Most portfolio companies have a growth strategy. Few have a commercial system capable of executing it. We partner with PE sponsors and portfolio leadership to test strategy against how the commercial system performs — before capital is committed, and before the exit clock runs out.
The plan held at close.
Eighteen months later, the value creation plan is behind, revenue synergies haven't materialized, and the exit timeline is starting to slip.
The commercial organization is executing. Just not against a model that can deliver the outcome.
This is where we work.
The leader who got the business to acquisition is running the old playbook. The capability gap and the alignment gap tend to show up together — and go unaddressed longer than they should.
The revenue plan was credible at underwriting. But what it assumed didn't exist: clear segmentation, aligned coverage, unambiguous account ownership. The business wasn't structured to deliver it.
At every stage of the deal arc, there are questions that determine whether the growth plan holds. Most don't get asked until performance has already diverged.
Two senior advisors, working together inside a single engagement. One has built and exited. One has run a $35B commercial organization. Both have lived the gap between plan and execution.
Mike Thompson built and scaled a company through PE exit. He now advises PE and VC firms on where assumptions break under ownership — with a focus on acquisition strategy, diligence, and value creation in cybersecurity and technology services.
Alicia Dietsch led commercial operations at AT&T Business, a $35B B2B organization. She now advises on where growth plans break in execution — with a focus on the commercial system across marketing, sales, pricing, and customer retention.