At a glance
Organisation: A rapidly growing property development company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange
Starting point: Three main shareholders jointly controlled 70% of the company
Outcome: A professional board, lower ownership friction and a later share sale worth approximately PLN 500 million
Context
The company had grown faster than its ownership and management arrangements. Three main shareholders remained closely involved in operational decisions while holding different views of the organisation’s future.
The business challenge
The owners needed to adapt the organisation to its new scale, reduce tensions between themselves and separate ownership decisions from day-to-day management without losing strategic control.
What the diagnosis showed
- The organisational structure no longer matched the company’s size and complexity.
- Ownership and management decisions were made through ineffective, partly informal processes.
- There was no coherent ownership strategy accepted by all three shareholders.
- Different visions of the company affected daily operations, generated conflict and reduced productivity.
What we did
- We developed psychological profiles of the owners and selected key managers to understand decision styles, motivation and potential sources of friction.
- We facilitated workshops in which the shareholders built an ownership strategy acceptable to all of them.
- We translated that ownership strategy into an organisational strategy and clearer governance principles.
- We supported changes to the board and used psychological assessment to help select people capable of working effectively in the new structure.
Results
- Ownership conflicts decreased because the shareholders had a transparent framework for strategic decisions.
- One of the main shareholders left the management board and moved into an expert and advisory role.
- A professional management board began operating with clearer responsibility for the business.
- Four years after the process began, the owners sold their shares in a transaction worth approximately PLN 500 million.
What this case shows
In a growing owner-managed company, professionalisation is not only a change of job titles. It requires an explicit ownership strategy, aligned organisational goals and governance that allows owners and executives to make different kinds of decisions at the right level.
