Ongoing partnership
Executive Partner
Experienced leadership capacity. Close collaboration. Shared momentum.
Shared momentum
When leadership needs more than good advice
Running and developing a business takes an overview, decisiveness and the ability to make things happen.
But even skilled leaders can find themselves in situations where the tasks exceed the time, skills or capacity they have available.
Maybe the company is facing an important change.
Maybe the organization has grown faster than its leadership structure.
Or maybe developments in society and the market have simply outpaced the company’s capacity to keep up.
In situations like these, an experienced partner close to management can be decisive in regaining the overview, setting the right priorities and creating momentum.
Executive Partner is a flexible, close collaboration where I put my leadership experience, business understanding and drive at the disposal of the owner, CEO or management team.
Not as a traditional outside advisor who only delivers recommendations, but as an active leadership partner who shares responsibility for decisions, execution and results.
A partner close to the decisions
As Executive Partner, I work where the company’s most important decisions are made – and where they have to be turned into action.
That may be as a trusted sparring partner for an owner-manager or CEO, as an active leadership partner for an existing management team, or with specific responsibility for selected development and change projects.
The collaboration always starts from the company’s situation and needs.
It isn’t about adding another layer of management. It’s about adding the experience, capacity and drive that make a difference.
What can we work on?
The Executive Partner model can include:
- Business development, growth and commercial progress
- Strategic sparring with the owner, CEO and management
- Carrying out strategic decisions and change processes
- Turnaround, transformation, mergers and organizational integration
- Leadership development, organization and division of responsibilities
- Financial and operational management, KPIs and follow-up
- Organizational development, collaboration and leadership culture
- Support for board work, strategic decision papers and management reporting
- Interim management – temporary leadership capacity at executive or management level during growth, restructuring, turnaround, transformation, succession or special challenges
- Planning and carrying out succession and leadership transitions
We set priorities together, and they can change as the company develops.
When the task calls for special expertise, I can bring in relevant advisors and specialists from my local and international network, as agreed.
From sparring to action
There is a big difference between having a good conversation about a company’s challenges and creating the improvements that conversation points to.
That’s why Executive Partner isn’t limited to meetings, analyses and recommendations. I can help prioritize initiatives, sharpen decisions, drive concrete initiatives and follow up to make sure agreed actions are carried out.
- Prioritize initiatives
- Sharpen decisions
- Drive concrete initiatives
- Follow up to make sure agreed actions are carried out
We don’t just agree on what needs to happen. We also work on making it happen.
This happens in close collaboration with the company’s existing management and employees, so responsibility, ownership and skills are strengthened from within.
Flexible collaboration. Clear expectations.
Some companies need a steady sparring partner over a longer period. Others need more intensive leadership capacity for a defined phase.
That’s why we tailor each Executive Partner engagement.
Trusted sparring
For an owner-manager or CEO
Active leadership
As leadership partner for an existing management team
Specific responsibility
For selected development and change projects
Interim management
Temporary leadership capacity at executive or management level, for example during a turnaround or transformation
Among other things, we agree on
- The purpose of the collaboration
- Priority areas
- Availability
- How often we meet
- Expected results
- Mandate, responsibilities and decision rights
The collaboration can, for example, be set up as an ongoing engagement with fixed working days or as a more intensive effort around a specific task.
The collaboration can also include support for the board’s strategic work, for example through decision papers, management reporting and follow-up on adopted initiatives. Where relevant, an actual board seat may also be an option by separate agreement and with respect for the independent responsibility that comes with the role.
No responsibility for results without a real mandate
I believe in clear agreements, clear expectations and responsibility that is matched by the necessary authority.
If I am to take responsibility for concrete results, we also need to agree on the mandate to achieve them.
- The necessary authority
- Agreement on the mandate
- Concrete results
- Clear expectations
Clear agreements
A collaboration built on trust and integrity
Working close to a company’s owner or top management requires mutual trust, discretion and respect for the people who are already part of the organization.
My approach is built on hostmanship: openness, respect, involvement, clarity, responsibility and integrity.
- Openness
- Respect
- Involvement
- Clarity
- Responsibility and integrity
I bring experience, ask the necessary questions, challenge constructively and help turn decisions into results.
A good Executive Partner shouldn’t become indispensable. A good Executive Partner should make leadership more capable of action.
A natural next step after 90 days
For companies that have completed a 90-day business lift, Executive Partner can be a natural continuation.
Here we can build on the knowledge, priorities and improvements we have already created together.
But Executive Partner can also be set up as an engagement in its own right – without a 90-day programme first.
Shall we strengthen your leadership capacity?
If you are an owner, CEO or manager who needs an experienced partner who can both challenge your decisions and help carry them out, Executive Partner may be the right place to start.
Let’s have a confidential, no-obligation talk about how I can contribute to your company’s development.