When your business needs more than advice from the sidelines, bring in an executive who has sat in the chair you sit in — and made the hard calls you’re facing.
A CEO, a combat veteran, and a leader — for the seat you need filled.
From stepping in to run things, to developing you as the owner, to a seat at your table — the right engagement depends on what your business needs right now.
Step me in as your CEO, COO, or strategic operator — one to three days a week, for a defined period, accountable for outcomes. A heavy hitter in the seat to get the hard thing done, for exactly as long as it takes.
What fractional means →A structured program that develops you as the leader your business needs you to become. Delivered through The Commanding Growth Program — a rigorous, military-grade coaching engagement built for owners ready to command their growth.
Explore the program →Periodic counsel for owners, operators, and boards who want a seasoned operator in the room for the decisions that matter most. Selective by design — a small number of engagements where the judgment of someone who has actually run companies earns its keep.
Start a conversation →Reduce your dependence on yourself. Clean up the financials. Build a team that can run without you. Win back your days.
Every one of those changes makes your business better to own right now — and a buyer pays a premium for every one of them. There is no separate “get ready to sell” checklist. There is just building a genuinely strong business.
When a transition is on the horizon, the stakes change. Buyers look for reasons to lower the price or walk away — and most owners don’t see what’s coming until it costs them.
I help you find and fix those gaps first, then quarterback the specialists — quality of earnings, legal, tax, and your banker — so the team works your interests, not just their fees.
Most people who advise business owners and operators have studied leadership.
I’ve done it — under fire, in the boardroom, and on the floor.
Twenty years running and scaling companies, leading soldiers in combat, and executing transactions on Wall Street. I’ve been in the chair you’re in. That’s the difference.
“Fractional” doesn’t mean junior, and it doesn’t mean part-time advice. It means an experienced operator stepping in to actually run what needs running — for as long as the problem demands, no permanent seat required. Some engagements stay hands-on. Others step back to coaching as you take the wheel.
Some businesses don’t need someone in the seat — they need a seasoned operator in the room when the stakes are highest. A capital raise. A pivotal hire. A deal on the table. A direction that will define the next five years.
This is periodic counsel from someone who has actually run companies, carried payroll, sat across from lenders, and made the calls you’re weighing. Not a consultant reciting frameworks — an operator who has lived the decision and can tell you what the textbook leaves out.
Start a conversation →
I went to the United States Military Academy at West Point because I wanted to lead. I graduated first in my class academically — but more importantly, four years there taught me what real discipline and standards look like when they’re not optional. Then I served five years as an Army Field Artillery officer, including a tour in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. By the time I left the military I had earned a Bronze Star, two Army Commendation Medals, and a Combat Action Badge — and a very different understanding of leadership than I’d had going in.
After the Army I went to the Johnson School at Cornell for an MBA on a full merit scholarship, then to Goldman Sachs in New York, advising on M&A in the Industrials Group. I learned how the largest deals actually move — diligence, valuation, negotiation, the discipline of getting it right when hundreds of millions of dollars are on the table.
Then I went into operating roles, where the lessons compounded.
I spent almost seven years at Milliken & Company across four roles — corporate development, business-unit CFO, post-acquisition integration leader, and finally leading a global product launch in the flooring division. As CFO of a $100M global business unit I ran budgeting, planning, forecasting, and growth strategy. I helped lead one of the largest acquisitions in Milliken’s history, and drove a pricing initiative across half the company that produced several million dollars of EBITDA improvement in its first year. Along the way I was selected for the Milliken Executive Leadership Academy — 22 out of more than 9,000 associates.
After Milliken came a series of C-suite operating roles: COO of an executive search firm, COO of a private-equity-backed food manufacturer, COO of a multi-hundred-million-dollar cash-management business serving Fortune 100 retailers, and finally CEO of a multi-hundred-million-dollar workforce solutions company providing employer-of-record services, payroll, benefits, and workers’ compensation across multiple industries.
By the time I stepped out of the CEO seat, I had done the things most business coaches teach in theory.
I had hired and fired leaders — including ones I liked and ones who’d been there for years. I had made payroll under stress, negotiated with lenders, led real turnarounds, built and rebuilt leadership teams, and managed boards. I had weathered customer losses, navigated cash crunches, stood in front of teams during hard quarters and given them a real reason to keep going, and prepared a business for a private-equity sale through a letter of intent and full due diligence.
During that same period I also took on consulting engagements through a Southeast-based advisory firm, working with a Fortune 500 industrial manufacturer on operational and strategic initiatives. That work only reinforced what my own operating experience had already taught me: the best advisors are people who’ve actually run businesses, not professional consultants.
The military taught me that leadership isn’t about charisma. It’s about clarity, discipline, and the relentless habit of holding yourself and the people around you to a higher standard than they’d otherwise hold themselves to. That is the work. That’s why I built this practice — to do for other owners and business leaders what I’ve done inside my own companies, and to be in the room as someone who has actually been in the chair.
Request a conversation →No pitch, no pressure — a direct conversation about your business and whether I’m the right person to help.
Prefer email? Reach me directly at martin@piercestrategicadvisors.com.
I have received your message and will be in touch shortly. If it’s easier to reach me directly, you’re welcome to email me at martin@piercestrategicadvisors.com.
— Martin Pierce