Case Studies


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Case Studies

(The strategic lens: how unseen leadership pressure and culture dynamics affect portfolio performance.) 

When pressure to perform changes how leaders think. 

I recently listened to an ACG webinar where PE leaders discussed the growing problem of overhang — portfolio companies sitting years past their expected exit. 

When 29,000 firms are “past due,” that’s not a cycle — that’s structural. And the human dynamics behind it are rarely discussed. 

Pressure distorts leadership behaviour. It narrows conversations, turns collaboration into control, and silences the people who see problems first but are then silenced by political headwinds. 

One CEO we advised mortgaged his house to buy into his own fund. Under pressure, he stopped listening to his brain trust — the very people who once helped him win and what had made his company and the other two platform acquisitions attractive.  

He thought he no longer had time to lead that way. 
The silence that followed cost him everything. He only listened to the PE firm’s constant need for proof he was doing all the right things right.  

The firm didn’t like to be told that their management and communication style was crushing this team’s ability to perform. 

The CEO was stuck. His formerly dependable team watched from the sidelines trying to keep the operational ship from sinking. 

When pressure changes how leaders think, portfolio value quietly erodes. 
It’s not just a finance issue — it’s an alignment issue. 

Culture, not capital, determines whether performance rebounds or stalls. 

What’s your experience when trying to lead portfolio companies through the demands of growth? 

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Case Studies

The Human Aftermath of a Fix-or-Sell Mandate 

When the entire senior team walks out, what’s left? 

(The strategic lens Case Study: how unseen leadership pressure and culture dynamics affect portfolio performance.) 

A PE group we supported had just acquired a portfolio of companies. Their job: decide which to keep and grow, and which to fix and sell. 

At one firm they hoped to grow and sell later, the entire senior management team quit within two weeks.  

We were asked to rebuild leadership from the remaining middle managers and guide them to profitability across three unrelated product lines. 

We helped them learn how to work as a team, decode the real causes of weak margins, refresh each value proposition, and keep distributors from bolting. All this change was very de-stabilizing across the organization and especially for these managers suddenly in the spotlight. 

We ultimately chose to close one division that would never be profitable — a hard but necessary call. 

But the biggest challenge wasn’t operational. It was emotional. 

These new leaders were suddenly in roles their former bosses had held. Their peers resented them. The legacy culture said, don’t speak above your pay grade. 
Under pressure, it would have been easy to blame the PE firm, the economy, or “the old guard.” 

Instead, we taught this new leadership team to look below the surface, stay focused on strengths, and confront issues, not people. 

When their division was later sold to a rival and their brand disappeared overnight, they still held together, emerging as the leaders of the combined company two years later. 

More importantly for the partners, they were able to return the investment when that outcome was doubtful. 

Performance turns when people can face the truth without losing heart. 
PE can’t manufacture that resilience, but it can invest in it. 

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Case Studies

When growth on paper hides a cash-flow crisis.

(The operational lens Case Study: how invisible habits block profit and valuation.) 

The managing partner of a large professional services firm with 8 shareholders came to us mystified. The company was growing, but only on paper. 
 

Billable staff worked harder than ever — yet there was no cash for bonuses or to buy out retiring partners. 

We discovered invoices were taking 45 days to send. Accounting was blamed. 
But the real problem? Culture. 

Billable staff saw invoicing as beneath them — a badge of honour to be “too busy” to handle paperwork. Accounting chased details for weeks. 
 

No one talked about the business of running the business — only about their projects. 

Once we taught the team financial literacy and made the impact visible, everything changed. 
Profit rose from 0% to 12% EBITDA. Re-focusing the value proposition plus many other steps gave them pricing power in the highly competitive market. 
Valuation grew from $7M on paper to an $18M offer with 18 months of our engagement 

Hidden thinking habits drain value for current shareholders which is why so many private companies never find buyers never mind have enough cash to buy out aging partners. 

If growth feels like it’s not hitting the bank account, it’s rarely the market, though that story is often used as the ‘excuse’ that defeats alignment to actions that move the needle. 

 
It’s the way the culture talks — or doesn’t — about performance. We hear it. We teach you so you can too.