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Chief Executive Officer (Leadership Transformation)
THE CHALLENGE
Prior to this UK hi-tech business being acquired by Private Equity; it was founded by four engineers in 1999 and had built a heritage of engineering excellence and was a globally recognised product range trusted by high-end customers.
However, whilst the technology was proven and admired in motorsport, high performance automotive, marine and aerospace , the company was too heavily engineering-led and lacked the commercial leadership, financial discipline, and market focus needed to unlock the next stage of growth. The areas highlighted below were the key challenges facing this business:
- Commercial gap: The company has world-class technology but has lost touch with the market and customer needs.
- Leadership gap: No clear strategic vision or disciplined execution framework.
- Financial gap: Weak financial controls, limited reporting, and poor cash generation.
- Growth gap: A relatively narrow market focus with untapped potential in adjacent, more favourable industries globally.
THE SOLUTION
We were therefore hired by the PE House to appoint a new CEO to lead the business’ transformation and reposition it for sustainable growth and global scale.
In response, we set up client briefing calls with the key PE stakeholders to gain a much more thorough understanding of the business and the key challenges that they understood that the business was facing from an operational and strategic perspective which contributed to finessing our search strategy. This detailed framework would work as the blueprint to our search and how we would assess suitable candidates.
That said, this was a difficult undertaking as this business needed a unique CEO; someone who was commercially entrepreneurial, skilled at guiding and working with engineers, able to open up new markets while preserving the company’s heritage.
We devised a rigorous target list of relevant organisations to tap into, along with dedicating a lot of time to consulting with our network in this hi-tech space which resulted in the identification of excellent talent that was not on our radar.
The positioning of this critical leadership role was pivotal. Many candidates withdrew from the process as there was a reluctance on their part as they felt the business had to many challenges operating in such a competitive market; however, we ensured that all candidates were overly prepared and were privy to as much detail on the business as possible, by signing NDAs that allowed them access to as much information as possible in order to make an informed decision on the business and the PE’s strategy for value creation.
THE RESULT
After what was a tough process, we finally secured the ‘perfect’ candidate who had demonstrated their ability to operate successfully in entrepreneurial high growth environments, had scaled organisations in relevant industries and had built a solid reputation and impressive track record of working at the intersection of engineering and commercial markets. He/ she also needed to bring a relevant network in the industrial markets this business operated in, along with a global outlook and a growth mindset.
The impact
Ultimately, we ended up placing a fantastic CEO to the business who brought all the required attributes and relevant experience set who has landed extremely well and is on a mission to do the following:
- Position the business as a globally competitive leader in electrical drive systems.
- Expand the company’s addressable markets, creating new avenues for growth.
- Deliver margin and EBITDA improvements through commercial rigour and operational excellence.
- Lead a cultural shift that unlocks the potential of a circa 220 team.
- Create significant shareholder value while leaving a lasting leadership legacy.
