Engagement Options
Embedded Operating Leadership and Operating Build Support
Kerris Operating Partners LLC provides embedded operating leadership and operating system support for founder-led and lower middle market companies that need stronger execution, accountability, visibility, and control.
My work is structured, practical, and tailored to the company’s stage, priorities, and level of need.
My work cuts across operations, finance, revenue and performance, risk reduction, and leadership effectiveness. I work alongside ownership and management to bring more clarity, stronger follow-through, better decision-making, and a more dependable way of running the business.
This is not outside advice from a distance. It is experienced leadership inside the business, without the cost, commitment, or delay of a full-time executive hire.
How Engagements Typically Begin
Every engagement starts with a conversation about the business, the situation, and whether there is a strong fit.
Some companies begin with an optional Operating Diagnostic. Others move directly into Operating Leadership or Operating Build when the need is already clear.
The goal is the same: identify what matters most, create clarity quickly, and help the business move forward in a meaningful way.
Flexible Engagement Structure
Engagements are structured to fit the company’s needs.
Some companies engage for a focused sprint to solve specific operational issues, improve execution, or build critical operating infrastructure. Others continue into a longer-term operating relationship to strengthen accountability, improve decision-making, and support stronger business performance as the company evolves.
The right structure depends on where the business is now, what constraints are present, and what level of support is needed to create meaningful progress.
Engagement Paths
Kerris Operating Partners offers two primary engagement paths and one options diagnostic.
The engagement structure depends on what the business needs most: stronger leadership execution, stronger operating infrastructure, or a focused diagnostic to clarify the right path.
Companies typically engage through either Operating Leadership or Operating Build. The Operating Diagnostic is available when the right path is not yet clear.
Optional Starting Point: Operating Diagnostic
The Operating Diagnostic is a focused operating review designed to identify what is constraining execution, accountability, visibility, control, or decision-making.
It is best used when leadership wants an outside operating assessment, when the right engagement path is not yet clear, or when the company wants practical clarity before committing to a broader operating engagement.
The Diagnostic is optional. It is not required before beginning an engagement, and it is not a sales step disguised as analysis. It is a standalone executive operating assessment designed to give leadership useful clarity, sharper priorities, and a practical view of where operating attention is most needed.
If the findings support continued work, the next engagement should feel like the logical continuation of what the Diagnostic uncovered. If the work continues into a broader Operating Build engagement, the Diagnostic fee may be credited forward.
Primary Engagement Options
Option 1: Operating Build (Infrastructure-Focused Engagement)
Operating Build helps establish the operating infrastructure needed for clearer visibility, stronger control, sharper accountability, and more disciplined execution.
It is delivered through the proprietary Kerris Operating System, a private-equity-inspired framework for installing practical operating disciplines inside founder-led and lower middle market companies.
Operating Build is best when operating issues are structural: weak visibility, unclear ownership, missing tools, inconsistent reporting, repeated execution breakdowns, or excessive founder dependence.
Option 2: Operating Leadership (leadership-Focused Engagement)
Operating Leadership provides embedded senior operating leadership to strengthen how the company drives priorities, accountability, decisions, and execution across the business.
It is best when the company can operate, but needs stronger weekly discipline, clearer priorities, better follow-through, and more effective decision-making.
This is not “light” advice. It is senior judgment, operating discipline, and executive support focused on helping leadership run the business with more clarity, consistency, and control.
How to Choose the Right Path
If the business can operate but needs stronger leadership discipline, Operating Leadership may be the right fit.
If the business cannot operate reliably because key operating infrastructure is missing, weak, or broken, Operating Build may be the better fit.
If the right path is unclear, an Operating Diagnostic can help identify the operating constraint and recommended next step.
How Companies Move Between Engagements
Engagements are designed to fit the company’s current needs, not force a fixed path.
Some companies begin with Operating Leadership when the immediate need is judgment, structure, accountability, and operating rhythm. If deeper operating infrastructure is needed, the engagement can expand into Operating Build.
Others begin with Operating Build to establish stronger systems, controls, and management discipline, and later shift into Operating Leadership to maintain momentum, accountability, and executive support after the heavier build work is complete.
What the Work Looks Like
Once engaged, I work inside the business alongside ownership and management to strengthen execution, improve operating rhythm, support better decisions, increase visibility, and address the issues that most affect performance, control, risk, and business value.
The goal is not to add bureaucracy. It is to create enough structure for better decisions, stronger execution, and more consistent progress. The business should become clearer, calmer, better controlled, and better led. Leadership should feel more supported, not more burdened.
What the Work Often Includes
Depending on the business and the situation, my work may include:
sharpening priorities and improving follow-through
increasing visibility into cash, performance, and business health
strengthening accountability, decision-making, and operating cadence
improving reporting, forecasting, and financial discipline
tightening controls, approvals, and spending discipline
moving stalled or cross-functional work forward
identifying vulnerabilities earlier, before they become costlier problems
How I create value
The goal is not to create more activity. It is to improve the quality of how the business operates.
That often means clearer priorities, stronger accountability, better decisions, more consistent execution, improved visibility, fewer surprises, less chaos, and a company that runs more predictably under pressure.
I do not sell time. I help businesses make better decisions, execute with more discipline, reduce avoidable risk, and build more value.
I also help de-risk the business by identifying issues earlier, strengthening controls where needed, improving discipline, and helping leadership make better decisions in difficult conditions.
The objective is to help build a company that is better run, less founder-dependent, more resilient, more financeable, and more valuable.
How the Work Usually Evolves
Most businesses do not have a strategy problem. They have a clarity, execution, and control problem.
Early work often focuses on visibility, discipline, accountability, operating rhythm, and decision-making.
As the foundation improves, the focus may shift toward performance and value creation: sharper accountability, improved margins, stronger working capital management, strategic initiatives, reduced founder dependence, and a more scalable business.
Why This Is Different
I do not operate from a narrow functional lane. Business problems rarely stay neatly contained, and my work reflects that reality.
Weak execution often connects to weak reporting. Growth strain often exposes gaps in accountability, discipline, process, and control at the same time.
My approach is practical, modular, and grounded in what the business actually needs. I provide embedded senior leadership focused on execution, control, discipline, risk reduction, and value creation.
Direct Senior Involvement
Clients work directly with Michael Kerris throughout the engagement.
This is not a platform model, a junior team, or occasional outside advice. Clients receive direct senior involvement, practical judgment, and support that stays close to the real operating needs of the business.
Start with a Conversation
The right structure should create value early, reduce risk for the client, and give the business the level of support it actually needs.
We can discuss whether your situation calls for an Operating Diagnostic, Operating Leadership, Operating Build, or no engagement at all.