Audience

The buyer made real. Personas a salesperson would recognize, not LinkedIn cartoons. Everything in this file should ladder back to one question: is this the person who wakes up and writes us a check?

This document descends from positioning.md and narrative.md. The voice rule from CLAUDE.md applies: no "synergy," no "leverage as a verb," no "unleash," no "supercharge," no "in today's fast-paced world." "Veteran" means decades of senior-exec experience — not military. Voice is confident senior partner, plainspoken, peer-to-peer.

1. ICP statement

THG Advisors is built for senior leaders running mid-market operating companies between $75M and $500M in revenue (200–2,500 employees) — where the operating clock is real and the next twelve months matter more than the next five years. Ownership type is not the gate. Private-equity-backed portcos are still our highest-urgency buyer because the hold clock makes the value-creation plan a live document. Founder-owned platforms and family-owned operators at the same scale sit comfortably in-bounds. The condition is the urgency, not the cap table.

We are deliberately not the right firm above this band. Enterprise leadership inside Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 companies — including divisional leadership of a $400M unit inside a strategic — is out. The political surface, vendor-management theater, and ego dynamics at that scale make us a poor fit. Mid-market CEOs and CIOs are pragmatic. They want the change made. That is the buyer we serve.

Industry concentration still matches our bench: financial services and fintech, healthcare services and provider platforms, hospitality and multi-unit consumer, project-based construction and industrial services. Tech/SaaS and broader industrial services are likely v2 additions once the founder confirms the bench can carry them — flagged for the brand team rather than promised. Geography is North America, with operating HQs across the Southeast, Midwest, and Texas as well as the Northeast — the kind of company with a board meeting in Atlanta, Dallas, or Cleveland, not a press release in San Francisco.

The life-stage triggers that put a company in our ICP are specific and observable:

• A recent platform acquisition with one to three bolt-ons pending, or a carve-out that left tech debt behind.
• A CEO, CIO, CFO, CMO, CHRO, or COO transition in the first 120 days, with an inherited plan the new operator doesn't fully believe.
• A value-creation plan or annual operating plan that has slipped one quarter and cannot slip another.
• A 100-day-plan checkpoint that the board or sponsor has flagged yellow.
• A failed digital re-platform — ERP, CRM, HRIS, or martech — that has to be salvaged before audit, refinance, or the next QBR.
• A CMO–CRO–CFO alignment crisis where pipeline math, brand spend, and revenue forecast no longer agree.
• Post-acquisition culture work where two operating cultures have to become one inside a year.
• An operating-model redesign forced by AI: the CEO has promised the board automation, productivity, or margin expansion, and the function head has to make it real.
• A regulatory, DEI, or workforce moment that needs adult handling at the board level.

The buyer is one of six seats — CEO, CIO, CFO, CMO, CHRO, COO — usually two or three together. When the company is PE-backed, the sponsor's operating partner stands behind the buyer. When it isn't, the board, the lead independent director, the CFO, or the family principal stands behind them instead. The political surface is the same shape; the names on the org chart change.

2. Primary personas

Six personas. CEO, CIO, CFO, CMO, CHRO, COO. Each is a person a salesperson would recognize on a discovery call by the third question. Every one of them shares a mid-market temperament: pragmatic, time-poor, and uninterested in vendor theater. They want the change made.

A note on receipts: at the date of this draft, our named bench is strongest at the CEO, CIO, and CFO seats. We have credible CHRO and COO depth in the practice through Walt Carter's network and the council leaders, but we do not yet have a named former CMO at Walt's seniority publicly on the bench. The CMO persona below is written to the buyer we're built to serve; the brand team should treat the named-CMO receipt as a gap to close before we publish CMO-led case studies or run CMO-targeted paid campaigns. (Same caveat, lighter, applies to CHRO and COO.) Flagged for the brand team.

Persona A — "The CEO under the clock"

Who they are. CEO of a mid-market operating company, $150M–$500M revenue, 600–2,500 employees. Healthcare services, financial services, multi-unit consumer, or project-based industrial. Mid-50s, second or third operating role, ran a division at a larger company before this seat. In the seat 12–24 months. If PE-backed, the sponsor put them in and the board has six people (deal partner, operating partner, industry chair, two co-investors). If founder- or family-owned, the board is the founder, the CFO, and one or two outside advisors. Owns equity or carry that pays out against the plan they signed.

What they're trying to do this quarter. Hit the operating number for the half. Close one M&A move that's been in diligence for sixty days. Get the integration of the last acquisition out of "still pending" status. Decide whether to fire or back one of their direct reports — usually the CIO or CMO — who they inherited. Tell a story to the board on the next meeting date that does not include the word "delayed."

What they fear. Being the second CEO this platform replaces. Missing the operating number two quarters in a row — at a PE-backed company that's a "reset conversation" with the operating partner; at a founder-owned business it's the conversation where the founder asks whether they should come back into the seat. The board deciding the plan is "no longer credible." The integration not landing in time for the next milestone — refinance, exit, or board review. Getting outflanked by a peer C-suite who is friendlier with the board than they are.

How they buy. Committee of three to five for anything over $250K: themselves, the CFO, the relevant function head (CIO / CMO / CHRO / COO depending on the engagement), and — if PE-backed — the sponsor's operating partner always; if founder- or family-owned, the lead independent director or the founder. Cycle is three to six weeks from first call to signed SOW — if the first call is good. The CEO is the champion and the economic buyer. The blocker is usually the CFO. The shadow approver — operating partner, lead independent director, or principal — is the secret champion: if they already know our work, the deal closes in two calls.

Where they get information. Middle Market Growth (ACG), PE Hub, Axios Pro Rata, HBR's leadership pieces, The Wall Street Journal's CEO Today column. Podcasts: Capital Allocators, Acquired, Invest Like the Best, Founders, Private Equity Funcast. Peer groups: YPO, Vistage at the upper end, the operating-partner network of their own sponsor, or the family-office CEO circles. LinkedIn voices they actually read: their board members, two or three CEOs who've exited well recently, Brent Beshore, Patrick O'Shaughnessy. They do not read McKinsey Insights; they read what their board forwards them.

Trigger events. (1) A board meeting where the operating plan got flagged yellow. (2) A direct report — CIO, CMO, CHRO, COO — just resigned or got asked to. (3) An acquisition signed and the 100-day integration plan is due. (4) An operating deep-dive identified three workstreams that need an outside hand. (5) An LP annual meeting or lender review is 90 days out and the platform story needs a chapter that isn't written yet. (6) The CEO themselves is 90 days in and inherited a roadmap they don't believe. (7) The board has asked, in writing, what the AI agenda looks like.

The objection that kills deals. "I've spent on consultants before. I got a deck and an invoice. My board is going to ask me what I actually got, and I need a better answer than I had last time."

A real quote — what they'd say at the start of a call. "Look — I'll save us both time. I don't need a study. I don't need a vendor-management process. I need someone who's already done this and can sit next to my CIO on Monday morning. If that's not you, tell me now, because I have a board update in three weeks and I'm out of quarters to spend on diagnosis."

Persona B — "The CIO with an AI mandate and no margin for error"

Who they are. CIO of a mid-market company, $100M–$500M revenue, 400–2,500 employees. Late 40s to early 50s, third CIO seat, previously a VP of IT at a larger company. In the seat 30–180 days. The trigger that brought them in varies: post-acquisition carve-out, post-merger integration, a new-CIO hire after the last one was asked to leave, or a strategic decision by the CEO to bring in someone who can build the AI plan. They report to the CEO, dotted-line to the CFO, and — if PE-backed — the sponsor's operating partner has their cell number; if not, the audit chair does.

What they're trying to do this quarter. Finish the inherited infrastructure audit and present it to the board within 30 days. Decide what to do with the $20M–$60M of tech debt and shadow SaaS they walked into. Stand up an ERP, CRM, or data-platform plan without blowing the IT capex envelope. Show the CEO a credible AI agenda — because the CEO promised the board one, and the CIO is the person who has to actually deliver it. Hire two leaders (head of infrastructure, head of data) without paying coastal comp.

What they fear. Being the "interim" CIO replaced with a search firm in nine months. A breach or an outage in the first year — every mid-market CIO knows the first incident is the one that defines whether the board ever trusts them again. The AI program getting handed to a build shop by the CEO over their head because the CEO got impatient. The integration of the last acquisition still being on the risk register at the next board review. A SOC 2, HITRUST, or PCI audit landing on a stack they haven't had time to harden.

How they buy. They influence; they rarely close alone. The economic buyer is the CEO or the CFO; the CIO's job is to bring in the right partner and not be embarrassed by them. Committee is three to five: CIO, CEO, CFO, sometimes the head of security, plus the shadow approver (operating partner or audit chair). Cycle is four to eight weeks because the CIO has to socialize the spend internally. The CIO is the champion; the blocker is usually the CFO or, in tech-heavier shops, the head of security who feels territorial. The CIO will not champion a vendor who makes them look junior in front of the CEO — the single most important fact about selling to this persona.

Where they get information. Gartner (subscription whether they read it or not), CIO.com, The Wall Street Journal CIO Journal, The Information, Stratechery, Pirate Wires. Podcasts: Acquired, Lenny's Podcast, The CIO Exchange, Tech at Work (HBR), No Priors on AI infra. Peer groups: Evanta CIO summits, regional CIO councils — including our own Emerging CIO Council — and the Society for Information Management (SIM) local chapter. LinkedIn voices: a handful of named CIOs at peer mid-market companies, Tomasz Tunguz on AI infra, Ethan Mollick on AI adoption, sometimes Benedict Evans. They are not on AI Twitter; they read second-hand summaries of it.

Trigger events. (1) Hired into the CIO seat in the last 120 days — post-carve-out, post-merger, or fresh after the last CIO left. (2) The CEO came back from a peer summit talking about AI and the CIO now has to produce a plan. (3) A failed ERP, CRM, or HRIS implementation that needs to be salvaged. (4) A SOC 2, HITRUST, or PCI finding that needs remediation in 90 days. (5) The previous CIO left and the audit committee wants an outside assessment of the stack before they let the new CIO spend. (6) An M&A integration where the IT diligence was thin and the surprises are starting to show. (7) A CEO directive to "have an answer on AI" before the next board meeting.

The objection that kills deals. "I've been burned by 'AI consultants' who sent me a 25-year-old with a notebook and an opinion. If you're going to put a junior person on my engagement, I'd rather hire two senior contractors directly."

A real quote — what they'd say at the start of a call. "I inherited a roadmap I don't believe, a vendor list I didn't pick, and a budget my CEO already promised the board. Before we talk about AI, I need someone who can tell me — honestly, in a room with no juniors — what to keep, what to kill, and what to replace. And it has to be someone who's already done it, because I'm the one explaining it to the audit committee."

Persona C — "The CFO running close on a broken stack"

Who they are. CFO of a mid-market operating company, $75M–$500M revenue, 300–2,500 employees. Financial services, healthcare services, industrial services, or multi-unit consumer. Late 40s. Second or third CFO seat, previously a VP of finance at a larger company; often a former Big-4 auditor or investment-banking analyst by background. Reports to the CEO, owns FP&A, treasury, accounting, M&A integration, and (in mid-market companies) usually IT too. If PE-backed, the sponsor talks to them as often as they talk to the CEO. If founder-owned, the founder treats them as the closest thing to a co-pilot.

What they're trying to do this quarter. Close the books on day five instead of day twelve. Build the lender package for the upcoming refinance. Lead the financial integration of the most recent acquisition — chart of accounts, billing systems, AR aging, the whole list. Produce a 13-week cash forecast the board will actually trust. Get rid of the three NetSuite consultants who have been "wrapping up" for nine months. Decide whether the controller they inherited is the right person for the next phase.

What they fear. A material weakness in the audit. A covenant trip the board finds out about before they do. An acquisition where the receivables turn out to be softer than diligence said. A close that slips and forces them to send preliminary numbers — every CFO hates preliminary numbers. The CEO making a strategic commitment the CFO has to fund retroactively. Being the CFO who didn't see the cash crunch coming.

How they buy. They are very often the blocker the CEO and the CIO have to clear. The CFO has institutional memory of every consulting overrun and every vendor that didn't deliver. Committee is three to five: CFO, CEO, the relevant shadow approver, sometimes the controller, sometimes the CIO. Cycle is six to ten weeks because the CFO will ask for references, fixed-fee proposals, and a one-page risk register before they will sign. The CFO is rarely the champion but is almost always the closer — if the CFO says yes, the deal happens; if the CFO says no, it dies. They champion vendors who are fixed-fee or outcome-priced and who can explain the unit economics of the engagement on a single page.

Where they get information. The Wall Street Journal CFO Journal, CFO Dive, Middle Market Growth. Podcasts: Capital Allocators, Acquired, The Memo by Howard Marks, Founders. Peer groups: their own sponsor's CFO network (the single most important channel when present), regional CFO roundtables, Financial Executives International (FEI) local chapter. LinkedIn voices: Brian Feroldi on financial literacy, Aswath Damodaran when he posts, plus two or three peer CFOs. They read what their shadow approver sends them, full stop.

Trigger events. (1) Close cycle taking more than ten days. (2) An acquisition closed and the financial integration is on the critical path. (3) Auditors flagged a control deficiency. (4) Refinance or recap is six months out and the package needs to be tightened. (5) The ERP they inherited is failing — too-old QuickBooks, too-customized NetSuite, half-implemented Workday. (6) The board asked, in a meeting the CFO wasn't quite ready for, "what's your three-year finance operating model?" (7) Cash forecast variance two months in a row.

The objection that kills deals. "What's the fixed fee, and what's the deliverable I can put in front of the audit committee on date X? I'm not buying hours. I'm not buying a discovery. I want a number, a date, and a name on the engagement letter."

A real quote — what they'd say at the start of a call. "Tell me three things. One: have you actually closed books at a company this size before, or are you going to learn on my dime? Two: is the person who shows up tomorrow the same person who's on this call right now? Three: when the auditors land in October, are you the one in the room with me, or have you handed me off?"

Persona D — "The CMO defending the budget while the board questions the spend"

Who they are. CMO of a mid-market operating company, $100M–$500M revenue, 400–2,500 employees. Financial services, healthcare services, hospitality, or multi-unit consumer. Early 50s. Second CMO seat or first at this scale, previously a VP of marketing or a head of growth at a larger company. In the seat 60–180 days, hired by the CEO with the board's encouragement. Reports to the CEO; works hand-in-glove with the CRO when there is one, or owns demand-gen and brand directly when there isn't. Owns brand, demand-gen, product marketing, and increasingly the martech stack and the customer-data platform.

What they're trying to do this quarter. Defend the marketing budget against a board that has started asking "what does this actually buy us." Stand up a pipeline number the CFO will sign off on — and that the CRO won't disown when the quarter closes short. Get the martech stack to tell ROI without three analysts and a spreadsheet. Make a call on the AI-marketing tools the team has bought independently in the last twelve months — what to keep, what to kill, what to consolidate. Land a positioning refresh, or a full rebrand, that the CEO has already pre-committed to externally. Repair the relationship with the CRO before the next QBR.

What they fear. Being the CMO whose tenure is shorter than the average — already the shortest C-suite tenure in the org chart, and the board knows it. A pipeline miss that the CRO blames on marketing. A board member sending the CEO an article about "marketing as a cost center" and the CEO forwarding it without comment. An AI-tooling decision that becomes the story of the year because it leaked customer data or generated something embarrassing. A brand refresh that the founder or the family principal publicly hates. Spending eighteen months on a positioning project that gets shelved at the first leadership change.

How they buy. Committee of three to five: CMO, CEO, CFO, the CRO if there is one, and the shadow approver — operating partner or lead independent director. Cycle is four to eight weeks. The CMO is the champion but rarely the economic buyer above $250K — the CEO signs, the CFO scrutinizes. The blocker is the CFO ("what's the ROI?") or, surprisingly often, the CRO ("are you about to change what we sell while I'm trying to hit the number?"). The CMO will not champion a vendor who shows up with a deck full of frameworks instead of work that shipped — they have seen too many of those decks already.

Where they get information. AdAge, Marketing Brew, Marketing Week, HBR's marketing pieces, The Drum. Podcasts: Marketing Against the Grain, The Marketing Companion, Acquired on brand-led case studies, Lenny's Podcast for the product-marketing crossover, Uncensored CMO. Peer groups: CMO Club (now part of Gartner), Forrester CMO council, Pavilion, regional CMO roundtables, the CMO network of their sponsor. LinkedIn voices: April Dunford on positioning, Mark Ritson when he posts (which he does, loudly), Peep Laja, Anthony Kennada, Kieran Flanagan, plus two or three peer-CMO friends. They read fewer agency think-pieces than the agencies think.

Trigger events. (1) CRO churn, or a fresh CRO who wants to renegotiate the pipeline contract with marketing. (2) Board questioning marketing spend in two consecutive meetings. (3) A major brand refresh, rename, or positioning project commissioned by the CEO. (4) A new CEO with strong opinions about positioning, voice, or category. (5) An AI-marketing tooling sprawl review — the CFO asked for a list of the SaaS contracts and there are forty-seven of them. (6) A pipeline miss that the analytics stack can't explain. (7) A pre-sale or pre-refinance moment where the brand story needs to hold up to outside scrutiny.

The objection that kills deals. "Last time I bought outside help on brand, I got a beautiful deck and a Figma file. Six months later my pipeline number was the same and my CRO was still angry. If you're going to walk me into the next one of those, this is going to be a short call."

A real quote — what they'd say at the start of a call. "My CEO is telling the board we have a new brand story. My CRO is telling me my pipeline math is wrong. My CFO is telling me to cut 20% of the martech stack. I don't need a positioning workshop. I need someone who has actually run marketing at a company my size, who can sit between me and the CRO on Tuesday, and who'll tell me which of those three problems is the one I should solve first."

Persona E — "The CHRO doing the AI-and-culture work nobody else will touch"

Who they are. CHRO of a mid-market operating company, $100M–$500M revenue, 500–2,500 employees. Healthcare services, financial services, multi-unit consumer, or project-based industrial. Late 40s to mid-50s. Second or third CHRO seat. Previously a VP of HR, often with a stint in talent or total rewards before they got the top seat. In the seat 12–24 months at a growing platform, or 30–120 days into a post-acquisition or post-leadership-change role. Reports to the CEO, sits on the executive team, runs talent, total rewards, learning, DEI, and increasingly the AI-and-workforce conversation that nobody else on the team wants to own.

What they're trying to do this quarter. Land the integration plan for the most recent acquisition without losing the top quartile of either side's people. Get retention numbers below the threshold the board has flagged. Build the workforce plan — including the AI-and-automation conversation — that the CEO has promised the board for the next meeting. Replace one or two senior leaders without it leaking. Decide whether the LMS, HRIS, and performance tools are the right platforms for the next phase. Handle the DEI, regulatory, or workforce-comms moment that always lands on their desk and only on their desk.

What they fear. A culture story that goes external — Glassdoor, a regional newspaper, a Reddit thread — and the board has to ask the CEO about it. The "AI will replace people" conversation being mishandled by the CEO or the COO in a town hall, and the CHRO being the adult who has to clean up. A regulatory finding — EEOC, OFCCP, OSHA, state-level — that lands during a transition period. A senior departure that the board didn't see coming because the CHRO didn't see it coming. An HRIS implementation that fails and leaves payroll, benefits, or compliance exposed.

How they buy. Committee of three to five: CHRO, CEO, CFO, sometimes the COO when the work touches operating-model design, and the shadow approver — operating partner or lead independent director. Cycle is four to ten weeks. The CHRO is the champion above their pay grade — they are buying work the CEO will judge them on, and they cannot afford a misstep. The blocker is the CFO ("is this consulting spend in the plan?") or the COO ("are you about to disrupt my operation?"). The CHRO champions partners who have actually done the work — sat in the seat, taken the difficult call, told a CEO no — and they will quietly back-channel-reference with two or three peer CHROs before signing.

Where they get information. HR Executive, SHRM publications, HR Brew, HBR's leadership and culture pieces, MIT Sloan Management Review. Podcasts: Redefining HR, The CHRO Podcast, Tea with the CHRO, HBR IdeaCast, The Anxious Achiever. Peer groups: i4cp, the HR Policy Association, Vistage's HR-leader cohorts, regional CHRO roundtables, and the CHRO network of their sponsor. LinkedIn voices: Adam Grant, Amy Edmondson, Erin Meyer, plus three or four peer CHROs and one or two named industrial-organizational psychologists they actually trust. They read less LinkedIn-as-content than people assume; they read carefully when they do.

Trigger events. (1) A CEO transition, or a CEO who just took the seat and is rewriting the operating norms. (2) Post-acquisition culture work — two operating cultures have to become one inside a year. (3) The "AI will replace people" board conversation that the CHRO is asked to lead. (4) A regulatory, DEI, or comp-equity moment that needs adult handling. (5) A senior-leader transition — replacing a long-tenured CFO, CIO, or COO without the team losing trust. (6) A retention or engagement metric that has crossed a board-watched threshold. (7) An HRIS or compensation-platform decision that has to be defensible to the audit committee and the workforce.

The objection that kills deals. "I've worked with consultants who told me what the survey says, and consultants who told me what the framework says. I don't need either of those. If you're going to advise me on culture, you need to have sat at the table when a senior leader was let go, and to have written the all-hands the morning after. If you haven't, you can't help me on the work that actually matters."

A real quote — what they'd say at the start of a call. "My CEO has promised the board a workforce-and-AI plan, and the deadline is the next board meeting. My retention numbers are off in one region. I have an integration that's three months behind on culture and people. I am not looking for a competency model. I'm looking for someone who has actually been the CHRO in a moment like this one, and can sit with me through the next ninety days. That is the brief."

Persona F — "The COO redesigning the operating model while the CEO promises AI margin"

Who they are. COO of a mid-market operating company, $150M–$500M revenue, 600–2,500 employees. Multi-unit consumer, healthcare services, project-based industrial, or financial services back-office. Early 50s. Second or third COO seat, previously a SVP of operations at a larger company. Often the heir-apparent to the CEO seat at this company, or the person the CEO leans on when the board asks about delivery. In the seat 12–30 months. Owns operations, customer service, supply chain (where relevant), and increasingly the automation-and-AI agenda inside the four walls of the business.

What they're trying to do this quarter. Hit the margin number the CEO has promised the board. Redesign the operating model so the AI agenda actually shows up in the P&L — not just in the strategy deck. Land the integration of the last acquisition into the operating cadence: same KPIs, same operating reviews, same accountability. Decide which 3–6 functions are candidates for automation in the next 12 months and which are not. Replace one or two operating leaders who haven't scaled with the company. Get the customer-service or field-ops metric off the board's watch list.

What they fear. Being the COO who promised margin and didn't deliver — at PE-backed companies that's the conversation where the sponsor asks whether the COO or the CEO leaves first. A customer-experience story going public — outage, recall, safety incident, viral complaint — that traces back to an operating decision they signed off on. The AI program being announced by the CEO at the board, with no plan they trust behind it. A supply-chain or vendor failure that hits the quarter. Being outflanked by the CFO, the CIO, or the CMO on the AI conversation — because three other C-suite leaders think it's their agenda too.

How they buy. Committee of three to five: COO, CEO, CFO, sometimes the CIO when the work touches systems and data, and the shadow approver. Cycle is four to eight weeks. The COO is often both the champion and the closer — they tend to have credibility with the CEO on operating spend, and the CFO will defer to them more than to the CMO or CHRO. The blocker is usually the CFO at a finer level of scrutiny ("show me the unit economics of this engagement"), or the CIO if the work crosses into systems territory. The COO champions partners who can hold an operating cadence with them — weekly stand-ups, real metrics, real consequences — not vendors who show up monthly with a slide.

Where they get information. The Wall Street Journal operations and logistics coverage, Supply Chain Dive, Industry Week, HBR's operations pieces, MIT Sloan Management Review. Podcasts: Acquired, Lenny's Podcast for the product-and-ops crossover, The Operations Room, Masters of Scale, Founders. Peer groups: APICS/ASCM for the supply-chain-heavy COOs, the Conference Board, regional COO roundtables, and the operating-partner network of their sponsor. LinkedIn voices: Patrick Collison when he posts on operating leverage, Marc Andreessen on AI and the firm, Jim Womack on lean, plus two or three peer-COO friends. They read the operating notes their CEO sends them; they ignore most of the rest.

Trigger events. (1) A CEO directive to deliver 200–500 basis points of margin in the next 12 months, with no clear path. (2) An operating-model redesign — usually triggered by an acquisition, a divestiture, or a strategic shift. (3) A failed automation or RPA project from the previous administration that needs to be salvaged or shut down. (4) A supply-chain disruption that exposed how concentrated or fragile the model is. (5) A customer-service or field-ops metric that has crossed a board-watched threshold. (6) An AI mandate from the CEO with no clear function-owner — the CIO and the COO both think it's theirs, and somebody has to break the tie. (7) A senior operations-leader departure that opened the redesign window.

The objection that kills deals. "I have been pitched by every operations-improvement firm in this country. They all show me the same Lean Six Sigma deck. If you're going to do that, save us both the meeting. The work I need done is sitting in the operating review on Tuesday morning, and either you're useful in that room or you're not."

A real quote — what they'd say at the start of a call. "My CEO has promised the board 300 basis points of margin from AI and automation. I'm the one who has to deliver it. I don't need a roadmap with seventeen workstreams. I need a former COO who has actually taken cost out of an operation my size — without taking the customer with it — to walk me through the next two quarters. If you've done it, let's talk. If you haven't, I'd rather hear that now."

3. Buying-committee map

For a typical THG engagement, the room looks like this. Roles by archetype, not by name. The committee shape holds across PE-backed, founder-owned, and family-owned mid-market contexts — the names on the org chart change; the political functions don't.

The single most important political fact, restated for the broader ICP: the shadow approver is the secret champion of the deal, not the named buyer. At PE-backed companies that's the operating partner. At founder- or family-owned companies it's the lead independent director, the CFO, or the family principal. Most engagements that close fast close because the shadow approver had already heard our name. Most that die in committee die because they hadn't.

4. JTBD statements

Twelve jobs, in the form "When ___, I want to ___, so I can ___." These generalize across personas and are how we should describe the work in copy.

1. When I'm 90 days into a new CEO or CIO seat at a mid-market company and I've inherited a plan I didn't write, I want a former CxO who has actually run the function to tell me what to keep, kill, and replace — so I can present a credible 100-day update to my board without learning on the job in public.

2. When the board has just flagged the operating plan yellow and I have one quarter to move the EBITDA story, I want a senior operator who can sit in the chair next to me and ship the change — not a deck — so I can show the board something that shipped, not something that's being studied.

3. When I've just closed an acquisition and the integration is on the critical path, I want an interim operator from the same firm that scoped the integration to actually run it — so I can avoid the handoff tax between an advisor and the people who do the work.

4. When my CEO has promised the board an AI agenda and I'm the CIO who has to deliver it, I want a partner who has actually shipped AI into production at a mid-market company of my size — so I can move past the demo stage to a defensible plan the audit committee will approve.

5. When my close is taking twelve days and my board wants five, I want a former CFO and an automation team who together fix the close — not a tooling vendor who tells me to "rethink the process" — so I can deliver clean books on day five next quarter.

6. When an auditor or a regulator has just landed and my security or compliance posture is thinner than the diligence implied, I want a former CISO who can stand the program up in 90 days — so the audit doesn't end with a finding that ends my career.

7. When my shadow approver — operating partner, lead independent director, or family principal — has asked, "what's your three-year operating model for [function]," I want a peer-level former CxO who can put a credible answer on a page within two weeks — so I'm not the leader who didn't have an answer when they were asked.

8. When I need a senior leader in a seat for nine months but cannot afford to mis-hire them permanently, I want the same firm that just diagnosed the gap to put one of their bench operators in the seat — so the continuity, the data, and the accountability stay in one place.

9. When my board is starting to question marketing spend and my CRO is publicly unhappy with the pipeline math, I want a former CMO who has run growth and brand at a mid-market company my size to sit between me and the CRO — so the next QBR is a working session, not a fight.

10. When my martech stack has forty-seven SaaS contracts and the CFO has asked for a list, I want a former marketing operator who can tell me what to consolidate, what to kill, and what the AI-marketing tools are actually worth — so I can defend the budget with numbers instead of narrative.

11. When the "AI will replace people" conversation has landed on my desk as CHRO, I want a partner who has actually written the workforce plan and the all-hands script for a moment like this — so I can lead the conversation rather than react to it.

12. When my CEO has promised the board 300 basis points of margin from AI and automation, I want a former COO who has taken cost out of a mid-market operation my size — without taking the customer with it — to walk me through the next two quarters of operating-model change.

5. Anti-ICP — who we are explicitly not for

Naming the buyer we don't serve makes the buyer we do serve sharper. We route these inquiries elsewhere or decline. We do not chase them.

• Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 enterprises — including divisional leadership. The line isn't whether a $400M business unit inside a strategic is technically our revenue band. It isn't. The political surface, the vendor-management theater, the procurement gauntlet, and the ego dynamics at that scale make the engagement go badly even when the work fits. Mid-market CEOs and CIOs are pragmatic and want the change made. Enterprise leadership operates under a different set of rules, and we are not built for those rules. Big companies suck to work with — founder's words, applied directly. If the buyer's parent company is on the Fortune 1000, we are the wrong firm.

• The enterprise-CxO-returns dynamic. Specifically: former CIOs, CMOs, CFOs, or other senior operators who previously sat on our bench between gigs and then went back into enterprise seats. We do not chase them as buyers. The ego dynamic kills the deal even when the work fits — the CxO in a big-company seat doesn't want the engagement to be the "Walt show" or the "Marty show," they want it to be the their show, and the only way to make that work is to pretend we aren't there. The relationship stays warm; the sales motion stops. We don't burn cycles re-pitching them.

• Buyers who need the big-firm logo for board cover. If the engagement only works because the deck has McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or Deloitte on the cover — because the buyer needs a brand-name shield to defend the spend to the board — we're the wrong firm. We don't carry that logo and we shouldn't try. Refer them to the brand-name firms; they'll be happier and so will we.

• Pre-revenue or seed-stage startups. The problem is product-market fit, not operating execution. Our bench is wasted there, and our economics don't work at that price point.

• Buyers shopping for the lowest-fee framework deck. If the discovery call is about price-per-slide or rate cards, we are losing the buyer's definition of value before we've started, and the engagement will go badly. Decline with grace.

• Logo-collectors. Buyers who want a name on a board slide for credibility, not for the work. We don't carry the brand-name shield and we don't try to. Refer them out.

• "Build me a model" pure-play AI buyers. Companies who want a build shop to ship code without operating judgment — and who actively don't want the judgment. We are the wrong firm. There are good AI build shops; we are not one and shouldn't compete as one.

• Distressed turnaround at the brink. Companies inside a covenant trip, weeks from a forbearance, where the work is restructuring and not transformation. That work belongs to an Alvarez & Marsal or an AlixPartners. We can help on the next chapter — once stabilization is done — but not the chapter that requires a turnaround firm's specific playbook and lender relationships.

• Buyers who insist on time-and-materials pricing with no outcome accountability. Our economic model only works when the outcome is the deliverable. A pure T&M engagement misaligns incentives and we should walk.

Routing rule: if the inquiry maps to anti-ICP, the answer is "we're not the right firm — here are two we'd recommend." We get the long-term respect, we don't waste the discovery cycle, and we don't ship a bad engagement that becomes a bad reference. The gracious decline is the rule, not the exception.

6. Note for the brand team — receipts honesty

The CMO, CHRO, and COO personas above are written to the buyer THG is built to serve. Our named bench at Walt Carter's level of seniority is publicly strongest at CEO, CIO, and CFO. The honest receipts position, as of today:

• CIO and transformation work — Walt Carter is the named former CxO. We can publish, name him in marketing, and run paid acquisition behind him.
• Growth, brand, and CMO-adjacent work — Marty Smith is the named senior operator. Same rules.
• CFO, CHRO, and COO work — the named former CxO running the engagement is drawn from the broader bench of 50+ executive consultants and the council leadership. We identify the named operator at scoping, before the engagement is sold. We do not sell an engagement we can't staff with a peer-level former operator.

Before we run CMO-, CHRO-, or COO-led paid acquisition, persona-specific case-study content, or persona-specific landing pages, the brand team should:

• Confirm with the founder whether we have a named former CMO, CHRO, and COO of equivalent seniority to publish.
• If not, decide whether (a) we elevate council leaders or interim-bench operators into those persona-front roles, (b) we recruit before we publish, or (c) we lead persona-specific content with CEO and CIO buyers and treat CMO/CHRO/COO as a pull-through narrative for now.

This is a sequencing question, not a strategy question. The personas are right. The receipts have to be in place before we point traffic at them.

How to use this artifact

• Sales — read the persona that matches the inbound title before the discovery call. The "real quote" at the bottom of each persona is what you should expect to hear. If you hear something close, you're talking to ICP. If the company is on the Fortune 1000, you're not.
• Marketing and content — every piece of copy should be writable to one of the six personas. If a draft addresses "executives," it's not ready. Pick the persona.
• Brand-strategist and copywriter agents — this is the file you ladder back to. The twelve JTBD statements are the headline starter kit.
• Anyone scoping an engagement — if the buyer is in the Anti-ICP list, route the deal out. Don't try to bend us to fit. The enterprise-CxO-returns dynamic is a polite "we'll keep in touch," not a re-pitch cycle.

The one buyer this is for, and why.