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Fractional Executive · Portfolio Consultant

Enterprise experience, right-sized for your business.

I've spent a couple of decades solving hard problems for global enterprises. Now I do it for businesses like yours: board-level operations, technology and strategy leadership, by the day, the month or the project. You work directly with me, and every engagement ends with something you can act on.

Book a call See how it works

Senior only

You get me, not a pyramid of analysts. The person you meet on day one is the person doing the work on day ninety.

Actionable always

Every engagement, even a single day, ends with a written, prioritised set of actions. You could execute them without me. That's deliberate.

Right-sized commercially

Day rates, monthly subscriptions or fixed-price projects. No lock-in beyond the notice period. No surprises on the invoice.

Who it's for

Different businesses, the same wall

Problems get enterprise-sized long before the budget does. I've watched the same walls appear at every scale. Wherever you are on the curve, there's a right-sized way through.

Small businesses

Think you can't afford this? Think again.

Board-level thinking in your corner every month, for less than half the cost of your cheapest employee.

Owner-managed SMEs, £1m–£20m

You've outgrown the way you work.

Heroics are holding it together and the founder is the bottleneck. Get the structure and rhythm of a bigger business, sized for yours.

Scale-ups & VC-backed

Enterprise discipline at start-up speed.

Post-raise, everything must professionalise at once. Install the discipline investors expect without killing the pace.

Mid-market, £20m+

Senior capacity without the headcount.

C-level attention for the initiative your exec team can't spare, then I step away. No recruitment fees, no severance risk.

PE portfolio companies

Value creation, delivered.

The plan is agreed; the bandwidth isn't. Operating partner-calibre execution, reported in the fund's language.

None of the above?

Not sure what you need?

More common than you'd think, and nothing to be embarrassed about. That's exactly what a first conversation is for.

Let's just talk →
Track record

Patterns recognised, results delivered

A broad selection from two decades in the engine rooms of global enterprise: lessons other companies paid a fortune to learn, now available by the day. Names withheld out of respect for client confidentiality; I'll gladly talk specifics in person.

Financial services · Identity & assets

Three firms, one operating model

An evidence-led diagnostic across three affiliated global financial services firms: 1,634 observations distilled into five structural patterns and a 36-month roadmap. Identified $3m–$8m of annually recoverable licence cost, plus closure of audit findings spanning SOX, DORA and FCA SMCR.

Post-merger integration

Two operating cultures, one network

A tier-one US investment bank had acquired a market-leading trading platform, and downtime cost six figures a minute. I reframed the integration question the merger had skipped, and mapped the path that kept the acquired team's agility inside the acquirer's governance.

Banking · Cloud & regulation

Regulator-ready cloud

An independent assessment of a global bank's new cloud platform ahead of hosting important business services, aligned to the PRA's expectations. Board-level readout: no critical gaps, and a short, prioritised list to keep speed and control in balance as the platform scaled.

Legal · Security operations

From reactive to ready

A security operations reset for a global law firm mid-transformation: team identity and decision rights first, then a staged roadmap through to a 24x7 security operations centre. Security as an enabler of the firm's ambitions, not the department of no.

Further engagements span cloud strategy and operating models for Nordic banking, a China market entry for a global SaaS platform, telecoms task-force leadership, payments, media, energy infrastructure, retail and legal technology, delivered across the UK, the Nordics, the US, mainland Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Closer to home

What all of that means for you

Every pattern above was learned somewhere expensive. Here's how it translates when the business is yours: the same problems, at a scale you might recognise. If one of these sounds like your Tuesday, that's rather the point. And when these stories say "we", they mean exactly that: the business owner and me, working it out together. There's no office full of consultants behind the curtain.

Independent estate agency

Fewer instructions, better instructions

A well-regarded local agency competing on fee against corporate chains and online listers, working harder each year for thinner margins. We repositioned the firm at the top of its market: brand, fee structure and a service worth the fee, saying no to the stock it used to chase.

+40% average fee per instruction, on two-thirds of the volume
Family-run precision manufacturer

The founder took a holiday

Second-generation engineering firm where every quote, schedule and dispute crossed the owner's desk. We installed written decision rights, a weekly operating rhythm and a quote-to-cash process that didn't need her in the middle of it.

-30% quoted lead time, and her first fortnight off in nine years
Regional IT services provider

Profitable growth, not busy growth

Revenue climbing, profit flat, team exhausted, and an owner convinced he needed more salespeople. Customer-level profitability analysis showed a fifth of clients consumed half the service desk. We repriced, exited the worst, and refocused sales on the profile that actually paid.

+25% profit on flat revenue within twelve months
Direct-to-consumer retailer

Their voice, machine speed

A brand built on its founder's voice, spending heavily on an agency for content that sounded like everyone else's. An AI Context Sprint built the context pack and workflows to produce her voice at machine speed in-house, with the agency retained only for campaigns.

3x content output at half the outside spend, in the founder's own voice
New founders · Escaping the rat race

From payslip to top of the local market

A steady line of employees-turned-founders, from personal trainer to dog groomer to bookkeeper, each launched at the top of their local market rather than the bottom of it. Together we built the sharp value proposition, pricing with a spine, a healthy pipeline before day one, and all the plumbing (brand, tools, process, numbers) a business needs to launch, grow and scale. The pattern holds in every trade: position on value, not price, and the right customers find you.

Dozens of launches across a range of trades, none of them competing on price
That launch, productised: the Founder Launchpad →

Composite case studies: real engagement patterns and typical results, with details generalised so no individual client is identifiable.

In their words

Don't take my word for it

A few lines from people who've been in the room, taken from my LinkedIn recommendations.

An outstanding consultant and team member who galvanised the team to get the best out of everyone. I would rate Ian as one of the most pragmatic consultants I've worked with.

”
Principal security assurance consultant, global financial services

That rare combination of a leader with deep technical skills and experience. His ability to engage and influence stakeholders, together with deep analytical skills, sees Ian deliver complex programmes with ease.

”
Technical principal, global cloud provider

The ability to write a technical document that can be understood by non-techies, while providing a clear business case. I recommended him to one of my good customers: the ultimate litmus test of trust.

”
Software company co-founder, and a client

Calmness under pressure, attention to detail and, above all, willingness to share his considerable knowledge and to mentor the less experienced. It sets him apart.

”
Founder, AI transformation consultancy

There are more where these came from: read them on LinkedIn →

Offerings

How we work together

Start small, scale when it earns its keep. Prices are indicative ballparks: complexity moves them, the SOW fixes them, and no VAT is added to any of them. Every offer below comes with the same choice: drop me an email, or schedule a chat and talk it through. There's one more just below for the AI-curious, and one for those who haven't founded anything yet.

Small business subscription

Growth Partner

Senior judgement as a subscription. A standing session every month to work the biggest problem on your desk, and a straight answer on the phone whenever something can't wait.

From £950 per month, indicative · rolling, 30 days' notice
  • Monthly half-day working session
  • Written actions after every session
  • Sounding board between sessions
Start the conversation
Or schedule a chat →
Retainer

Fractional Executive

A senior executive on your team without the hire. Fractional COO, CTO/CIO or strategy lead, embedded in your leadership rhythm.

From £2,800 per month, indicative · scales with scope and complexity
  • Advisory: 2 days a month, from £2,800
  • Fractional: 1 day a week, from £5,900
  • Embedded: 2 days a week, from £11,200
Discuss a retainer
Not convinced a fraction beats a hire? I've done the maths.
Or schedule a chat →
Fixed scope, fixed price

Project Engagement

A defined outcome, delivered. Operating model redesign, technology selection, integration playbook, or a value creation plan turned into an executed roadmap.

From £9,500 typical range £15k–£45k
  • Agreed scope and outcomes in writing
  • Milestone billing, defined acceptance
  • Trusted associates where scope demands
Scope a project
Outcome not defined yet? That's what a Diagnostic Day is for.
Or schedule a chat →
Before day one · For the not-yet-founded

Founder Launchpad

Still on the payslip, plotting the escape? Most people launch at the bottom of their market and spend years climbing. We spend a day together making sure you start at the top: an honest verdict on the idea, and the launch plan that earns proper prices from customer one. Dozens of founders have done exactly this, and none of them compete on price.

From £1,250 typically · half day from £750 · fixed in the SOW
  • The verdict, honestly: validate the business case, reshape it, or save you from it
  • Value proposition, pricing with a spine, and a first-customers plan, in writing
  • The plumbing list: brand, tools, terms and numbers, in the right order
  • A 30-day check-in call once you've launched
Start before day one
Or schedule a chat →
And by conversation

Not everything needs a product name and a price tag. If it needs senior judgement, ask.

Advisory board seat

A standing seat at your table: quarterly board rhythm, available between meetings, invested in the long game. Increasingly, that includes helping boards think clearly about AI: what it means for risk, culture and accountability, before the regulator or the competition asks.

Exit readiness review

Selling in a year or three? Find what a buyer's due diligence would find, and fix it before it costs you the multiple.

Second opinion

Before you sign something big: a system, an acquisition, a lease, a restructure. Cheap insurance against expensive mistakes.

Spotlight · AI The topic of the moment

Mind the AI context gap

Tried ChatGPT and got something that reads like everyone else's? Suspect competitors are pulling ahead? Or does the whole thing just smell like hype? All three instincts are reasonable, and they share one root: AI without your context is a very confident stranger. Closing that gap is a business exercise, not a technical one.

Fixed once scoped · Two weeks

AI Context Sprint

A short, sharp engagement for wherever you're starting from: tools that disappoint, healthy scepticism, or a blank sheet and a nagging feeling. It ends with tools that actually know your business, doing only the jobs they deserve, and not a whiff of AI slop reaching your customers.

From £2,950 typically · fixed in the SOW · delivered in two weeks
  • Use-case map: where AI moves your numbers, and where it would embarrass you
  • A context pack for your business: facts, voice, customers and economics that turn generic AI into your AI
  • Working setups in the tools you already use, with guardrails for brand, quality and data safety
  • Half-day hands-on session with your team

Why now, and why with me

Enterprises spend millions learning that AI output is only as good as the context behind it. I've led that work at global scale, and the lesson translates directly: the winners aren't the businesses using AI loudest, they're the ones using it with judgement. Quietly, in operations, analysis and drafting, where it compounds; carefully, in front of customers, where trust is the whole game. And if you're sceptical, good. Scepticism is the right starting posture; it just deserves evidence, and the sprint's first job is showing you honestly where AI would pay in your business, and where it wouldn't.

If your competitors are visibly using AI and it shows, that is not a threat. It's an opening.
Close the gap Or schedule a chat

Want to know who you'd be working with? Meet your consulting partner →

Want a feel for how I think first? Read something I've written →

Not sure what you need? Let's just talk →

Ian Sharpe, mid-walk in the English countryside

Start with a conversation

The easiest first step is a free 30-minute call about your most pressing problem, or the thing you can't quite name, leading to a Diagnostic Day if it fits: one day, a written plan within 48 hours, and nothing to lose but the problem. Not sure it's the right fit? Book or email anyway. If I can't help, I'll say so and point you towards someone who can.

Book a 30-minute call Or email me instead

Too busy to stop and think during the day? There's a limited number of evening slots, 6pm to 8pm Monday to Thursday, for exactly that reason.

Prefer to type? [email protected] · Or connect on LinkedIn.

Based in England, about an hour from London, if you fancy a cup of tea or something stronger. But my postcode doesn't scope the work: on site anywhere, London, the UK, the US or beyond, with travel recharged at cost wherever the table is. Remote everywhere; the experience was earned worldwide and travels well.