make payroll or having to let go of people I’ve worked with for years.
Having faced these situations repeatedly, the main thing I’ve learned is this: everything in business is cyclical. The wheel will turn. But as a senior leader, you must act. You cannot remain static.
What’s often difficult to recognise is that your business may already be in crisis! Sometimes that crisis strikes like a sledgehammer; an external shock, such as regulatory intervention or damaging publicity. But just as often, it creeps in through poor operating models, a toxic culture, or disengaged leadership.
Make no mistake: just because the issue your business faces doesn’t demand 5am crisis calls, it doesn’t mean it’s not urgent. It is! The main difference however is that the quantity of medicine required to treat the patient might be the same, but the distribution of the dosage will differ.
In a major crisis, you need high-intensity intervention, whilst structural and cultural issues still require the same amount of effort however the earlier you start the more time your business has to absorb the medicine allowing change to occur more gradually and sustainably.
Arx Nova can support both scenarios however our primary offering exists for the high-dosage cases. When your business is in serious trouble, our model is built for speed, focus, and cross-functional clarity. We act fast to narrow the issues and define a path through the immediate crisis.
I’ve sat in countless management meetings full of buzzwords and acronyms, when what I really needed was a solution to the problem in front of us. That’s what Arx Nova will always prioritise: decisive, solution focused support, whether we’re working in the eye of a storm or delivering sustained transformation.
At its core, Arx Nova is a change agent. We provide senior leadership with critical assessments and the unvarnished truth, enabling you to turn the wheel.
We are Arx Nova, and our objective is always for crises to be contained.
Who’s behind this post?
Chris Johnson
Director & Co-Founder
Chris Johnson is a Chartered Legal Executive and Co-Founder of Arx Nova. He specialises in legal risk, governance, and business restructuring during periods of instability. With over 17 years of experience across the legal and professional services sectors, Chris supports leadership teams to regain control, navigate complexity, and stabilise quickly.
