2026-04-21 · 9 min
Spin-offs fail quietly. Day 1 is achieved, the announcement is made, and then the new entity spends two years operating on transitional services it cannot exit, with a cost base designed for a parent it no longer belongs to.
Successful separations start from the target operating model of the new company, not from the parent's current estate. The question is not 'how do we split this?' but 'what does this company need in order to operate independently, and what is the shortest credible path to it?'
TSAs should be designed as exit plans from the outset, with defined service scope, pricing, duration and the specific capability the receiving entity must build before termination. A TSA without an exit plan becomes permanent dependency.
Finally, separation governance needs authority. A Separation Management Office that can only report status will not resolve the dependency conflicts that determine the timeline.
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