A strategy is only as good as the capital and the decisions that follow it.
I work with listed companies and private-equity-backed businesses at the point where strategy meets reality — where stated intent, capital allocation and day-to-day decision-making stop agreeing with one another. That divergence is where EBITDA gets wasted, initiatives get stranded, and plans that look coherent on a page turn become incoherent in a P&L. I diagnose where it sits, and what it will take to close it.
For Listed Companies
Large organisations rarely lack strategic ideas. What they often lack is someone who can move fluidly between the boardroom and the front line — translating strategic intent into something the business can execute, and identifying where the conflicts between functions will arise before they derail the programme.
I have worked inside and alongside some of the largest companies in the world and understand how they make decisions and where the friction points lie.
For Private Capital
A private equity thesis is a plan, and the plan is only as good as the assumptions beneath it. Pricing and commercial initiatives usually carry the largest share of the EBITDA bridge — and are the ones most often handed to specialists who understand price theory but not the operational reality the sales team lives with every day.
I work the other way round: commercial improvement designed around how the business actually runs — its capacity constraints, its sales culture, its real customer relationships. That is why the changes survive contact with the organisation, and why they still show up in the numbers at exit.
Richard Greenwood
Richard is an independent adviser and operating partner with 25 years on the commercial and strategic questions that determine company value — strategy and its implementation, investment appraisal, M&A, commercial improvement and operational performance — across blue-chip corporates, leading investors and professional-services firms worldwide.
Since 2014 he has worked with organisations from privately held businesses to large listed and private-equity-backed companies, helping them become measurably more valuable.
He previously worked for companies including Rio Tinto and Simon-Kucher & Partners and started his career as an economist at cebr.
Executive MBA from IE Business School; BA (Hons) Economics and French from Sussex; Licence en Sciences Économiques from Université Grenoble Alpes.