02Operate
Experienced operators, working alongside management.
Bain finds that a deal which once needed 5% annual earnings growth to reach its target return now needs 10 to 12%. That work is done inside the business, by people accountable for it.
Bain & Company, Global Private Equity Report 2026, 23 February 2026
Operate in practice
Operate is where the plan stops being a plan. We put a team in, keep the people the business depends on, and run it to a rhythm that has worked before.
At this stage most businesses do not need a new strategy. These businesses need experienced operators working alongside management.
Leadership in place
So we put a team in. The team might be one operator alongside the chief executive, or a small group covering operations, technology and change. We also work to keep the people already there, because the knowledge that makes the business work usually sits with a handful of them, and losing two of those costs more than any programme saves.
Proven tools
We do not arrive empty-handed. The operating rhythm, the reporting, the hundred-day structure, the diligence and integration playbooks, the automation and data patterns: we have built these before and reuse them. Reusing proven tools is the difference between starting in month one and starting in month four.
What we do as owner
We put people in who have done this before, and we work to keep the people you already have. The business does not need a strategy in month one. The business needs experienced leadership in place.
- Operator alongside the chief executive, or a small group covering operations, technology and change
- Leadership transition and clear accountability from day one
- Decision rights, so it is obvious who decides what
- Stabilisation where performance is already under pressure
- Customer and supplier continuity through the transition
- First hundred days, designed and led with management
- Priorities the business can absorb, with owners and measures
- KPI framework, board reporting and management information
- Baselines set before anything changes, so improvement can be attributed
- Identifying who the business depends on, and what it takes to keep them
- Retention through a change of ownership
- Management-team assessment and capability gaps
- Leadership team design, spans and layers
- Founder-dependency reduction
- Succession and organisational clarity
- The operating rhythm and reporting, built before and reused
- The hundred-day structure, in a form that has been through this
- Diligence, integration and separation playbooks
- Automation and data patterns applied where the economics support them
- Shared finance and technology capability across what we own
For owners who are not seeking a sale, the same capability is available as an executive mandate through Advisory.