Case study
Assessing and developing leadership through a private equity sale
The context
Our client is one of the UK’s most innovative care-sector software businesses. Its platform gives providers real-time visibility on critical care data so families and carers can see how loved ones are doing.
As the company progressed a private equity sale, investors wanted a clear view of the leadership they were backing: Could the current team sustain and accelerate growth? Where would added capability be needed? Was the CEO set to lead the next horizon?
We were engaged to deliver leadership due diligence and a pragmatic transition plan, holding a dual-client stance: equip the investors with decision-grade insight while building trust with the CEO and team so development could land quickly after completion.
The work
Phase 1: Leadership due diligence & design for investment confidence
Immediately around the transaction, we worked with the investors and CEO to:
- Provide an in-depth, evidence-based view of leadership strengths and future potential
- Map the senior team required for scale (international growth, integrations, enterprise sales)
- Identify targeted capability additions and complementary leadership profiles
- Set conditions for holding productive tension: ambitious, challenging, cohesive
This gave the investors confidence in the growth plan and the CEO a concrete design for the team he would need next.
Phase 2: Building effectiveness at the top
As the new team formed, our focus shifted to how they operated together. In its early growth, the business had been run in a hub-and-spoke model, with the CEO as the central node. That sPost-investment, the focus moved to how the team worked together. A hub-and-spoke model with the CEO at the centre had served early growth; scaling and US expansion required shared leadership.
We helped the team to:
- Strengthen cross-functional collaboration and reduce silos
- Embed an operating rhythm (tight pre-reads; meetings that end with owners/dates/measures; one visible list of cross-team commitments reviewed weekly)
- Create enterprise-level “psychological holding” so resilience and confidence sat across the team, not solely with the CEO
- Use premortems and scenario planning to stress-test priorities before pressure hit
All of this was done in real business moments – quarterly reviews, acquisitions, and market launches – so behaviours changed where value is created.
The impact
For investors: A clear, actionable picture of leadership capacity and a concrete plan to de-risk growth. Since investment, the company has grown fivefold in enterprise value.
For the CEO: The load is shared. A stronger bench allows focus on direction, partnerships, and pace – without becoming the bottleneck.
For the senior team: From dependency to shared ownership. When budget pressure or quarterly targets bit, they drew on agreed rhythms and collective trust rather than reverting to silos.
For the business: A leadership system built for the next horizon – capable of entering new markets, integrating acquisitions, and compounding value.
What our client had to say
“ig played a crucial role in helping the board deeply understand our leadership talent and in designing the senior team. Highly informative and pragmatic, with the healthy tension and drive that keep performance improving.”
CEO
