Testimonial
DEG
Insights
Insights
Cases
Building an enduring business beyond the founder
DEG
- Clarify
- Succeed
- Exit
At a glance
Founder Succession & Exit
Governance & Independent Board Chairing
Business Strategy & Market Positioning
Business Model & Organisational Design
Reduced founder dependency & foundations for long-term succession
Stronger governance & greater strategic discipline
Clearer strategic direction & market positioning
Day-to-day leadership transitioned to the General Manager
Engagement Focus
Outcomes
Calm Head
Richard Fry
General Manager
DEG
Clarifying what the business needed next
Dean van Buuren founded DEG in Timaru in 1991 as a steel inspection business. Three decades on, it had grown into a national engineering group delivering calibration, certification and compliance services across New Zealand’s critical infrastructure.
Success on that scale brings a familiar moment: the point where a founder-led business needs to become clearer about what it is, where it is going and how it will operate beyond the founder.
Elliot from Beyond Potential was brought in to help DEG work through what the business needed next. The work included business strategy and market positioning, reshaping the business model and organisational structure, and strengthening governance through independent board chairing as the business prepared for its next stage.
Building the leadership for what came next
As that direction became clearer, the focus turned to leadership transition. Elliot worked with Dean to shape the general manager role and was part of the process that brought Richard Fry into it. Eighteen months on, Elliot remains engaged as board chair and adviser, working alongside Richard as the business continues to evolve.
Ask Richard what Elliot brings and he names three things. Patience: “he takes the time to listen and learn.” Deep knowledge: “Elliot has a lot of experience. He’s done the learning, the hard yards.” And discipline: “he brings rigour and structure to the process of developing and executing strategy.”
For Richard personally, the change ran deeper than process. “He gave me the confidence to back myself. I do know more than I thought I did. He unlocked that in me.”
Building an enduring business
The business now runs day to day under Richard, across all three divisions and every office, while Dean focuses on the engineering leadership he built the company on.
Succession is not an event; it is the outcome of deliberate design over time, and at DEG the foundations are being laid.
If a business in the same position, with a founder working out what comes next, asked Richard, “Should we bring this guy in?”, he says yes.
