Zombie companies are an execution downside, not a requirement downside
It’s a tough time to be a zombie.
So called “zombie firms” hover in a limbo somewhere between “normal operations” and “can’t meet the payroll.” Freighted down by debt, these firms focus all their efforts on just servicing interest payments, reducing costs, and trying to hold on for one more month.
For a long time, these zombie firms were able to lurch onward, propped up by relatively cheap money and low interest rates. But life, or at least “not death”, is getting tougher. Rising borrowing costs have increased the price of capital, while energy volatility has made forecasting harder. Wage growth is adding to fixed costs.
VP of Product and Portfolio Marketing at Conga.
Each pressure on its own is manageable. However, together, they combine and compound, bringing a struggling business to its knees and then finishing it off altogether
Insolvencies rose 17% year on year in October 2025, and there’s little reason to believe things in early 2026 will be any easier.
Companies don’t become “zombies” overnight. Instead, the insidious and relentless pressure from shifting financial and personnel trends erodes senior management’s ability to invest in growth.
When pricing updates lag and contract terms fall out of step with reality, approvals can slow decisions down. Under sustained pressure, those delays can quickly erode margins.
Unable to adapt quickly enough to changing market trends, these firms begin an inevitable decline, spiraling into zombie-hood and finally accelerating towards their demise.
The true tragedy of the zombie firm is not a failure of ambition or strategy, but execution. The road to failure often begins in the heart of the business, with the core Commercial processes that should be driving revenue growth and shedding risk.
For many businesses, however, these processes are poorly aligned, disconnected, and operating on an inconsistent set of information. That fragmentation turns time into risk that becomes operational inefficiency and finally drags the company to a stumbling halt.
The question, then, is whether businesses can tie these teams back together and fix the way decisions are executed before the damage is irreparable?
Decline is gradual, but looks sudden
From the outside, the collapse of a firm can look sudden. From the inside, it rarely is. There is usually a long period where teams are firefighting. Finance is trying to protect cash. Legal deals with exceptions. IT is asked to patch together workarounds to keep things moving.
This is where the label of “zombie” can be misleading. Many of these companies are active, still full of capable, committed people. What they lack is a consistent and clear view of what commercial decisions should be made and effected across the organization.
Execution begins to slow because every change requires manual effort. Updating a clause in a contract means finding the right version of a contract, checking for amendments, and getting into a queue with all the other demands on legal.
Adjusting pricing means reworking templates, looping in finance, and re-training sales. As pressure builds, the cost of that friction compounds. Things move slower. Data becomes fragmented and untrustworthy, and a clear view of what’s really happening in the business dissolves into a cloud of confused guesswork.
By the time leadership sees the full impact on profitability, options are often limited, potentially fatally so.
The role of IT and transformation teams
Technology plays a big part in how commercial change is carried out, with IT teams often expected to support growth and manage risk while keeping systems stable.
That task becomes harder when all the core commercial processes are spread across multiple products and ecosystems that do not talk to each other.
Visibility drops, data becomes unreliable, and more work has to be handled manually, increasing the burden on IT just as budgets and resources are under closer scrutiny due to falling profitability.
Standardizing execution is less about speed for its own sake and more about creating a shared foundation where the commercial impact of changes is clear and consistently understood.
When sales operations, pricing, risk management and contract logic share a single view of the world, changes can be made once and reflected across the entire business.
With better-connected, consistent data, teams can see the downstream impact of decisions early, rather than discovering problems after margins have already been eroded or market share lost.
This is where integrated platforms that connect product selection, configuration, quoting, contracting, and all their related workflows can make a huge difference. Just as importantly, by reducing handoffs and manual intervention, organizations give IT teams better oversight without turning them into bottlenecks.
The technology itself is not the point. What matters is removing friction so decisions can move through the business at the pace the market demands.
Speed is a form of risk management
In volatile markets, speed is not about urgency for its own sake. When commercial agreements lag behind reality, risk accumulates quietly in every decision and inefficiencies only become visible once margins start to thin.
The impact accumulates through small mismatches between intent and execution, as terms fall out of date, decisions slow, and changes are applied inconsistently across the business.
Technology matters here, but only when it is applied with intent. The aim is not to simply automate existing activity, but to remove friction so teams can trust that decisions are made based on trusted data and carried through cleanly and consistently.
When pricing, approvals and contract terms are governed together, organizations can respond to change without losing control. In uncertain conditions, the ability to adjust commercial positions quickly and cleanly is not an operational advantage; it is a form of risk management.
How businesses avoid becoming zombies
Not every firm under pressure is destined to fail. Some will adapt and emerge stronger. The difference often comes down to whether senior leaders can see and act on issues early enough.
Clear visibility into the heart of their commercial engine, covering contracts, pricing and approvals, acts as an early warning system. It allows leadership to spot where value is falling behind, and correct course before damage is done. It also reduces the strain on people, freeing them to focus on judgment rather than administration.
As the UK economy goes through volatile times, firms that can translate decisions into action quickly will be better placed. Those that cannot may find the “zombie” label an unwelcome change to their brand presence.
Ultimately, resilience is built in the heart of the business. The systems, processes, and controls that determine how the business of day-to-day commerce actually gets done. Under pressure, those foundations decide who adapts and who quietly falls behind.
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