Insights & Resources
Commercial Executive Brief
Senior operating leadership for businesses that need to deliver what comes next. An experienced operator who steps inside technology, SaaS and growth businesses — to build the operation behind the growth, lead change that has to land, and turn commercial plans into results.
When businesses bring Golden Sky in
The ambition is clear. The capacity to execute it is not.
Most businesses in this position already know where they want to go. What is missing is the structure, leadership or senior capacity to get there — while the business keeps running.
- Growth has outpaced the way the business operates.
- The founder or CEO is still carrying the operation.
- A major transformation needs stronger leadership.
- A good product is not scaling into good delivery.
- A new market, including the UK, needs execution rather than another strategy.
- An investment plan needs converting into action.
- A council programme is approved but not mobilised, or delivery is drifting.
- A supplier-led implementation is off course.
- A senior leadership gap needs filling now.
The Golden Sky proposition
One capability, applied to four kinds of business problem.
Proposition 01
Scale & Strengthen the Business
For businesses whose growth has moved faster than the operating model, leadership structure and delivery behind it.
Typical situations
- Growth has outpaced the operating model.
- The founder or CEO remains too involved in delivery.
- Responsibilities and accountabilities are unclear.
- Processes have not scaled with the customer base.
- Management information and governance are weak.
- Functions operate side by side rather than as one business.
- Leadership capacity is restricting the next stage.
What Graham does
- Operating model. Defines how the business should run at its next size: structure, roles, decision rights and the rhythm that holds them together.
- Governance & MI. Puts in place the management information and governance leaders need to run the business, not just report on it.
- Leadership structure. Clarifies who owns what, releasing the founder or CEO from day-to-day delivery.
- Service delivery. Designs processes and disciplines that hold up as volume grows.
- One business. Aligns product, sales, customer and operations around shared priorities.
Relevant experience
- Oksidia. Co-founded and established the UK subsidiary of a Finnish SaaS company providing specialist education management software and, as UK Director, leads its UK operations: more than 35 UK customers, with sales, implementation, onboarding and account management run from the UK. Shareholder in the Finnish parent.
- Professional Services & alignment. Led the development of the Professional Services methodology for UK delivery, and aligns the Finnish product team with UK customer and operational needs — localisation, integrations with customer finance and payment systems, migration and adoption.
- Governance across borders. Operating leadership of a UK subsidiary within an international parent, balancing local market needs with group product and priorities.
- Welfare Call. As Chief Executive, led a 110-person technology-enabled services business, with approximately 105 local-government customers, through restructuring, process modernisation and commercial change.
For SaaS and technology businesses: scaling the operation means scaling delivery. Implementation, onboarding, Professional Services and the handover from signed contract to live, adopted customer are where growing technology businesses come under most pressure. Graham has led and developed these capabilities — and knows where they strain as customer numbers rise.
Scope Operating model, structure, governance and delivery leadership. Specialist legal, HR and financial advice stays with the client's advisers.
Proposition 02
Lead Business & Technology Transformation
For systems, process and operating change that needs executive ownership to move from plan to working reality.
Typical situations
- A major systems or operational transformation is under way.
- Legacy platforms or processes need replacing.
- A programme is drifting or lacks clear ownership.
- The implementation partner needs stronger challenge.
- Technology change is not becoming operating change.
- Adoption and benefits have no executive owner.
What Graham does
- Mobilise. Ownership, governance, sequencing and a credible first-phase plan, before cost and risk build.
- Own and govern. Executive leadership of the programme, with candid reporting to the CEO, board or investor.
- Challenge the partner. Holds suppliers and implementation partners to what the business actually needs.
- Change how work is done. Redesigns processes, roles and the operating model alongside the system.
- Realise the benefits. Drives adoption and keeps the programme accountable for outcomes.
Relevant experience
- Capita · £10m+ programmes. Accountable executive leadership, on the supplier side, for three technology transformation programmes, each valued at more than £10m, with Hampshire, Staffordshire and a six-authority North Wales consortium.
- Capita · Hampshire. Technology-enabled service change across maintained schools and wider education services, including SEND and inclusion support — a large, multi-stakeholder environment.
- Capita · organisational change. Restructured the approximately 100-person Professional, Technical and Integration Services organisation, taking its contribution to approximately £4m.
- iESE. Built the business case, secured £250,000 of investment funding and led MVP delivery of a social-care case-management SaaS platform.
Technology programmes rarely succeed on the technology alone. Too often they fail when ownership is unclear, the operating model does not change with the system, and no one is accountable for the benefits. Graham has carried that accountability from the delivery side — and knows what it takes to make change land.
The £10m+ programmes were supplier-side executive roles, accountable for Capita's delivery within the clients' governance.
Proposition 03
Accelerate Growth & Market Entry
For businesses with a strong product but an under-built route to market, or a new market to enter — including the UK.
Typical situations
- Strong product, weak or unproven route to market.
- Sales activity is not producing predictable growth.
- A new market — or the UK — needs to be entered.
- Strategy exists; execution capacity does not.
- Growth needs to move beyond founder-led selling.
What Graham does
- Go-to-market execution. Route-to-market, proposition and commercial priorities turned into activity.
- Repeatable sales. Pipeline, account management and a commercial rhythm that does not depend on the founder.
- UK establishment. Building the local operation, customers and delivery for an overseas business.
Relevant experience
- Oksidia. Co-founded and established Oksidia's UK business, and leads its UK market — now more than 35 UK customers.
- FocusGov. Board Adviser through Golden Sky: shift from project-led services to a product-led model and a revised go-to-market strategy, with average year-on-year revenue growth above 50% during the engagement.
- Investment Mastery. Interim Sales Director through Golden Sky: recruited eight sales professionals, introduced scorecards and performance management, and cut new-starter ramp-up from three months to six weeks.
Specialist depth — UK public sector & B2G. Selling to councils and public bodies has its own buying cycles, procurement routes, frameworks and stakeholders. For UK and overseas technology companies entering this market, Graham brings more than 20 years on the supplier side of UK local government — and today leads the UK business of a SaaS platform sold to the public sector, a company that holds approved-supplier status through Crown Commercial Service frameworks.
Proposition 04
Strengthen Performance & Deliver Value
For owners and investors who need priorities converted into operating discipline, performance and results.
Typical situations
- Value-creation priorities are agreed but not yet translating into operating results.
- Delivery, governance or performance needs stabilising.
- A senior leadership gap needs filling now.
What Graham does
- For founders and owner-managed businesses. Preparing the business for investment, sale or succession; strengthening performance before the next ownership or growth stage; management and operating discipline that make value less dependent on the owner.
- For investors, boards and chairs. Value-creation priorities converted into an operating plan and executed; performance governance the board can rely on; executive intervention where delivery needs stabilising.
Relevant experience
- Montagu Private Equity. Supported Full Potential Plan work for Servelec Group following its acquisition in a transaction of approximately £225m; separately, buy-side due diligence on a public-sector education software business.
- Capita · operating performance. Restructured the approximately 100-person Professional, Technical and Integration Services organisation, taking its contribution to approximately £4m.
Read more: Technology, SaaS & B2G Growth · UK Market Entry · Experience & case studies
How Golden Sky is engaged
Four ways to engage Golden Sky.
The same four routes apply across all four areas. They are practical routes, not rigid categories, and can overlap.
Diagnose & Decide
Focused assignments to assess a commercial, operational, product or transformation challenge and establish a practical course of action.
How this works →Fractional Operating Partner
Ongoing senior commercial, product or operating leadership, providing experienced executive capacity without requiring a permanent appointment.
How this works →Interim & Transformation Leadership
Accountable executive leadership for a defined period, major programme, operational challenge or leadership vacancy.
How this works →Growth & Strategic Partnerships
Selected commercial growth partnerships, board advisory appointments, strategic advisory work and non-executive opportunities.
How this works →Who Golden Sky works with
- Founders, CEOs & MDs — operating capacity, scalable delivery and a release from day-to-day operations.
- Owners, investors & chairs — performance, value-creation execution and additional senior management capacity.
- Overseas technology companies — establishing and scaling in the UK, including public-sector and B2G markets.
- Executive search firms — a candidate for fractional or interim COO, Operating and Transformation Director mandates.
- Consulting & delivery partners — independent senior capability working inside a broader engagement.
Why Graham
An operator, not an observer.
More than 20 years leading products, services, commercial activity and delivery inside technology and services businesses — as a founder, chief executive and chief product officer, and today as UK Director of a SaaS business and shareholder in its Finnish parent.
35+
UK customers, Oksidia
£10m+ ×3
Programmes, supplier-side executive lead
300+
Products in portfolio as Chief Product Officer, Capita
110
People led as Chief Executive, Welfare Call
The £10m+ programmes were supplier-side executive roles, accountable for Capita's delivery within the clients' governance.
Next step
A short conversation is usually the quickest way to see whether Golden Sky fits.
A current operating or scaling challenge, a fractional or interim requirement, a transformation that needs ownership, a UK market-entry challenge, or a partner engagement.