For PE Operating Partners
The operating improvement isn't materializing. The thesis has a clock.
Structural Advisory for PE Operating Partners
You modeled the synergies. The management team committed to the integration timeline. The operating improvement program launched on schedule. A year in, the dashboard looks reasonable and the EBITDA impact isn't there. The portfolio company is still running the old way.
This isn't an execution problem. It's a structural one. The conditions inside the portfolio company—decision rights, metrics, workflows, role definitions—still reward the behavior the acquisition was supposed to replace. Until someone names those conditions and puts the right people in the room to change them, the thesis stalls.
The integration completed. The behavior didn't shift.
"The management team says they need more time."
They've had time. What they haven't had is a structural diagnosis that names which operating conditions are producing the old behavior. More time doesn't fix misaligned incentives, unclear decision rights, or parallel processes that nobody has the authority to shut down.
"We're not seeing the operating improvements we modeled."
The synergy model assumed behavior change. Training happened. Communications went out. But the environment inside the portfolio company still makes the old way of working easier than the new one. The improvement was modeled on conditions that don't exist yet.
"The integration looks complete on paper."
Systems are consolidated. Org charts are merged. Reporting lines are redrawn. But the workforce is running shadow processes, holding onto legacy tools, and making decisions using the old approval chains. Integration without environment redesign is a cosmetic exercise.
"We bought the company for what it could become."
And it's still operating the way it was. The gap between the acquisition thesis and the operating reality isn't a people problem. It's an architecture problem. The conditions that produced the old company are still intact. Intact conditions produce the old behavior. Every time.
What IGNITE Does Differently
We name the structural decisions the portfolio company hasn't made.
We diagnose the operating conditions stalling the thesis. 14 structural domains. 83 conditions. We map what the portfolio company's environment rewards, measures, and makes easy. The Sponsor Assessment takes five minutes and produces a red/amber/green structural map by domain. You see exactly where the architecture is fighting the investment thesis.
We put the right conversation in the room. The Permanence engagement puts IGNITE's Managing Partner in the room with the portfolio company CEO on the decisions that determine whether the thesis holds. Decision rights. Metrics. Workflow redesign. Role definitions. The decisions the management team has been deferring.
We separate the change program from the structural work. The portfolio company may have an OCM team doing good work. Communications and training have a ceiling. They change what people know. They don't change what the environment rewards. We work above that ceiling on the conditions the change program can't touch.
We compress the timeline. PE operating improvements have a clock. We don't bring a 12-month phased approach. We diagnose in weeks, not quarters. The structural map tells you where to intervene first for maximum impact on the investment thesis.
Free Diagnostics
Map the portfolio company's structural gaps. Five minutes.
12 to 14 questions. Covers the 14 structural domains that determine whether behavior change holds after the integration program ends. Red/amber/green output by domain. Designed for operating partners and portfolio company executives. No login required.
Run it yourself based on what you're observing, or hand it to the portfolio company's CEO and compare results.
The output isn't a report. It's a structural map showing where the portfolio company's operating environment supports the thesis and where it produces reversion. Red domains explain the stall. Amber domains flag unstable conditions trending the wrong direction.
Bring the results to your next operating review, or book a 30-minute conversation with IGNITE to walk through what the map reveals and which decisions need to happen first.
Book a 30-Minute ConversationEngagements
Two engagement paths. One objective: make the thesis hold.
Adoption
For portfolio companies where the change program completed but adoption didn't follow
The full environment design engagement inside the portfolio company. We embed with the management team, diagnose the 14 structural domains in operational context, and design the conditions that make the operating improvement stick. Scoped to the integration, the operating model change, or the technology modernization driving the thesis.
Permanence
For portfolio companies where the operating improvement is central to the investment thesis
Direct structural architecture work. IGNITE's Managing Partner works with the portfolio company CEO and the operating partner on the systemic decisions that make the transformation irreversible. Decision rights reassignment. Metrics realignment. Parallel process elimination. Role redesign at the leadership level.
The pattern is the same across every portfolio company.
The acquisition thesis assumed the workforce would adopt new systems, new processes, new ways of making decisions. The integration program launched on time. Training hit its targets. Communications went out.
Six months later, half the organization is working around the new system. The synergy model assumed behavior change that never happened because nobody changed the conditions that produced the old behavior.
IGNITE names those conditions. We map them across 14 domains. We put the structural decisions in front of the people with the authority to make them. And we stay until the operating environment matches the thesis, not just the org chart.
Start Here
Three paths forward. Pick the one that fits.
Run the Sponsor Assessment as a portfolio diagnostic
Five minutes. No login. See where the portfolio company's operating environment is producing the old behavior.
Start the Assessment →Book a 30-minute conversation
Bring your assessment results or bring the question you're trying to answer about a specific portfolio company. No pitch. Structural diagnosis only.
Book a Conversation →Have the portfolio company's OCM team install the free plugin
19 structured commands for change practitioners. The plugin surfaces the limit of the change program and gives practitioners the evidence to bring the structural problem to the sponsor. Free. No subscription.
Install on GitHub →