Lookinglass mediated a fractured partnership and constructed a new agreement that created a re-aligned set of priorities and individual responsibilities.
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Issue
After fifteen years of consistent success, four partners had reached an impasse about the future of their business and their respective roles and responsibilities.
After several months of discussions and negotiations arbitrated by the company’s accountants and lawyers, the partners had decided an objective third party was required to resolve their differences.
Challenge
The Lookinglass team was engaged to mediate the differences between the company’s owners and to design a new agreement that would more accurately reflect the current contributions of each partner.
The solution had to take into account the historic contribution of each individual, and provide a flexible ownership platform that could continue to adapt as the business evolved.
Approach
Lookinglass structured our approach to understand the dynamics of the group and the perspective of each partner. We compared those insights with interviews of the company’s key staff and an analysis of the historic performance of the business.
We designed an ownership model and an expanded legal structure that satisfied the importance of rewarding the partners’ historic contribution while emphasizing the need for the business to grow if any partner was to extract capital value.
We presented this in conjunction with an assessment of the operational state of the business and the obstacles felt by the staff as a result of the partnership’s disagreements.
Current Situation
The partners accepted our recommendations and retained Lookinglass to implement the new legal structure and to finalize the new partnership agreement.
Two years later, the partnership has added additional members and the company has built two new divisions headed up by two of the original owners.
The company’s revenue and operating margins were at historical highs at the end of the latest fiscal year.
