The marketing operating partner model

A marketing operating partner diagnoses what a newly acquired company needs, then builds it, at a flat fee, during the first year after close. One person handles both halves, which is what makes it start in a week rather than a quarter.

Why the first 100 days

Operations now account for 47% of private equity value creation since 2010, up from 18% in the 1980s, on PwC's figures. Running the company better is where the return is, and marketing is one of the levers inside that.

Timing has moved with it. In Alvarez & Marsal's 2026 value creation survey, 58% of respondents said resources are deployed predominantly within the first 100 days, up from 29% the year before. The opening months are the part of the hold still fully in the sponsor's control, and the consensus has moved to using them.

What gets built, and when

The first thirty days establish what the company already has and what it is worth keeping. That means an inventory of every marketing asset, a read on where revenue actually comes from, and control of the accounts that generate it.

Days thirty to sixty go to the work that compounds: the pages that answer what buyers search for, the tracking that shows which spend produces revenue, and the follow-up that stops enquiries going cold. Days sixty to ninety put a repeatable stream of new enquiries in place and hand over reporting the sponsor can read in a minute.

The fee is flat and scoped per company, agreed before anything starts, so the cost is a known line rather than a variable one.

Where the model stops

Three limits, stated plainly, because they decide whether this is a fit.

• No social media.
• No brand workshops, no strategy retainers, and no reports written to be reports.
• One person. You work directly with whoever does the work.

That last one is the model rather than a limitation. It is why the work starts in the first week, and it is why the diagnosis and the delivery never disagree with each other.

Once a portfolio company needs a full-time marketing function reporting into its own leadership, that is a hire rather than this engagement, and the handover is part of the work.