Services & Approach
Ownership Design Group (formerly Firefly Insights) is a Canadian consultancy dedicated to helping business owners navigate succession, employee ownership, and generational transfers with clarity, integrity, and financial rigour.
Your Life’s Work is in Good Hands
Formerly Firefly Insights – We are now Ownership Design Group
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Our Approach: Discovery, Evaluation & Design
We’re Different Because We Offer a Curated & Tailored Design to Transitioning Ownership
From first the discovery conversation to the flexible ways your employees achieve long-term stewardship, we design employee ownership transfers around what matters most to you and your people, with clear and tangible steps to success.
POSSIBILITIES
We open the door to
conversation about routes you may not have considered — beyond a traditional sale.
OPTIONS
Every business is
different. We tailor structures — EOT, ESOP, or MBO — to fit your unique situation.
PATHWAYS
A clear roadmap from today’s ownership to a secure is set up, in a values-aligned future for your company.
PLANNING
Rigorous, structured
planning is implemented that accounts for the valuation, governance, tax, and timeline.
PARTNERS
We coordinate with your legal, accounting, and your valuation advisors — so nothing falls through the cracks.
Every Business Is Unique : We Tailor Your Transition Path to Fit Yours
Our Services
Support at every stage of the journey
SUCCESSION PLANNING
Not sure where to start, or whether employee ownership is even right for you? This is where most owners begin. We run a diagnostic evaluation to understand your goals and values, then map out the models and pathways genuinely available to you — so you can see all your options clearly before committing to any of them.
CUSTOM OWNERSHIP DESIGN
Design once you know the direction, the details matter. For owners actively building toward a transition, we handle the financial modelling, ownership allocation, and governance design along your chosen path — shaping the structure around your goals for retention, engagement, and a transition that holds up over time.
EDUCATION & COACHING
Becoming an employee owner is a shift in mindset, not just paperwork. We build education and resources for teams in employee-owned companies — whether you’re already there and want it working better, or preparing people for what ownership will actually mean day to day.
TRUSTEE SERVICES
An Employee Ownership Trust needs a trustee who understands the structure and the responsibility. For companies that have completed a transition — or any employee-owned business needing an external trustee advisor — we provide that independent guidance.
EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP AUDIT
Already employee-owned but unsure your structure is working as well as it could? Our Employee Ownership Audit is a diagnostic review of the health and effectiveness of your model. We look at your governance, corporate materials, policies, and legal agreements to identify what’s working, where the gaps are, and what may need clarifying or strengthening — so your ownership model holds up for the long term.
TRAINING & SUPPORT
A successful transition doesn’t end at implementation. We provide ongoing support to help companies put employee ownership into practice in a way that’s meaningful and sustainable — governance training, decision-making and accountability frameworks, employee education, leadership development, communication support, and guidance for building a real ownership culture across the organization.
No Matter Where You Are in Your Ownership Transition, Let Us Guide the Way.
How We’ll Work Together – Your Step by Step
From Initial Conversation to Long-Term Stewardship
Discovery Call
We start with a no-obligation conversation to understand your business, your goals, and your timeline. No jargon. No pressure.
Structure Design
We assess your options and recommend a structure tailored to your values, financial goals, and employees.
Collaborative Planning
Working alongside your legal and accounting team, we build the transition plan: valuation, governance, tax strategy, and communication.
Transition & Beyond
We stay with you through closing and into governance, offering ongoing coaching for employee-owned companies after the deal.
We’ll Help Your Ownership Transition – Every Step of The Way
What Matters to Us is Preserving What You’ve Built, Through the People You’ve Built it With — in Canada.
Our Why
Preserving Legacies, Together
For years, under our former name (Firefly Insights), we helped Canadian business owners navigate the most consequential decision of their lives. The work was always about designing ownership ESOPs, EOTs, and MBOs that protected businesses, employees, and legacies across Canada.
Employee ownership can support a prosperous, equitable and values-aligned future that is:
Our Leadership
We’re Proudly Canadian
Jennifer Williams
EOT CANADA SPECIALIST | ESOP ADVISOR
Jennifer Williams brings more than 22 years across both sides of employee ownership: over a decade leading an employee-owned company as CEO, and 12+ years designing and implementing ownership transitions for others. A three-time business owner who has worked across industries and geographies, she understands business transition not just as a financial and legal process, but as an emotional and deeply personal one. She also knows employee ownership isn’t only an exit strategy. Done well, it’s a way to grow a business, and to attract, retain, and reward the people who make it succeed. Jennifer founded Ownership Design Group to help owners transition with confidence and build companies where ownership strengthens the team, preserving what they’ve built and giving employees a real stake in what comes next.
Courtney Yanta, MBA
program manager
Courtney is passionate about empowering employees and creating sustainable, thriving workplaces. With an Executive MBA and CAPM certification, she brings a global, cross-industry perspective to developing innovative employee ownership strategies. Courtney has extensive experience in strategic communications and stakeholder engagement, helping businesses translate complex ideas into actionable solutions.
Alison Minato, MBA
program manager
Alison Minato brings over 20 years of experience building the systems, teams, and cultures that make organisations genuinely great places to work. As Program Manager at Ownership Design Group, she is the connective tissue between vision and execution — ensuring that every client engagement is well-structured, thoughtfully delivered, and grounded in real-world business practicality.
Our Advisors
We Draw on a Deep Network of Specialists
Campbell McDonald
Advisor
area of focus: EOT structuring – UK
Campbell McDonald is one of the UK’s most experienced employee ownership experts, helping organizations improve performance through shared ownership and participation. He is also passionate about helping SMEs measure and strengthen their social and environmental impact to address inequality and climate change. Through Ownership Design Group, Campbell advises organizations on strategy, governance, organizational design, and impact management to help them thrive with purpose and resilience.
Peter Smith
Advisor
area of focus: Debt & Capital Structuring – Canada
Peter Smith is a debt financing specialist who helps make employee ownership transitions financially viable. After more than a decade at TD Bank managing complex credit portfolios and leading large financial services teams, he co-founded DBLS, bringing an insider’s understanding of how lenders actually assess and approve deals. That perspective makes him especially effective at securing and restructuring the business debt behind an EOT, ESOP, management buyout, or co-operative conversion, where the right capital structure often determines whether a transition succeeds. Through Ownership Design Group, Peter acts as a long-term capital partner for clients, drawing on a national network of banks, credit unions, and private debt funds to translate complex financing needs into bank-ready strategies that lower the cost of capital and give owners and employees a sound path to shared ownership.
We’re Driven to Keep Canada Thriving in Local Business Ownership
Our Mission Forward
In Canada, Now & Forever
Every time a Canadian business stays locally owned through employee ownership, we strengthen our communities, keep decision-making power at home, and create opportunities for working Canadians to build real wealth. This isn’t just good business—it’s how we build a more just society where prosperity is shared, not concentrated.
We see employee ownership as one of the most powerful tools for economic equity Canada has, transforming the people who build businesses into the people who own them.
The Power of employee ownerships —TedX talks, Mechanicsville
How Changing Who Owns Businesses Can Change Everything
The Canadian Business Owner’s Guide to Employee Ownership - Digital Download
What’s Inside the Guide:
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Design Your Transition with Care
Partner with our dedicated team to turn your vision of employee ownership transition into reality.