Client Story
Independence Pet Holdings: Building Leadership and Care-Led Change Across a Growing Portfolio
Helping people and culture momentum move across a growing pet insurance and services portfolio.
Opportunity/Challenge
Independence Pet Holdings was bringing together a growing portfolio of pet insurance and services businesses across brands and geographies. The enterprise needed leadership practices that could connect the portfolio without flattening the strengths of its individual companies.
Growth also placed new demands on the People Team. Leaders needed clearer insight into enterprise capability, succession priorities, and the cultural conditions required for care-led organization transitions.
Nikoleta & Associates partnered with IPH from 2025 onward to strengthen leadership capability, deepen the People function, and guide organization changes with clarity and care.
The work was designed around a practical question: how could IPH create greater coherence across the enterprise while helping each operating company remain connected to its people, customers, and purpose?
“You and your team have been such a bright spot for me because you were exactly the kind of resource that the people team needed when they were floundering.”
Solution and Implementation
The work connected enterprise leadership capability, a care-led organization transition, and deeper Canadian HR capacity.
Project EPIC began with two rounds of Listening & Engagement involving just under 50 leaders. More than 22 hours of conversation across the Executive Committee and senior leadership surfaced five primary themes with more than 90% alignment, alongside five broader themes.
Those insights shaped a four-part leadership frame: Mindset & Beliefs, Behaviours & Presence, Capabilities & Focus Areas, and Talent Priorities. Four operating-company reports added local perspective while preserving a shared enterprise view.
For the PetPlace transition, NKA used an Anchor, Impact, and Implement frame to connect the business case with financial, legal, people, and operational implications. New reporting lines and stabilization priorities were designed around respectful team-member experience, values-led exits, and clarity with care.
The Canadian People Team was strengthened through total-rewards work, severance guidance, career-transition setup, HR business partnering, and coaching support for the Toronto HR Manager.
Results and Future Outlook
IPH established a clearer leadership foundation for growth, succession, and care-led change across its portfolio.
The leadership work gave the enterprise a shared view of the capabilities and behaviours needed for its next stage, while the operating-company reports made the findings locally useful.
The organization-transition work connected business decisions with a more thoughtful team-member experience, and the Canadian HR work added practical depth where the business needed it most.