NEW YORK — Jan. 8, 2024 — Crucial Learning, a global provider of communication, performance, and leadership training, announced today the acquisition of Core Strengths, the leader in corporate relationship intelligence and home of the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI 2.0) assessment. Combining Crucial Learning’s award-winning courses with Core Strength’s relationship insights adds a new dimension to Crucial Learning’s offerings, allowing it to help clients more effectively achieve human behavior change and bottom-line results. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“This transaction represents the culmination of years of active dialogue between Crucial Learning and Core Strengths around integrating to deliver the interpersonal insights and skill-based courses that our customers want and need,” said Andy Shimberg, CEO of Crucial Learning. “The SDI 2.0 meets our high standards of quality and client experience. Not only does it deliver performance-enhancing personal insight, but it has also helped organizations improve collaboration, teamwork, and bottom-line results for the last 50 years.”
“The pairing of Crucial Learning’s ability to produce world-class learning courses with Core Strengths’ assessments, applications, and intellectual property represents an exciting new phase of growth and opportunity for the organization. Crucial Learning will be uniquely positioned to deliver crucial skills that enhance operational performance,” said Scott VanHoy, Partner at Leeds Equity Partners.
Dr. Tim Scudder, Principal of Core Strengths, said, “Crucial Learning shares our deep commitment to quality, delivering the best performance outcomes in the industry. I am excited for the next chapter in Core Strengths’ journey as part of Crucial Learning, which continues to impress in its commitment to helping organizations achieve their desired results through mission-critical skills development.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Tim Scudder and the Core Strengths team,” said Eric Geveda, Managing Director at Leeds Equity Partners. “Core Strengths is home to the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI 2.0), a best-in-class assessment that provides powerful personal insights into why we behave the way we do and how we relate to others. The integration of these relationship insights with Crucial Learning’s communication, performance, and leadership courses will, simply and powerfully, enable us to better support our clients as they drive greater efficacy and efficiency for their organizations.”
Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel to Leeds Equity Partners. Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP served as legal counsel to Core Strengths.
About Crucial Learning
Crucial Learning improves the world by helping people improve themselves. Crucial Learning offers courses in the areas of communication, performance, and leadership, focusing on behaviors that have a disproportionate impact on outcomes, called crucial skills. Its award-winning courses and accompanying bestselling books include Crucial Conversations®, Crucial Accountability ®, Crucial Influence®, The Power of Habit™, and Getting Things Done®. For additional information on Crucial Learning, see https://cruciallearning.com/.
About Core Strengths
Core Strengths’ mission is to make work better by helping people improve their relationships. Built on 50 years of science, Relationship Intelligence (RQ) empowers leaders and teams to build trust, generate commitment, and drive results. Over 5 million users in organizations worldwide rely on Core Strengths to assess personality, develop employees, and build winning teams. For additional information on Core Strengths, see https://www.corestrengths.com/.
About Leeds Equity Partners:
Leeds Equity is a New York-based private equity firm dedicated exclusively to partnering with management teams in the education, training, and information services industries (the “Knowledge Industries”). The firm was founded in 1993 and currently manages approximately $5 billion of capital across a broad spectrum of companies within the Knowledge Industries. Leeds Equity seeks to leverage its sector-focused expertise and market insights to create long-term value for its partner companies and investors. For additional information on Leeds Equity Partners, see http://www.leedsequity.com/.
