The Organizational Diagnosis

Our approach

We diagnose before we prescribe

Most consulting firms sell a framework first and diagnose second. We do the opposite. Before we propose anything, a managing partner spends two intensive days on-site with your leadership team — not interviews and a survey, but a structured process built to surface how decisions actually get made, where they stall, and what's really constraining growth. By the end, the founder and leadership team see the company clearly, often for the first time in years.

We don't import theory that sounds good in a workshop and dies on contact with your business. A lot of consulting is theoretically sound and practically impossible to implement — it assumes a company that doesn't have your history, your people, or your family sitting around the table. We start from what's actually there.
We work with your team at every level to find what they're already motivated to change, and build the implementation around that — not around an external model we're trying to install. Change that sticks comes from people who wanted it, not people who were told to adopt it.
We diagnose where the company really is in its growth, not what the org chart claims, and match the intervention to that reality instead of a generic playbook.
We build leadership teams that cover each other's blind spots, because no one person — including the founder — is naturally strong at building, organizing, growing, and unifying all at once.
We deal directly with family dynamics — succession, sibling or in-law politics, a founder who won't let go, a next generation that isn't ready — instead of treating them as footnotes that good governance alone will solve.
We tie the work to how people are actually held accountable and rewarded, so the change outlasts our engagement instead of fading once we leave the room.

How it works

Three steps, built around your business

The diagnosis

Two intensive days on-site with your leadership team — founder, family members in the business, and key executives. It's a structured, offsite process designed to surface how decisions actually get made, where they stall, and what's really constraining growth. By the end, the team has a shared, honest picture of the organization, often for the first time.

An ROI-prioritized program

We build the implementation program around what the diagnosis surfaces — the two or three things that will move the business most, not a sprawling multi-year roadmap. We talk to people across levels of the organization to find out what they're actually motivated to change, and build the plan around that.

Implementation, with accountability

We work alongside the leadership team to put the program into action, tying it to how people are actually held accountable and rewarded so it doesn't quietly disappear once the engagement winds down. Leadership roles get clarified, family dynamics get addressed directly, and the organization starts running on structure instead of the founder's personal bandwidth.

Who we work with

Founders of family-run businesses, $20–500M in revenue

Typically 200+ employees. Companies that have outgrown what the founder or family can run by instinct alone, but haven't yet built the leadership structure to operate without them in every decision — usually with succession somewhere on the horizon.

Where it usually shows up

The founder is still the bottleneck — every meaningful decision routes through them, and the business can't grow faster than their personal bandwidth allows.
No one person can be great at everything the business now needs; leadership gaps get absorbed by the founder instead of covered by the team.
Past efforts to fix this often meant importing outside frameworks that sound right in a workshop but don't survive contact with how the company actually operates.
The company has outgrown its own structure — processes, accountability, and decision rights haven't kept pace with headcount and revenue.

What success looks like

The founder stops carrying the weight of the organization. Decisions get made at the right level, and the business can grow at the speed the market allows, not the speed of one person's bandwidth.
The leadership team actually covers the business — gaps that used to get absorbed by the founder are held by a team built to complement each other.
The company keeps growing without growth turning into chaos.
The family stays a family — a founder who can enjoy his work, a next generation that's actually ready, and relationships that survive the transition.

Track record

Leadership teams we've worked with

Across industries and geographies, including World Fuel Services (oil & gas), FCC (construction), OSI Engineering (outsourcing), Munich RE (insurance), Agasys (IT), Campbells (consumer goods), Laureate Universities (education), Transportes Soto (transportation), IKEA (home goods), Andrade's (contractors), AT&T (telecom), Sunglass Hut (fashion), Alsea (restaurants), MRC (contractors), Maersk (transportation), Novartis (pharmaceutical), Estafeta (transportation), L'Oreal (personal care), Aspen (pharmaceutical), Telefonica (telecommunications), Energreen (dietary supplements), NovoNordisk (pharmaceutical), DieboldNixdorf (banking), Prudential (insurance), PERI (construction), Huawei (IT), Marti (sports goods), Arendal (construction), Bizzarro (jewelry), Baxter (pharmaceutical), Carolina Herrera (fashion), Unilever (consumer goods), Defiant (oil & gas), CCIMA (real estate development), Santander (banking), Hitachi (electronics), ClearChannel (marketing), and many more.