Not every turnaround needs the same fix. As a turnaround CEO, I've had to reinvent a distressed acquisition from the ground up, cut a sprawling portfolio down to what actually worked, and rebuild a business through organic and inorganic growth at once — three different diagnoses, three different playbooks, and a comparable result each time. Here's what actually decides which one a business needs.

The story of six acquisitions over the years, from pivoting a struggling payments company into PayLo, to integrating TastyKhana and JustEat.in at Foodpanda, to folding Opigo into ET Now. What separates the executives who do a deal from the ones who stay to live with it.