Your business is established and growing. You have a leadership team. But too much still needs you: the important deals, the difficult customers, the decisions that cross two functions, the problems that were meant to be solved last quarter.
Some problems don't need another consultant. They need someone experienced alongside the CEO who can see across the business and help turn decisions into action.
That's the role. I work with you and your leadership team on what the Capability Review identified. I challenge what's happening, help the team take ownership of it and make sure decisions turn into changes that hold.
What changes
- Fewer unnecessary decisions reach you.
- Your leadership team takes more ownership of the overall outcome, beyond their own functions.
- Accountability is clearer. People know what they own and what good looks like.
- Better information arrives earlier, without you having to go and find it.
- Problems that keep coming back get fixed at the cause.
- Commercial, customer, product and operational decisions connect up.
- You get more time for customers, strategy, growth and what comes next.
You stay involved. The aim is that your involvement becomes more valuable, spent on the decisions only you should be making.
What is a CEO Operating Partner?
A CEO Operating Partner works alongside the CEO and leadership team to identify and address constraints across commercial performance, leadership, organisation, systems and execution.
In practice I work across:
The relationship exists to help the CEO improve the performance and capability of the business.
What it isn't
- Not an outsourced CEO. You keep running the business.
- Not a traditional consultant producing recommendations from the outside.
- Not an executive coach focused primarily on the individual.
- Not simply a fractional COO running day-to-day operations.
How it compares
| Role | Usually there to | Where the focus sits |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional COO | Take operating responsibility for part or all of the business on a fractional basis | Operations and delivery |
| Management consultant | Deliver a scoped project and recommendations | A defined question, then hand back |
| Executive coach | Develop the individual leader | The CEO as a person and a leader |
| Non-executive director | Provide oversight, challenge and governance | The board and its responsibilities |
| CEO Operating Partner | Work alongside the CEO and leadership team until the changes hold | The constraints across the whole business |
These are general descriptions. Good practitioners in each role often overlap with the others.
How it works in practice
Most engagements follow a Capability Review, so we start from an agreed view of what needs to change and who owns it. The rhythm is set around that work: regular time with you, time with the leadership team, and a shared look at the numbers.
The rhythm and length of the engagement depend on what we're fixing. We review regularly whether it's still earning its place. The measure of success is that the changes hold when I step back.