Consequential decisions fail on the assessment more often than on the execution
Organizations commit to a transaction, a market, or a restructuring on a picture that was never tested. The picture is assembled from what people inside already believe, from information that is incomplete, and under a timetable that discourages anyone from asking whether the premise still holds.
By the time the gap between the picture and the situation becomes visible, the commitment has been made and the options have narrowed.
Approvia exists to test the premise before the commitment, and to stay through execution where that is what the situation requires.
Establish what is actually true, distinguish it from what is assumed, and say so plainly to the person who has to decide.
Engagements begin with an assessment
What follows depends on what it finds. Each engagement is accepted with discernment, applied as much to who the work is for and with as to what is taken on.
Assessment
A structured read of what is actually true about an organization, a market, or an opportunity. Where the picture holds, that is said plainly and the engagement can end there. Where it does not, the gap is named along with what it would take to close it.
Leadership
Interim executive and program leadership when the work matters more than the org chart. Taking a defined mandate through to completion, or holding a seat through a transition.
New markets
Whether the opportunity is real, who to partner with, and how to structure the relationship. In Canada and internationally.
Transactions and capital
What the deal actually is, what the counterparty actually wants, and what happens after close. Diligence support, structuring, and organizational design following a transaction.
Adam Kerdani, CD, MBA
Adam Kerdani is the Principal of Approvia Solutions Inc. He structures and evaluates complex, cross-border transactions, and advises boards and executive teams through acquisitions, capital decisions, and periods of institutional change.
His commercial grounding is in investment banking, commercial real estate, and derivatives trading, including a period running transaction structuring and compliance at a Toronto corporate finance firm, where he managed more than fifteen transactions concurrently. Since 2022 he has advised private and multinational companies on organizational structure, acquisition strategy, and capital discipline.
Before that he spent fifteen years as a commissioned officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, first as a Naval Warfare Officer and later as an Army Intelligence Officer, providing decision support and risk assessment to senior commanders. That work is the source of the discipline underlying the practice: reaching defensible conclusions from incomplete information where the cost of being wrong is high. He received the Chief of the Defence Staff Commendation for leadership on deployment with Task Force Niger.
He serves as Board Director and Treasurer of the Veteran Business Network Institute and on the Finance Committee of the Rideau Club in Ottawa, and has served on the boards of two United States healthcare acquisition platforms. He holds an MBA with Great Distinction from HEC Montréal, is completing the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program, and has completed executive programs at Oxford Saïd and NYU Stern. He grew up across Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, works in English and French, and has conversational Arabic and Italian.
He is also the Principal of Accendev Inc., a private holding company through which he acquires and holds operating businesses.
Recent work
Client names are not published and engagements are described at a level that does not identify them. Each was delivered within a small consulting team; what is described below is Approvia’s own contribution.
Operational accountability across multi-plant manufacturing
An industrial group with several North American production and processing plants was missing order deadlines and losing margin despite stable demand. Accountability across three core departments was undefined, the quality control framework had stopped functioning as designed, and the same operational errors kept recurring.
Engaged within a small consulting team to conduct the analysis and formulate recommendations for an accelerated operational assessment. Worked from the complete interview record, eighteen interviews across production, commercial operations, and sales, alongside the organization’s existing structures and reporting relationships. Established where accountability was undefined between the three departments, and where individual actions were disrupting downstream production without anyone upstream being aware of it. Formulated the recommendations that followed: redefined role boundaries and a rebuilt quality control framework.
The findings were presented and worked through with client teams at a facilitated alignment session, and the recommended boundaries and framework were adopted. Production delays and preventable errors fell measurably within thirty days of that session. The business unit reported improved margins in the following half-year.
Regional structure following a multi-asset acquisition
A multinational industrial group had completed a series of large acquisitions combining an upstream production asset with a downstream distribution network in a single region. Integration had stalled. Regional leadership was operating in isolation from the group’s functional centres, and an executive span of control that had grown too wide was delaying decisions on a major capital project.
Engaged within a small consulting team to conduct the analysis and formulate recommendations for an organizational assessment of the regional business. Worked from the complete interview record, thirteen interviews with key people across the region, alongside the existing structures and reporting relationships. Established where engineering handoffs were breaking down, and why the centralized structural models then under consideration did not fit local operating conditions. Formulated the recommended alternative: a dual-reporting matrix balancing global functional expertise in engineering and procurement against local commercial agility.
The client adopted the matrix structure. The decision pipeline on the stalled capital project was unblocked and the project proceeded.
Other engagements include multiple regional team alignments for a multinational chemicals group, structured assessment and reporting on senior executives, and continuing organizational development mandates.
Three kinds of decision maker
Owners and founders
Facing a transaction, a succession, an expansion, or a structural change in a business they built, and wanting a read that is independent of the people who will execute it.
Boards and investors
Needing independent judgment on a proposal, a market, or a management case, separate from the analysis prepared by the party advancing it.
Management teams
Carrying a mandate that exceeds current capacity, or needing someone to hold a seat and take the work through to completion.
Plainly structured, and said upfront
Scope
A defined mandate with a stated deliverable and an end date, or a continuing advisory relationship. Interim and program leadership mandates are scoped to the work rather than to a calendar.
Fees
A fixed fee for defined scope, or a monthly retainer for continuing work. Where a mandate warrants it, a portion may be structured as success or equity participation, agreed in writing at the outset rather than negotiated later.
Confidentiality
Engagements, identities, and anything shared along the way are not publicized. A non-disclosure agreement can be put in place before any confidential detail is disclosed.
Independence
Approvia does not accept a mandate where an existing interest would compromise the judgment being bought. Where a conflict exists, it is disclosed at the outset and the mandate is declined if it cannot be managed.
Work is accepted on the basis that the conclusion is not agreed in advance. An assessment that cannot return an unwelcome answer is not worth commissioning.
Start a conversation
Inquiries are received directly by Adam Kerdani, treated with discretion, and answered with a considered response.
Approvia Solutions Inc. · 150 Elgin Street, Suite 1000 · Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1L4 · Canada