The Story of PEN

How do you launch & grow a people centred small business enterprise from scratch to over £30m? That’s precisely what Neil and Richard did with the other founders of PEN Partnership, a niche management consultancy, starting in 2012 and culminating in the sale of the business 10 years later.

As a partnership in the truest sense, the 9 founders had to learn all the skills necessary to make it a success; business planning, financial management, sales & marketing strategies, proposition development, recruitment & talent development and – crucially – how to build a winning culture to define the DNA of the organisation and how it served is clients. Coaching and mentoring played a critical role in the development of the business throughout the journey.

It doesn’t stop there. For example, succession planning, keeping pace with dramatic technological change, staying one step ahead of the competition to build a resilient and sustainable business. This all proved particularly significant in the face of the global pandemic of 2020 and the economic fall-out that followed.

Through it all, PEN remained a great success and market interest in it was high. Having decided in 2022 that 10 years was the right time to move to a new home, the partners chose to prepare for sale. With the help of corporate finance advisors, the project to find an acquirer took just under a year and resulted in the selection of Wavestone, a France based consultancy looking to expand its offer internationally.

Richard and Neil lived and breathed this lifecycle experience, from startup to exit. They achieved great business success whilst achieving the much lauded work:life balance, so crucial in the modern era. All of this experience is available through a coaching relationship with either or both of them.