The independent operating partner your PE firm doesn’t have on staff.
Built for PE-backed portfolios, spin-offs, carve-outs, and mid-market companies in transition.
Operating-model work that ties AI to the decisions your board is already trying to make — measured against your income statement, not deployment checkboxes.
How we work
Each engagement produces a written deliverable accountable to a defined operating outcome. Scope, timeline, and investment are discussed in an initial conversation
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A structured read on whether AI investment is the right next move — and if yes, where to start.
Fixed scope. Written deliverable.
Two tiers:
Standard — 4 to 6 weeks. Full seven-lever operating model assessment. 15 to 25 page written diagnostic, prioritized initiative list, and the list of initiatives that don't deserve investment.
Lite — 2 to 3 weeks. Focused assessment of a specific initiative already under consideration. Go, hold, or no recommendation with a 90-day action list.
The finding vendor-affiliated firms cannot produce: not yet and why. Where do we invest now?
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90 days of focused execution tied to a specific operating decision.
Portfolio rationalization, function consolidation, post-spin operating model, or AI initiative launch.
Outcome-based, with weekly readouts to the sponsor.
This is not a project with a deck at the end. It is execution with a named outcome, measured against the decision it was built to support.
Investment: Scoped per engagement.
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An independent read on a vendor AI proposal — before or after the SOW lands on your desk.
Pre-Commitment Review — before vendor selection begins. We establish your success criteria, scope ceiling, and evaluation framework before any vendor shapes the conversation. 2 to 4 weeks.
SOW Review — vendor SOW already on your desk. We tell you whether to sign, sign with amendments, or walk away. 1 to 3 weeks, urgent turnaround available.
The firms writing the SOW cannot review it. I can.
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An ongoing independent operating partner relationship — monthly hours, on-call judgment, named accountability to your CEO, CFO, or board.
Most PE operating partners cover eight to twelve portfolio companies.
The gap between quarterly visits is where AI decisions, vendor commitments, and operating model choices get made — often without an independent voice in the room.
Retained engagements start at four months. Typically run twelve to twenty-four months. Structured around your board cadence, not ours.
Typical monthly retainer.
Why this practice.
I spent twenty-eight years operating inside the companies most people only advise.
Director-level at Apple and Motorola. VP at P.F. Chang's under Centerbridge Partners. CIO at LeaseHawk — where I led the go-to-market and delivery of agentic voice AI for property leasing in 2017, eight years before the market had a word for it. Eight years at Otis Elevator through the UTC spin-off, leading global CRM and ServiceNow transformation across a newly independent public company.
The Litchfield Practice exists because mid-market PE-backed companies need an independent operator in the room, not a deck. Someone who has carried a P&L, stood up an operating model, and made the call on what to fund and what to cut.
I bring deep relationships across the technology and AI vendor landscape — built over three decades of operating at the enterprise level. What I bring that others don't: complete financial independence from every vendor and implementer.
Our SOW measures success by your income statement milestones — not deployment checkboxes.
I work with a small number of clients at a time. Engagements are scoped, sponsored at the board or executive level, and measured against the decision they were built to support.
Contact Jan
Tell me about the decision in front of you.
Every message reaches me directly. I respond within two business days.
