We invite you to learn about some of the real work we’ve done with select clients.

    Private Equity Portfolio Performance

    Enabling a founder-led start-up to run at full PoWeR and grow

    We support funds in creating value across the lifecycle of their portfolio, as well as with their own internal people strategy. Post-deal, we help investors make robust decisions on the Who, support the development of key executive leaders, and improve top team and organization effectiveness for their portfolio companies.

    Situation & challenge
    • Our client was a start-up that had been growing rapidly and accepted PE investment to help scale for success
    • However, growth had slowed due to:
      • A critical commercial mis-hire
      • The CEO being stretched thin and focused on broken Operations and Finance functions
      • Previous overspending on the wrong initiatives
    • The client approached ghSMART to support the CEO and help the Board understand what was happening and how to proceed
    Scope of work
    • ghSMART conducted a full PWR diagnostic for the client
    • Priorities: Our analysis identified diverging Board views on key priorities and worked with the CEO and Board to drive alignment through org and role Scorecards
    • Who: We assessed the org structure given the newly defined priorities and ensured that the right leaders were in the right roles to execute
    • Relationships: We invested in the CEO to help him reset in terms of how he engaged with both the Board and his team to implement required changes
    Impact and results
    • Our work resulted in clear priorities that enabled the team to reassess their strategic plans and choose to focus on stabilization over geographic expansion in the short- to mid-term
    • With the leadership team, we created a scalable org structure, built to deliver on key priorities
    • We provided a clear talent roadmap for the company, including guidance for new A-player hires (e.g. COO)
    • The CEO was able to focus more on external business priorities and less on day-to-day operations – reporting a shift from “completely exhausted” to “I’m happier and the business has never performed better”
    • The investors are very pleased with the work and referred us to another growth business in their portfolio
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    "No investment is more important than building our teams, and ghSMART helps us do it right."
    Ken Griffin
    CEO Citadel LLC
    "I have worked with ghSMART for over 10 years while I was Chairman and CEO of AMETEK Inc. Our biggest challenge was in sourcing and developing leadership, while growing at a very rapid rate. ghSMART was instrumental in their assessments of potential candidates to facilitate the selection and subsequent onboarding of top tier individuals for high level positions. The ghSMART methodology is superb."
    Frank Hermance
    Chairman Emeritus at Ametek
    "When FORTUNE broke off from Time Inc., we needed to build a high functioning team, much of it from scratch. ghSMART made it possible for us to do that. In an economy where talent is the most important resource, ghSMART understands that resource, and how to get the maximum from it, better than anyone else I know."
    Alan Murray
    CEO at Fortune
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