When the issue is unclear, the answer is not always a full executive mandate. Operator Advisory provides a bounded operator-led view of the operating problem, the evidence behind it, and whether the situation requires a CEO, Interim CEO, Operating Partner, Focused Mandate, or no deeper engagement.
“This is not consulting theatre. It is commercial and operational judgement from someone who has carried the P&L.”Scott Foster · Shape Executive
Scott Foster works between founders, advisors and investors — reducing operational uncertainty so businesses can be confidently assessed, acquired or scaled.
Growth plateau · Margin pressure · Working capital drag · Weak reporting · Founder dependency · Execution drift
Transaction preparation · Buyer engagement · Diligence coordination · Deal structuring · IM preparation
Investment confidence · Reduced uncertainty · Value creation visibility · Scalability confidence · Execution pathway
Outcome
EBITDA
Defensible
Working Capital
Released
Execution
Visible
Operator advisory answers one question: Do we have an operating issue that requires a deeper mandate, and if so, what kind? Three decision moments where this clarity matters.
The board is unsure whether the problem is leadership, execution, market structure, or the operating model itself. A CEO needs objective commercial clarity. A PE firm is assessing post-acquisition execution risk. Operator advisory isolates where performance drag is actually sitting.
Output: Determines whether Interim CEO, Operating Partner, or Focused Mandate is appropriate.
A founder wants to understand what buyers will see when they examine EBITDA quality, working capital, owner dependency, and commercial defensibility. A PE firm needs to validate whether the value creation assumptions hold after close. Operator advisory clarifies the operating foundation.
Output: Determines whether Post-Acquisition Leadership is required.
Accountants, M&A advisers, and corporate finance teams need a commercial operator to interpret the business behind the numbers. A seller preparing for diligence needs to understand what will be tested, what will be discounted, and what operating evidence is defensible.
Output: Diagnostic clarity supports transaction decision-making.
To answer your specific decision question — Do we have an operating issue requiring a mandate, and what kind? — operator diagnostic examines relevant operational evidence. Examples include:
Reviewing reported EBITDA against normalised EBITDA. Identifying where margin leakage is occurring across pricing, mix, customer profitability and cost structure. Assessing defensibility of earnings for diligence.
Reviewing debtors, creditors, inventory and working capital cycles. Identifying where cash is being consumed by operational structure rather than returned to the business. Supporting working capital improvement planning.
Reviewing how pricing decisions are made, governed and enforced across the business. Identifying where pricing leakage is occurring at the point of sale and what the margin impact is at volume. Using the pricing margin calculator as a diagnostic tool.
Assessing whether the business has a functioning operating cadence — review cycles, accountability structures, decision velocity and commercial visibility. Where execution drift is occurring, identifying where the operating rhythm has broken down.
Reviewing the business through a buyer’s lens — quality of earnings, customer concentration, owner dependency, operational reporting quality and commercial defensibility ahead of a sale process or capital raise.
Most consulting engagements start with a methodology and deliver a report. Operator advisory starts with the actual numbers, the operating model and the commercial reality — and delivers commercial clarity.
Traditional consulting
Framework-first. Stakeholder interviews. Slide presentations. Recommendations that stop at the edge of implementation.
Operator advisory
Numbers-first. Operating model analysis. Commercial judgement from someone who has run the P&L and knows where performance drag hides.
Advisory can be structured as a single review session, a defined-scope assessment, or an ongoing advisory relationship. The format follows the issue. If the situation requires embedded execution, operating partner support or a focused mandate may be more appropriate.
Operator advisory identifies the operating issue and clarifies whether a deeper mandate is required. If the situation requires embedded execution, the conversation moves from diagnostic decision-support to a mandate engagement.
Mandate types available:
• CEO / Managing Director — Full P&L leadership on permanent or extended basis
• Interim CEO — Full P&L leadership on interim basis (performance reset or transition)
• Operating Partner — Embedded operator alongside existing management (PE-backed)
• Focused Mandate — Scoped operational execution on specific challenge
View mandate types and structure to understand which (if any) matches your situation.
These tools are used within advisory engagements to create commercial visibility before the advisory review begins.
Value Leakage
Client Value Leakage Diagnostic
Assess EBITDA quality, cash conversion, pricing discipline and management dependency in one structured diagnostic.
Run the value leakage diagnostic →Pricing
Pricing Margin Calculator
Model pricing scenarios, margin at volume and the EBITDA impact of pricing decisions across customer segments.
Open the pricing margin calculator →Working Capital
Working Capital Calculator
Model the cash conversion impact of debtors, creditors and inventory cycle changes before committing to operational changes.
Open the working capital calculator →Operator advisory is senior commercial and operational judgement applied to a specific business situation — without requiring a full-time executive appointment, and primarily across industrial operating environments where execution complexity is high. The adviser has carried the P&L in real industrial and distribution businesses and brings a practitioner’s view to performance, value creation, transaction readiness or commercial structure issues.
Traditional consulting typically delivers frameworks, reports and recommendations that stop at the edge of implementation. Operator advisory works directly with the numbers, the operating model and the commercial reality. The output is commercial clarity and a clear view of what needs to change — not a presentation of options for the client to decide from.
When the business does not require a full-time executive but does need independent judgement on a specific commercial or operational issue. Common triggers include margin compression that cannot be explained internally, a transaction approaching that the business is not ready for, a board wanting a second view on execution, or a PE firm needing an operator’s lens on a portfolio company.
Yes. Advisory often reveals the scope and urgency of the issue. Where the situation requires embedded execution rather than independent review, advisory can transition into a focused mandate, interim CEO engagement or operating partner appointment.
Operator advisory is bounded diagnostic decision-support. If the situation requires embedded execution, the conversation becomes a mandate engagement discussion.
Whether to sell to private equity is one of the most common questions in operator advisory engagements — an independent commercial view on the decision before any adviser process begins.
What private equity looks for in a business is the operating assessment framework used in operator advisory engagements — the same criteria PE firms apply to assess operating quality and management capability.
What buyers look for in management teams is the assessment framework applied in operator advisory engagements — eight dimensions of management quality that determine whether a team can operate independently.
First 90 day planning is a core component of operator advisory — the independent commercial view on what the operating mandate should prioritise, what the value creation opportunities are and how the engagement should be structured.
Operator advisory often sits alongside or precedes a longer-term mandate. For founders and boards weighing up that step, what an operating partner actually does sets out how the embedded role differs from an advisory engagement.
This mandate operates within the following architecture domain, drawing on established doctrine, frameworks, and operating instruments.