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TRANSACT IONS LONG POINT CAPITAL ANNOUNCES SALE OF INVESTMENT IN WOOLPERT Long Point Capital announced it sold its investment in Woolpert in connection with a new strategic investment by MSD Partners, who are partnering with the Woolpert management team. With its exit from Woolpert, Long Point Capital continues to establish its reputation as a premier partner to the management teams of professional services companies. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1911, Woolpert is a leading global provider of architecture, engineering, and geospatial services to a wide variety of public, private, and government clients. The company today has more than 1,100 dedicated employees at 42 offices and is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. Long Point made its investment in Woolpert in December 2017. Since that time, in partnership
with Long Point, Woolpert tripled its profits, completed six strategic add-on acquisitions, expanded into new geographic markets, and developed new lines of service, including strategic consulting and data-as-a-service. “Long Point lived up to their reputation – they have been a great partner for me and my management team”, said Scott Cattran, Woolpert president and CEO. “They became my trusted advisor. They provided the strategic and tactical advice that played a critical role in helping us achieve our growth plan. I could not have picked a better partner.” Ira Starr, Long Point Founding Partner commented, “We have had a great experience working with Scott and his team. It is an honor to work with such a smart, talented, and committed management team. We are very proud of our role in their great success. We are very confident that they are well positioned
for continued growth as the premier AEG company in the industry.” Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies globally. Woolpert has been America’s fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has more than 1,100 employees and 42 offices in three countries. Long Point Capital, with offices in New York and Michigan, seeks to partner with and invest in leading founder, family, and management- owned businesses operating in defensible niches with stable demand, highly capable management teams, and strong growth prospects. Long Point focuses on professional services companies and opportunistically niche manufacturing and distribution companies, typically with $5 million to $30 million in EBITDA.
TIM SPENCE, from page 3
3)Leadership. To empower leadership at all levels, this new structure designates executive, national, studio, and project leaders. For example, in the discipline of architecture, the chief operating officer serves as executive leader, the director of architecture as national leader, the architectural lead as studio leadership, and project architect as project leader. This creates a contiguous thread of leadership from the executive team to the project team. 4)Right person, right seat. In keeping with the Entrepreneurial Operating System, a right-person-right- seat analysis ensured that proper leaders were placed in key executive and national roles. Tools like Clifton StrengthsFinder and Cultural Index were employed to understand individuals’ leadership capabilities, and then designated leaders were charged with creating their own teams. 5)Accountabilities. Also in keeping with the EOS methodology, responsibilities for each role were condensed into five accountabilities based on the SMART acronym: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. ❚ ❚ Execute. Using Prosci’s ADKAR change management model, we rolled out the new structure with the following headlines: Why is BSA changing? What is not changing? How is BSA changing? What is BSA changing? Using a fail-fast mindset, macro changes were implemented, knowing it was imperative that leaders at the studio and project levels understand the micro implications. ❚ ❚ Sustain and grow. Having worked under the OneBSA structure for nine months, BSA has seen outcomes any firm would appreciate: increased revenue, greater profitability, and improved quality. More important, the firm is working better across geographic boundaries, a result that has been accelerated by work-from-home policies that allow work to be done regardless of location. In other words, the third way – the OneBSA way – empowers leaders at all levels and provides a foundation for growth. For firms that have evolved beyond the either/or centralization debate, it offers a sound path forward. TIM SPENCE is the president at BSA LifeStructures. He can be reached at tspence@bsalifestructures.com.
firm’s structural deficiencies. In response, the firm created a leadership subcommittee to examine the current state and outline changes that would better align the firm across its locations. While the analysis was voluminous, the guide for change was concise, covering a simple A3 document with the following headings: background, current state, goals, analysis, recommendation, and implementation plan. Within eight hours, the leaders aligned around the Lean A3 tool. ❚ ❚ Plan. Developing a plan required attention to five key factors: 1)Structure. To communicate the OneBSA concept, the firm adopted a matrix presenting leadership across two perpendicular axes: practices (healing, learning, and discovery) and disciplines (architecture, engineering, planning, and interiors). BSA’s missional magic of “creating inspired solutions that improve lives” occurs at the intersection of practices and disciplines. See an example of this below.
2)Design. Having focused on raising the visibility of its design over the past five years, leadership wanted a structure that reflects a design emphasis, so design was elevated as a separate discipline integrated into the existing disciplines.
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THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 24, 2021, ISSUE 1393
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