Record 03.1
2024
Growth Reset
Owner-managed services group · Consumer & Retail
A founder-led group with nine service lines, flat profit and no agreement on where to invest next. We reduced the plan to four decisions.
- 9 → 6
- Service lines retained
- +4.2 pts
- Operating margin (sample)
- 6 weeks
- Mandate length
Sample demonstration figures — not client data
A
Challenge
Revenue had tripled in five years while operating profit stayed level, and no service line could be defended on its own economics.
Two shareholders wanted acquisition; two wanted consolidation. Neither position was supported by evidence the board could test.
B
Intervention
Rebuilt contribution reporting at service-line level, stripping shared cost allocations that hid loss-making work.
Ran a six-week decision programme: market sizing, capacity modelling and a shareholder alignment session on capital priorities.
Sequenced the plan into four funded decisions with owners, thresholds and review dates.
C
Outcome
Three service lines were closed or repriced; two received the capital previously spread across all nine.
The board now works from a single quarterly decision brief rather than competing narratives.
Growth was never the problem. The absence of a shared basis for deciding was.
Other records
03.2
Capital & Governance
Four assets, three funders and a board asked to approve capital cases it could not compare. We built one basis of evidence.
03.3
Operating Model
Three offices, one brand and three ways of working. The firm was losing recoverable hours in the hand-offs between them.