Leadership Alignment at Scale: Lessons From a $35M Firm

Prof. Joe O'Mahoney, Partner at Equity Sherpa, brings Rob Ferrone to this insight-packed session. Rob co‑founded Quick Release in 2003 with a co‑founder, a laptop, and a little‑known niche: Product Data Management for automotive manufacturers. Over sixteen years, he scaled the firm into a global consultancy of ~200 people across five countries, generating ~£35m in revenue with 20%+ growth and margins — before selling the business to €4bn engineering group ALTEN in 2019.

This conversation focuses less on the exit and more on how the value was built. Rob shares how Quick Release evolved from selling day‑rate contractors into BMW and JLR into a specialist consultancy with scalable sales, resilient culture, and aligned leadership. He reflects on breaking founder dependency, professionalising growth, managing a three‑person leadership team under pressure, and what he wishes he’d put in place earlier to make the path from £5m to £35m far less painful.