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 Diagnostic Day 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.

Think you can't afford this expertise? Think again.

Small businesses

Most small business owners make their biggest decisions alone and learn the expensive way. The Growth Partner subscription puts board-level thinking in your corner for less than half the cost of your cheapest employee, and it makes every other salary you pay work harder.

You've outgrown the way you work.

Owner-managed SMEs, £1m–£20m

Everything works because of heroics, not systems, and the founder is the bottleneck. Get the structure, systems and operating rhythm of a much bigger business, installed by someone who has run them.

Enterprise discipline at start-up speed.

Scale-ups and VC-backed companies

Post-raise, everything needs to professionalise at once. Fractional executive leadership installs the discipline investors expect without killing the pace that got you funded.

Senior capacity without the headcount.

Mid-market businesses, £20m+

A transformation or integration needs C-level attention your exec team cannot spare. Drop in proven executive capacity for the initiative, then step away. No recruitment fees, no severance risk.

Value creation, delivered.

Private equity portfolio companies

The value creation plan is agreed; the portfolio company lacks bandwidth to execute it in the hold period. Operating partner-calibre execution, reported in the language the fund expects.

Track record

Patterns recognised, results delivered

A sample of recent engagements. Names withheld out of respect for client confidentiality; I'll gladly talk specifics in person.

Financial services · Identity & assets

Three firms, one operating model

A twelve-week, evidence-led diagnostic of identity and asset management across three affiliated global financial services firms. 1,634 observations from 54 contributors, distilled into five structural patterns and a 36-month, eight-workstream roadmap. Identified $3m–$8m of annually recoverable licence cost, alongside closure of audit findings spanning SOX, DORA and FCA SMCR.

Post-merger integration

Two operating cultures, one network

An outside-in assessment of network operations integration after a tier-one US investment bank acquired a market-leading trading platform, where every minute of downtime carried a six-figure P&L impact. Reframed the integration question the merger had skipped, mapped the convergence points and set a 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, examined through four lenses and aligned to the PRA's expectations. Board-level readout: no critical gaps, and a short, prioritised list of recommendations 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 in the middle of a large-scale technology transformation: team identity, governance and decision rights first, then a staged maturity roadmap from foundational fixes through to a 24x7 security operations centre, positioning security as an enabler of the firm's growth ambitions rather than the department of no.

Banking · Cloud operating model

Strategy the organisation could run

Cloud strategy and target operating model for one of the Nordics' largest banks, built from structured stakeholder interviews across the group rather than imported from a template. Cloud centre of excellence design, decision rights and the accountability model to make the strategy stick after the consultants leave.

SaaS · Market entry

Into China, compliantly

Taking a global talent-assessment SaaS platform into mainland China: discovery and target design for an in-country cloud estate, a requirements and compliance traceability matrix for a heavily regulated market, and the migration plan to get there without disrupting the global platform.

Further engagements span 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 this looks like for a smaller business

The same patterns, at a scale you might recognise. If one of these sounds like your Tuesday, that's rather the point.

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 him in the middle of it.

-30% quoted lead time, and the owner's first fortnight off in nine years
Regional IT services provider

Profitable growth, not busy growth

Revenue climbing, profit flat, team exhausted. 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 the 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 founder-quality output in-house, with the agency retained only for campaigns.

3x content output at half the outside spend, in the founder's own voice

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

Offerings

Four ways to work together

Start small, scale when it earns its keep. Prices are indicative and confirmed at scoping, no VAT is added to any of them, and there's a fifth offer just below for the AI-curious.

One-off consultation

Diagnostic Day

One full day on your most pressing problem: pre-reading, a structured working session, and a written action plan within 48 hours.

£1,450 per day · half day £850
  • Findings and recommendations in writing
  • Sequenced 90-day action list
  • Executable without further spend
Book a day
Small business subscription

Growth Partner

Think you can't afford this expertise? Think again. For less than half the cost of a single junior employee, you get a seasoned executive in your corner every month.

From £950 per month · rolling, 30 days' notice
  • Monthly half-day working session
  • Written actions after every session
  • Sounding board between sessions
Start the conversation
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 · 2 days/mo to 2 days/wk
  • Advisory: 2 days a month, £2,800
  • Fractional: 1 day a week, £5,900
  • Embedded: 2 days a week, £11,200
Discuss a retainer
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
Spotlight · AI

Mind the AI context gap

You asked ChatGPT for a business case and got something that reads like everyone else's. Meanwhile you suspect your competitors are using AI to move faster and take share. Both problems have the same root: AI without your context is a very confident stranger. The gap between AI that sounds impressive and AI that moves your numbers is context, and closing it is a business exercise, not a technical one.

Fixed price · Two weeks

AI Context Sprint

A short, sharp engagement that turns the AI tools you already pay for into ones that actually know your business, without a whiff of AI slop reaching your customers.

£2,950 fixed · 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
Close the gap

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.

If your competitors are visibly using AI and it shows, that is not a threat. It's an opening.

Meet Ian

The person you meet is the person who does the work

Ian Sharpe, founder of ConsultingPartner.io
IS
Ian Sharpe · Founder
Experience: two decades, global enterprises
Boardrooms: New York, London, Singapore, Brisbane
Disciplines: operations, technology, strategy
Method: evidence before opinion
Structure: founder-led, trusted associate network

I'm Ian. I've spent twenty-odd years being parachuted into large, complicated organisations when something needed fixing, scaling, integrating or deciding: investment banks, global law firms, market platforms and businesses in a dozen sectors between New York and Brisbane, via London, Singapore and a handful of places whose airports I know better than I'd like.

The work taught me something that took a while to sink in: the problems repeat. The £3m business and the $3bn business hit the same walls, in the same order, for the same reasons. Founders become bottlenecks. Growth outruns structure. Acquisitions stall because nobody asked how integrated they should be. Data can't answer the questions the board is asking. Only the size of the numbers changes.

I started ConsultingPartner.io to bring those lessons to businesses that would benefit most and can use them fastest, at a price that makes sense for them. No pyramid of analysts, no hundred-page decks that say nothing. Evidence before opinion, a written update every week, and a plan you can execute whether or not you ever hire me again.

What I'm like to work with, according to the people who have: calm, direct and allergic to waffle. I'll tell you what I actually think, including when the answer is "you don't need me for this". Where an engagement needs more than one pair of hands, I bring in trusted associates I've worked with for years, and I stay accountable for every line of the output.

Ian Sharpe above the Manhattan skyline at night
Above Hudson Yards, New York. Enterprise experience, earned at altitude.

Operations

Operating model design, scaling readiness, process and delivery discipline, cost and margin improvement.

Technology

Technology strategy, digital transformation, build-vs-buy, data and AI adoption, vendor and team leadership.

Strategy

Growth strategy, commercial model, market entry, turnaround, board and investor readiness.

Insights

Thinking you can use

Practical writing on running and growing a business. No theory for theory's sake; everything here ends in something you can do.

July 2026
Cumulative friction: the risk that never makes headlines

The most expensive problems are not dramatic failures. They are small taxes, compounding quietly.

July 2026
The AI context gap: why ChatGPT keeps giving you someone else's answers

Generic AI gives generic output. The gap between impressive-sounding and useful is context.

July 2026
Evidence before opinion: diagnosing a business in twelve weeks

A repeatable method for understanding what is really happening, and getting the organisation to agree.

All insights →

Start with one day

The easiest first step is a Diagnostic Day: one day on your most pressing problem, a written plan within 48 hours, and nothing to lose but the problem. Not sure it's the right fit? Email me anyway. If I can't help, I'll say so and point you towards someone who can.

hello@consultingpartner.io

Or connect on LinkedIn.