Case studies

Anonymised, but nothing softened

Client confidentiality lets us describe our work without names. The situations, numbers and outcomes are exactly as they happened. Where a client consent allows more detail, we give it in conversation rather than on a page.

International market entry

Industrial group, £80m revenue

A second-generation industrial group weighing DACH entry had spent two years circling the decision. The radar scored regulatory load and partner availability below 60 — both red-flagged with owners.

Entry proceeded through acquisition of a distressed regional distributor rather than greenfield, renegotiated to shift the earn-out to day-one stock conversion. Break-even in month eleven; the group now runs three entities in-region with a quarterly radar the board reads in twenty minutes.

DACH entry live in 14 months · break-even month 11

Board advisory

PE-backed software, £24m ARR

A portfolio company's board had grown to nine seats with three investor observers and no defined decision rights. Papers ran to eighty pages; decisions leaked between meetings.

An effectiveness review across confidential director interviews produced five structural changes: nine seats to six, a delegated authority schedule, a decision-log discipline, a redesigned board pack, and a pricing rebuild commissioned through us and delivered by the management team.

Board pack 80pp → 14pp · secondary at 4.1× forward

Growth & transformation

Family consumer group

A family-owned consumer group with strong wholesale economics and no direct-to-consumer capability was watching its margin migrate to retailers' platforms. The founder's instinct was to build a DTC operation immediately.

The commercial diagnostic said otherwise: wholesale margin was recoverable through pricing architecture and range rationalisation before any DTC investment. Sequenced cutover — pricing first, DTC pilot second — kept the business from funding two operating models at once.

Wholesale margin +3.2pp in four quarters · DTC pilot on plan

Why we anonymise, and what we won't do

Our clients are mid-market companies whose transactions, board dynamics and family arrangements are commercially and personally sensitive. Anonymisation is not modesty; it is the confidentiality they paid for. We describe situations, decisions and outcomes precisely because the specifics are what a board can learn from — never more than the client's consent allows, never a name where the situation would identify one.

What we will not do is manufacture logos. You will not find a client list on this site, and if you ask for references we will offer them the way references should work: named client conversations, arranged with permission, after a first meeting — not a wall of borrowed credibility.

Every case above was governed the same way: one accountable partner, a written problem statement the board signed, and a recommendation with owners and dates.

Ask us about the mandate closest to your situation in a first call. The detail is better in person, and the fit — or lack of it — is usually obvious within the hour.

Next step

Start with the decision in front of your board

Forty minutes, free, candid — including when the honest answer is that we are not the right firm for it.

Book a consultation