EMBEDDED OPERATING PARTNER TO CEOs, FOUNDERS & BOARDS
Strong firms bring me in for the consequential adjustments that separate strong from exceptional.
I embed discreetly alongside CEOs, C-suites, boards and operating teams—independent enough to see the whole, close enough to make those adjustments stick.
Thought partner, interim COO or chief of staff, hands-on operator, transaction-readiness advisor—the role fits what the moment calls for.
Few people have run companies, built them and sold them. Fewer still will step inside yours, lead the work personally and stay until your team owns the momentum. No takeover. No new layer. No consulting army.
What clients say
“I started working with Michael upon a career shift from an executive at a major motion picture studio to CEO of an independent advertising agency. The Thought-Partnering and coaching allowed me to navigate new terrain and come out stronger, more knowledgeable and much more strategic. I continue to value my partnership with him.”
“Michael is the man. I found him at a time when I needed operational support on my core business and venture help on the launch of a new one. He’s been invaluable on both. Over the last several years he has become a trusted Thought Partner that helps round out my skill sets as a CEO. I don’t know what I would do without him.”
“Michael has been a true strategic partner, both empowering our team and helping us navigate the quagmire of partnership discussions, as well as helping us think through the re-branding of our firm and taking our practice to the next level. He has become a true friend and partner and I am grateful to have him in our lives.”
Experience in the room
A curated cross-section of companies, firms and leaders Michael has advised, built with or worked alongside.
Flagship Practice: Talent & Business Management Firms
MCMVP embeds between senior partners and the rising team without creating a new direct-report structure or another layer of bureaucracy.
Our Flagship Practice · Embedded Operating Partner for Client-Service Firms
I work inside talent management, business management, law and other client-service firms—alongside senior partners and rising leaders—to prepare the next generation to manage people, grow a book of business, understand firm economics and represent the firm at the highest level.
Senior enough for the partner room. Hands-on enough to run the work.
Request a 90-Minute Working SessionThe bigger prize
Client-service firms become enduring institutions when profitability, talent retention and client growth reinforce one another. I enter at the operating center—where partner intent becomes measurable leverage.
The leadership gap
Rising managers, agents, lawyers and advisors are promoted because they deliver for clients and produce revenue. That is essential. It is not the entire job of ownership.
Senior partners know this—but they are often too busy serving clients and running the business to systematically develop the next generation.
Why this moment matters
These forces create a new leadership test. MCMVP is not the PE adviser or production-fee negotiator; I build the organizational fitness beneath those decisions—leadership depth, aligned incentives, disciplined execution and accountability.
Many boutique firms still depend on one or two rainmakers who are approaching transition. UTA’s planned 2025 leadership handoff shows what preparation can look like; much of the market is less ready.
PE-backed platforms are moving deeper into representation and management. Capital can accelerate growth—but it also raises the premium on scalable systems, retained talent and durable client relationships.
The WGA packaging-fee model ended for new covered projects in 2022. Producer and EP credit have become more important routes to value—creating new economics, new conflicts and new operating demands.
A market example
A decade of industry disruption created a new, unsettled source of risk—and opportunity.
WGA franchise agreements phased out packaging fees on new covered projects, returning agencies to commission economics.
Producer and EP credit grow more important as talent and representatives negotiate for economics beyond standard commissions.
Leaders must align client advocacy, firm economics, compensation and partner readiness—while the terrain is still evolving.
The transformation
Know how the firm makes money—and how everyday decisions affect profitability.
Grow the business while continuing to serve clients exceptionally.
Lead, develop and raise the performance of the people around them.
Demonstrate the behaviors of an owner—not just the leader of their own practice.
Inside the firm.
Alongside the partners.
Accountable for the work.
The role only works from inside
“I embed between senior partners and the rising team—turning the partners’ priorities into the behaviors, capabilities and accountability the firm needs from its next generation.”
Michael McCracken Operating Partner · Thought Partner · Builder
Case Study · An Operating Partner in Action
A leading entertainment talent-management firm initially brought me in to answer a consequential question: Who was ready to lead next?
I assessed a select group of potential successors, gave senior leadership a candid view of their strengths, gaps and readiness, and built one-year development plans. The work created confidence—and quickly expanded deeper into the rising team.
Discuss a similar mandateAssess readiness. Surface strengths and gaps. Build the development path.
Books of business, P&Ls, sales disciplines, managing up and across.
Thought Partner to senior leadership. Developmental partner to rising managers.
MCMVP now sits inside manager reviews, compensation decisions and individual growth plans—holding rising leaders accountable until senior leadership sees the judgment, behavior and performance expected of a senior manager.
Candid counsel on people, priorities and consequential decisions.
Assessments, one-year plans and direct developmental work.
Pipeline discipline, pitch strategy and measurable accountability.
Clear visibility into manager economics, contribution and leverage.
Structures that reward growth without weakening firm economics.
Review input, next-step plans and sustained senior-level behavior.
The rubber-hits-the-road answer
Not a report that sits on a shelf. A working management system—with real tools, trained owners and MCMVP beside the team through execution.
Private 1:1 Thought-Partnering
I work one-to-one with CEOs, founders and senior partners to pressure-test consequential decisions, challenge the thinking underneath them and turn the answer into action.
“I meet you as an equal.”
A 48-second excerpt from their conversation. Watch the full discussion here.
The system behind the work
Four practical lenses help MCMVP turn senior-partner intent into clearer economics, stronger leadership behavior and a management system the firm can actually run.
Most firms over-manage the Star–Client axis. MCMVP strengthens the Firm axis—where margin, continuity and institutional value compound.
Start focused. Build what lasts.
Find the highest-leverage operating question and work it—together.
Diagnose the system, design the path, then install and manage the work.
Stay in the room—and in the work—as priorities, people and economics evolve.
How MCMVP works with AI
Michael and the client devise the model together. AI then tests assumptions, models alternatives and exposes blind spots. MCMVP remains accountable for the recommendation—and for turning it into operating action.
Michael and the client define the real question, bring the history, understand the people and decide what is actually at stake.
MCMVP translates the work into the conversations, decisions, owners, tools and accountability the organization can execute.
AI expands and pressure-tests the thinking. MCMVP remains accountable for the recommendation—and for helping the organization make it real.
MICHAEL McCRACKENAbout Michael · Operator, Adviser, Builder
Michael McCracken has spent more than three decades building, fixing, financing and selling businesses—and helping leaders carry consequential decisions into the real organization.
He built UGO Entertainment through its sale to Hearst, founded a boutique investment bank, advised CEOs and boards, and worked inside leadership, succession and transaction situations where there is no clean line between strategy, people and economics.
The common thread is practical pattern recognition: knowing what the room is not saying, finding the leverage and staying close enough to the work to make the answer stick.
A distinct practice under the MCM umbrella
MCMVP helps leaders strengthen the organization, clarify the economics and become ready for consequential choices. When that choice becomes a formal transaction, Michael serves clients through MCM Partners—the dedicated investment-banking practice he founded.
MCM Partners provides senior-led sell-side M&A advisory—from transaction preparedness and positioning through process management, negotiation and closing.
One firm · Several ways into the work
Embedded Operating Partner. Private C-level Thought Partner. Interim executive. M&A adviser when the answer becomes a transaction. One direct conversation is the place to begin.