Case Study: Partner Buyout of Established and Diversified Business
Situation
A 4th generation business with the son assuming a 50% ownership upon the death of his father. Despite 20 years of experience in the business, relations with the surviving partner were acrimonious and contributed to organizational dysfunction.
The Client needed someone in his corner to guide him in leadership, organizational restructuring, developing a senior management team, and counsel through the acquisition negotiations that lasted for more than one year.
Objectives
- Advice and counsel in development of an acquisition plan to buy out the partner.
- Establish a reorganizational plan to turn around operational profitability.
- Formalize the HR function in the company.
- Fill gaps in operational leadership.
- Create a core senior leadership team.
- Create a strategic plan to guide future growth.
Services
- On-going, executive coaching tailored to the specific needs of the client.
- Advice and counsel during the purchase-and-sale negotiations with the partner.
- Hiring a fractional HR Manager to set up a formal HR process in the company.
- Coaching key employees.
- Strategic planning and budget forecasting for a visionary view of the business.
Process
- Formally coach the young CEO in a hybrid model of on-site and virtual sessions.
- Use of the triadic coaching system to focus the team on issues, not personalities.
- Identify and act on organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Establish a goals-oriented culture.
- Restructure the organization to create a company-wide COO reporting to the CEO.
- Introduce best practices to strengthen the CEO’s skills and behaviors.
Results
- 100% ownership and leadership.
- Uniform HR policies and procedures with full-time HR Manager.
- New COO in true “second-in-command” mode.
- Control of “the books” with Corporate Controller.
- New and current employees assumed greater responsibility and reduced daily “drama”.
- Identified additional gaps in the business model that drive strategic planning today.