James H. Whitley Book a call

Fractional CFO · Strategic Finance Partner

Every business is two or three decisions away from being substantially better. Most operators can’t see which two or three.

I work alongside operators of $15M–$50M businesses to find those decisions and make them — pricing, mix, capital, structure, focus. Not another controller. Not another report. A senior partner who sits in the chair next to you while the next decision gets made. Twenty years inside Fortune 500 finance and on the small-business operator side.

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Previously

  • M3 CAPITAL PARTNERS
  • NOVARTIS
  • BAXTER INTERNATIONAL
  • DEGEORGE PLUMBING & HVAC

Approach

Three things we do. Everything else is noise.

1

Find the two or three decisions that matter.

Every business is sitting on a small number of decisions that move the needle and a long list of decisions that don’t. We figure out which is which, fast. Pricing, mix, capital, structure, focus. The work is mostly subtraction.

2

Make them, together.

Once we’ve named the decisions, we make them. Not advise on them. Not frame them for a future meeting. We work through the model, the trade-offs, the second-order effects, and we land on what you’re going to do — and what you’re going to stop doing.

3

Build the operating discipline to repeat it.

A good decision made once is a lucky month. A good decision made every quarter is a business. We install the cadence, the metrics, and the forecast that let your team see what’s coming and act before it’s expensive.

Services

Two ways to work together.

The Intensive

Four weeks of concentrated work to find your two or three decisions and make them.

We start with a full read of the business — financials, unit economics, capital structure, where the cash actually goes and where the margin actually comes from. By the end of week four you have a written set of decisions to make, a model behind each one, and a clear path to execution. Most operators come out of the Intensive having already moved on the top two.

For operators with a specific decision pending and a deadline, or who want a concentrated four-week engagement before deciding whether to go further.

Price

From $15,000

Fixed scope.

Book the Intensive

Fractional Partner

Monthly retainer for operators who want a senior finance partner in the chair, every month.

Most operators of $15M–$50M businesses have a finance team that runs the books well and a gap where strategic finance should sit. The Fractional Partner engagement fills that gap. We meet weekly. I’m available between meetings. We work through whatever the business needs — the next pricing decision, the next capital decision, the quarterly forecast, the board prep, the deal that just landed on your desk.

For operators who know they want senior finance partnership continuously and don’t need a trial run to commit.

Price

From $8,000/mo

Fixed monthly. Not staffing — share of mind.

Talk it through

Most operators come in through one or the other. A few do an Intensive first and roll into a retainer when it’s the right shape. Either works.

Who I work with

Operators of $15M–$50M businesses with a finance team that runs and a strategic seat that’s empty.

You probably have a controller. Maybe an FP&A analyst. The books close, the reports come out, the bank reconciles. From the outside, finance is handled.

What’s missing is the seat next to you when the next decision gets made — the pricing reset, the capital decision, the segment you’re considering walking away from, the deal that just landed.

You make those calls now on instinct, with the controller in the room nodding because the controller’s job isn’t to disagree with you. That’s not finance leadership. That’s accounting with a senior title.

You’re probably one of these:

  • A founder who built the business past the point where running it on intuition still works
  • A second-generation owner or hired CEO who inherited a finance function that’s never been updated
  • An operator with private equity on the cap table and a board that’s started asking sharper questions
  • A management team between funded rounds, planning to raise again and aware that the diligence will be harder this time

Case Studies

Six engagements. Six different shapes of decision.

Each one started with the same question — what are the two or three decisions that will actually move this business forward — and ended somewhere different.

$500M HOME DIALYSIS · BAXTER

Most product businesses are sitting on a service business they don't realize they own. We found it at Baxter Renal Care, built it, and shipped the industry's first paid customer-facing technology service in home dialysis.

Read the case

$20M PRODUCT PORTFOLIO · BAXTER

Eighty-five SKUs cut to eighteen. Suppliers renegotiated. Distribution restructured through the existing fleet. Portfolio profitability up 5x, revenue still grew 6%. Most strategic finance work looks like this — three concrete moves, each boring on its own.

Read the case

GLOBAL PHARMA · NOVARTIS

Three countries, three business units, four years inside the CFO development program. The work was systems, best practices, and cross-functional partnership — not heroic interventions. Each role left behind a function that didn’t need to be rescued by the person who came next.

Read the case

COUNTRY AFFILIATE TURNAROUND · NOVARTIS

A finance function rebuilt after a compliance disruption — operating cadence, controls, and cross-functional trust, in that order. Stabilizing a function for a successor is a different job than running it long-term. This case is about the first.

Read the case

INSTITUTIONAL REAL ESTATE · M3 CAPITAL PARTNERS

Five years inside a registered real estate PE firm contributing to $8B+ in equity transactions. The work that happens before institutional capital ever sees a sponsor — structure, model, materials, and the decisions that determine whether a raise is ready before it begins.

Read the case

OWNER AND OPERATOR · DEGEORGE PLUMBING & HVAC

The institutional finance toolkit applied to a residential services business that had never seen it. Four years of figuring out what scales down and what doesn’t — and the operator credential that doesn’t appear on a résumé.

Read the case
See all case studies

Book a call

Most engagements start with a thirty-minute conversation.

I’ll ask about the business, the decision in front of you, and what you’ve already tried. By the end of the call we’ll both know whether it’s worth a second one.

Book a 30-minute call