Case study · Industrial water treatment and machinery manufacturing

Preparing leaders for a company that grew twelvefold

A multi-method Assessment Centre, powered by ApriCOT, moved leadership from founder-driven escalation toward ownership and performance.

Case file02

01Problem statement

Growth had outpaced leadership

Revenue grew from about ₹80 crore to over ₹1,000 crore in just over a decade. Leadership practices and people capabilities did not keep pace.
The organization remained founder-driven, with decisions often escalating upward.
Leaders were technically strong, with gaps in taking ownership, demanding outcomes, developing people and managing ambiguity.
Accountability, execution discipline and cross-functional collaboration were inconsistent, affecting speed and scalability.
Customers expected faster delivery, larger and more complex engagements, and more strategic involvement.
To reach USD 1 billion by 2030, the client needed a people-led, decision-driven, performance-focused leadership culture.

₹80 crore₹1,000+ croreGoal: USD 1 billion by 2030Not to scale

02Process of diagnosis

Started with leadership discussions on the business model, growth journey, challenges and expectations from leaders.
Used these discussions to identify the leadership behaviours critical for the next phase of growth.
Developed a customized leadership competency framework around five competencies.
Designed the assessment so each competency is evaluated through multiple tools, not one method.
Contextualized scenarios to real business situations: decision-making, competing priorities, ambiguity, stakeholder management and cross-functional challenges.

Each competency is evaluated through multiple tools.

03Solution

Customized ApriCOT by PeopleWiz to the client's leadership and business context.
Created business-specific assessment scenarios and simulations.
Assessed competencies using two tools, strengthening the depth and credibility of the results.
Produced individual reports covering proficiency levels, behavioural observations, analysis and recommendations.
Analysed the organization as a whole to find common strengths, development areas and leadership trends.
Built 6-month Individual Development Plans and a leadership development program from strengths, development areas and career aspirations, followed by participant debriefs.
Provided ongoing, customized coaching through ApriCoach.

ApriCOT Role-Play
Role Play assesses behavioural and cognitive competencies through realistic leadership conversations.
ApriCOT In-Basket
In-Basket assesses prioritization, decision-making and problem-solving.

04Impact

Greater leadership self-awareness
Leaders see their strengths, gaps and current proficiency against the capabilities needed for growth.
Stronger pipeline visibility
Objective, structured data on leadership capability supports development and succession discussions.
More targeted development
Development plans focus on specific behavioural gaps instead of generic training.
Improved ownership and decisions
Development in Results Driven and Change Agility helps leaders decide at their level instead of escalating.
Better cross-functional collaboration
Gaps in Collaborative Mindset and Persuasive Communication give a basis to reduce siloed working.
Greater people-management capability
People Development strengthens delegation, feedback, coaching and delivering results through teams.

Leadership aligned with scale

A structured foundation to move from a founder-driven model to distributed, performance-focused leadership.

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