Kates Consulting is an organization design advisory firm.

Creating long‑term value within a short investment horizon requires more than strong, fit-for-purpose leadership—it demands an organization that is precisely aligned with the underwriting case. In today’s highly disruptive operating environment, that alignment has never been more critical to delivering target deal returns.

Kates Consulting stands out as one of the very few firms with deep expertise in this area. They combine rigorous organization design with a clear understanding of the broader investment context, ensuring that structure, roles, decision rights and capabilities are fully tuned to the value creation plan. That level of focus and insight is rare, making them a trusted partner of choice for organization design work.

As Vetcove evolved from a scrappy early-stage startup into a high-volume organization, Jackie served as a fantastic strategic sounding board. Scaling our platform to hit tens of thousands of veterinary practices and billions in purchase volume required us to fundamentally rethink our organizational structure. We needed to rapidly build out new teams and adapt our operating model, all while maintaining the core efficiency and culture that made us successful in the first place.

Jackie possesses a rare ability to align talent strategy directly with ambitious business objectives. She helped us anticipate critical growth bottlenecks regarding leadership bandwidth and team design before they actually happened. What really stood out was her capacity to translate those complex scaling challenges into a clear, unified path forward that our entire leadership team could get behind. She didn’t just offer high-level theory; she provided genuine partnership in figuring out how to keep our operations incredibly lean while multiplying our impact. Jackie is a brilliant partner for any executive navigating the inherent friction and complexity of scaling up.

Jackie and her team brought a rare combination of deep strategic expertise and genuine partnership during a period of real organizational complexity—we were navigating a major divestiture, a complete shift in our operating approach, and a leadership team that was frankly fatigued by the pace of change.

What set Jackie apart was her ability to quickly grasp even the most complex organizational dynamics, build genuine trust with the team, and turn that understanding into clear, actionable approaches. She also brought a unique ability to translate complex structural change into a story the broader organization could actually understand and get behind. I’d recommend Jackie and her team to any executive dealing with serious organizational complexity.

Working with the Kates Consulting team was instrumental in helping us drive meaningful realignment within our support organization. Their methodology brought clarity and structure to complex operational challenges, while the practical tools and hands-on approach enabled our teams to execute with confidence. The experience was collaborative, thoughtful, and focused on delivering lasting results.

Kates Consulting delivered an outstanding organization design program for our HR business partners. Their command of Jay Galbraith’s methodology translated complex frameworks into practical, immediately applicable tools. What set this program apart was the integration of real business challenges into the learning experience, giving our team the confidence and capability to serve as true strategic partners to our business leaders.

I endorse the Kates Consulting team with absolute confidence. Jackie, Jonathan and the team were part of the Kates Kesler core group of practitioners in what became a scaled, global organization design practice at Accenture. This team of experienced boutique advisors, brings with them deep expertise, honed across scores of great companies. And they bring an organization design methodology that sets the standard in the field.