Portfolio leadership, on the plan's timetable.
Sponsors buying Mittelstand companies and corporate carve-outs in Bavaria meet the same issue after signing. The plan is agreed, and the operator who must deliver it is not yet in the business.
Where the plan slips
The same snags follow most Bavarian deals:
Months go on a search
A permanent hire can take a quarter or more to find, while the plan has already started.
The seller's management has left or is leaving
A founder or a corporate parent was holding the know-how, and it is going out of the door.
The business is not yet standalone
A carve-out has to build its own finance, IT and reporting from nothing.
Owner and sponsor read the business differently
Each has a point, and with nobody neutral between them it turns into friction.
An operator can be working in a Bavarian portfolio company within weeks, under a services agreement that fits the hold. Sponsors use them to run one defined workstream, to hold the seat until a permanent hire starts, or to find out what the company needs before committing.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Deploying a senior operator inside a portfolio company
- Executing a 100-day plan the moment the deal closes
- Value creation through the hold, not another advisory report
- Building reporting, systems and management credibility before an exit
- Operational diligence and leadership-gap assessment before you buy
Not for
- A strategy deck or set of recommendations to hand back
- A business that wants an adviser, not an operator inside it
- Pure diligence with no operator deployed afterwards
- A mandate for oversight rather than hands-on execution
How we support a sponsor in Bavaria
A carve-out or a founder exit has a clock. We keep governance around the operator so it is kept.
Check-ins tied to the plan
We review the work with the sponsor and the operator at agreed milestones, and adjust the brief with you if it slips.
Peers for carve-out problems
Standing up finance, IT or a plant on its own can be tested with others in our collective of 800+.
We carry the brief through the hold
If the operator has to leave, a new search starts from the brief we keep for the hold, and running the transition falls to us.
Acceptable to the seller's team
In a founder exit, the operator must work with the people who stay. We test for that before anyone is introduced.
Across the PE investment lifecycle
From pre-deal to exit preparation.
Pre-deal: operational due diligence
Embed a Fractional COO or CFO to support your ODD. They identify gaps your model hasn't priced.
Post-acquisition: fill the leadership gaps
Begin deploying the right operator within days of instruction. No recruitment pipeline, notice periods, or trial risk.
Value creation: operational improvement
Build financial infrastructure, operating cadences, commercial engines, and professional people structures.
Exit preparation: build credibility
A Fractional CFO producing clean board reporting and investor-grade financials is a meaningful credibility signal in any sale process.
The value-creation matrix
Each value-creation lever maps to the operator built to own it. Most plans pull two or three at once.
Portfolio company leadership options
Match the right fractional operator to the specific portfolio company need.
Operating partners to
