01
Executive search
Find the person once the role is clear. Leaders and specialists in lighting, manufacturing, design and smart-tech — country, sales, operations, R&D.
Berlin · lighting first
Search, diagnostics and advisory — from inside the industry.
When growth stalls, the cause rarely sits in one place. It may be the leadership role, the operating model, the market approach or the culture underneath it.
LightGrow works with mid-sized and owner-led businesses in lighting, design-led manufacturing and smart-tech — from components and controls to country organisations and leadership teams.
Career experience
- Bayer
- LED Engin
- ams OSRAM
- Luxon LED
Twenty years along the lighting value chain. Published in LED professional Review, arc magazine, and regularly on LinkedIn.
The work
Three problems. One principal.
02
Organisational diagnostic
When KPIs fall, succession approaches or two organisations have to become one. An anonymous, non-invasive reading of how the organisation actually works. Structured findings in two to four weeks.
03
Market and organisation advisory
Market entry, operating model, country logic, category and credibility for mid-sized lighting businesses that have outgrown their current setup.
Micro and macro
From the component market to the boardroom.
If you no longer touch pricing, controls and specification, you advise from a distance. If you only sell, you never see the system.
Micro
In the specification channel: components, controls, solutions, price, lead times, the real friction. That keeps the judgement honest.
Macro
Search, diagnostic and advisory with leadership teams. The questions a mid-sized house often cannot ask itself.
See the workRecent work
Three mandates. Three kinds of work.
Client names stay internal. The situations are real.
01
Executive search
Leadership after acquisition — European lighting brand into North America
Situation. A successful family-owned European lighting house had acquired a North American business. The question was no longer whether to enter the market, but who could run what they had bought.
Work. Mapped key positions, overlaps and critical gaps — operations/COO, the North American CEO, the ownership interface. The CEO brief was cultural as well as commercial: someone who could carry a European brand into that market without losing it. A CEO change at the European parent landed in the middle of the process.
Outcome. The first deliverable is the map. The CEO search follows it — not a recycled local sales title.
02
Advisory
Growth and operating model — founder-led design manufacturer
Situation. Leadership was carrying too many hats. Hiring looked urgent. Market focus, the factory and family decision-rights were tangled.
Work. A timeboxed diagnostic of market focus, operating model and role clarity — before anyone was hired. Search for a critical technical role set in parallel, not as a substitute for diagnosis.
Outcome. The company did not hire into an unexamined system. Diagnostic and search treated as one mandate.
03
Organisational diagnostic
Hidden friction — lighting manufacturer, around 1,900 people
Situation. The company appeared successful. Conventional KPIs did not explain the operational drag or the leadership misalignment underneath it.
Work. Anonymous 20-minute assessment across headquarters, the country organisation and two plants — about 1,200 people, including shift workers without email, on paper and a terminal on site. GDPR-compliant. No interview marathon, no interruption of operations.
Outcome. Leadership received a structured map of the hidden dynamics and a set of decision priorities.
The person
Wojtek Cieplik
Polish-born, based in Berlin. Twenty years across the lighting value chain — optical materials, LED packages, modules, fixtures, specification sales and country leadership. That range matters because market problems rarely respect organisational boundaries. Founder, LightGrow Consulting. Independent principal. Collaborates with Brandt & Partners on selected search and diagnostic mandates.
Career
Next step
Discuss the situation.
Thirty minutes. You say where market, team or model is stuck. I say whether I am the right person for it.
30-minute video call