Start with Odinnu and managing directors to restore discipline, structure, and execution inside underperforming businesses — so they can perform when pressure is highest.

MD-LEVEL OPERATING PARTNERS FOR UK-BASED SMEs AND THEIR M&A ADVISORS.

We help businesses unlock stalled performance, recover potential sales, and empower the whole team to run the business, not only the MD.

How We Work

Choose Your Path

For Managing Directors

SME MD Operating
Partner

If success depends heavily on you, the business is fragile — no matter how healthy profits look.

What we do

Outcome

Control. Optionality. Growth

For Owners & M&A Advisors

Pre-Transaction Risk Reduction Partner

Most transactions fail due to lack of scrutiny - addressed through our M&A risk advisory
services.

What we do

Outcome

Reduced Risk. Protected Value. Predictable Cash Flow

WHO ARE WE?

The Operating Core

We’ve Sat In The MD Seat. We’ve Led Under Pressure.
We’ve Endured Criticism.

Commercial

Board-level commercial operator with 20+ years of experience in leading and scaling sales and marketing functions in owner-managed and private-equity-backed businesses.

Brings deep international sales and marketing experience across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East.

Known for direct leadership, crystal-clear standards, and commercial accountability.

Richard Taberner

Financial

Board-level finance professional with 20+ years of experience across SMEs, corporates and PR-backed businesses

Led an SME manufacturer through a successful sale to a £1bn industry player.

Known for making cash visible, developing metrics that stand up to scrutiny, and enabling informed decision-making.

Martyn Bond

Commercial

Board-level commercial operator with 20+ years of experience in leading and scaling sales and marketing functions in owner-managed and private-equity-backed businesses.
Brings deep international sales and marketing experience across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East.
Known for direct leadership, crystal-clear standards, and commercial accountability.

Richard Taberner

Operational

Board-level operational leader with 25+ years of experience to take control of underperforming, multi-site, owner-managed businesses.
Has led loss-making businesses through turnaround, restored profitability, and successful sale.
Known for operational clarity, decisive leadership, and execution under pressure.
Stuart Calder

Financial

Board-level finance professional with 20+ years of experience across SMEs, corporates and PR-backed businesses
Led an SME manufacturer through a successful sale to a £1bn industry player.
Known for making cash visible, developing metrics that stand up to scrutiny, and enabling informed decision-making.
Martyn Bond

OUR EXPERIENCE

Experience Earned Within Real Businesses

Our experience was built inside demanding operating businesses where leaders have direct responsibility for results — across ambitious SMEs and global corporate businesses. Having experienced how success can mask fragile execution, we understand how to introduce strong operational discipline, drive operational risk reduction, better accountability, implement flexible performance frameworks, and keep teams energised and focused on revenue.

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HOW WE WORK

Same Structure, Different Tempo

Some owners chase immediate control while others target future value, yet the process is the same.

Phase 1:
Establish Reality

Phase 2:
Drive the Difference

Phase 3:
Lock In Discipline

ACT NOW – OR STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE.

How Are You, Really?

For Managing Directors, it’s one of the questions they’re asked every day and never answer honestly. This does not mean that they’re weak or that they can’t cope. But because they are the point of containment, they carry the unresolved issues, they absorb the pressure from everywhere, and last but not least, they bind everything to run the business.

“How are you?” is of three types: polite, performative, and dangerous. Politeness does not affect anyone. Performative is to reassure others. Dangerous has consequences. We have built this system to understand the conditions you’re working under.

Cognitive
Load

Emotional Pressure

Physical Resilience

Cognitive Load

Emotional Pressure

Physical Resilience

NEWS & INSIGHTS

Latest Blogs by ODINNU

Why “Just Getting the Order In” Can Hurt Your Business

Why “Just Getting the Order In” Can Hurt Your Business

For many SMEs, securing new business is a priority. Revenue targets, cash flow pressures, and…

Odinnu and Augmented Instincts Announce Strategic Partnership to Deliver Full-Spectrum Support for UK Manufacturing and Distribution Businesses

Odinnu and Augmented Instincts Announce Strategic Partnership to Deliver Full-Spectrum Support for UK Manufacturing and Distribution Businesses

Two specialist firms join forces to give owner-managed businesses in manufacturing and distribution the commercial…

What Does an SME Operating Partner Actually Do?

What Does an SME Operating Partner Actually Do?

For many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the challenge is not a lack of ideas…

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