Field note / 01
Critical decisions keep returning to the same leaders.
The team waits. Senior leaders get pulled back in. The business stays dependent on them.
Operating Partners · MENA & Beyond
We step inside.We sort it.We hand it back.
Bring us in when something is stuck, important work crosses teams or you need experienced support through a period of change.
The position
We own what happens next.
Strategy firms diagnose and recommend. Fractional executives lead one function. We take on the problem that sits between teams and stay with it until the fix holds.
ADVISE
Strategy houses
Diagnose.
Recommend.
Hand over.
EMBED AND OWN
The Room
Find the real problem.
Own the fix.
Leave it working.
FILL ONE SEAT
Fractional executives
Run one function.
Stay in the role.
Problems, not services
The problems that need an owner.
They rarely appear overnight. By the time they reach the executive agenda, they’ve usually been building for months.
Field note / 02
Leadership pulling in different directions.
Everyone agrees in the room. The disagreement shows up in the work.
Field note / 03
Meetings happen. Decisions do not.
Everything feels urgent. Too little gets finished.
Field note / 04
Employees disconnected from leadership.
The message leaves the room. The meaning doesn’t travel with it.
Field note / 05
The inside story and outside story don’t match.
Employees hear one version. Customers, candidates and partners hear another.
Field note / 06
The wrong people are in key seats.
You hire the CV, then spend a year managing the gap.
Field note / 07
Transformation stuck on paper.
The plan was approved months ago. The business is still waiting to feel it.
Field note / 08
A critical launch losing momentum.
The date slips week by week, until the moment is gone.
We don’t sell service lines. We take ownership until the fix holds.
What we take on
Four kinds of work.
One of us leads each brief. We work together when the job crosses both.
01
Build the business
Programmes, launches and partnerships that turn plans into participation, revenue and growth.
- Business support programmes
- New business and market launches
- Partnerships, sponsorships and events
- Commercial partnerships and sponsorship revenue
- Community programmes
Led by: Both, according to scope.
02
Make the organisation work
The structure, people and leadership a business needs to deliver what it has committed to.
- Organisation design
- Workforce planning and recruitment
- Graduate, Emiratisation and Saudisation programmes
- Leadership, performance, engagement and culture
- Acquisition integration
Led by: Sophie.
03
Get important work moving
Priorities that span departments, with one plan, named owners and a clear view for leadership.
- Programme delivery
- CEO Office and executive priorities
- Governance and audit-action delivery
- People systems, implementation and product ownership
Led by: Ellen or Sophie, according to scope.
04
Brand, communications and digital
Building brands and the materials, channels and digital experiences people use to engage with them.
- Brand and identity
- Creative campaigns
- PR and executive profiling
- Speechwriting
- Change, leadership and employee communications
- Employer brand
- Websites, apps and intranets
Led by: Ellen, with Sophie.
What we believe
Clarity is an operating system.
The hard call is only the beginning. We make sure it reaches leaders, teams and the story the business tells outside the room.
The operators
Two operators. One accountable team.
We listen first. Then we get close to the work, find what is really getting in the way and take responsibility for fixing it.
Between us, we have supported businesses through growth, transformation, leadership change and critical moments. We have done the work, not just advised on it.
Sophie Marshall
Formerly Group Head of People, noon. Earlier: CAFU and Namshi.
Builds the structures, leadership and operating systems that help a business scale.
- Designs organisations that scale.
- Aligns leadership around clear ownership.
- Builds operating systems that hold.
Good organisations remove decisions, not people.
Ellen Kerry
Formerly Head of Operations, noon CEO Office. Earlier: ITP and Bauer Media.
Turns leadership intent into action, aligning delivery, people and the story the business tells inside and out.
- Runs complex, cross-business delivery.
- Builds the tools and operating rhythms that keep work moving.
- Connects leaders, employees and the story told outside.
Clarity is where trust begins.
THE FIRST MOVE
The Day One Memo.
Before we act, we get clear. One page sets out what’s true, what we’ll own and what “done” looks like. No slides. No ambiguity.
- One page
- THE REAL PROBLEM
- THE DECISIONS TO MAKE
- WHAT "DONE" LOOKS LIKE
THE ROOMDay One Memo
Three truths
- The problem.
- The impact.
- The constraint.
Three decisions
- What we own.
- What stays with you.
- What "done" looks like.
Prepared by
The method
Every problem follows the same arc.
R
Read the room
We find what’s really holding the business back across decisions, delivery and people.
O
Own the problem
We define the outcome, take responsibility and put the hard calls on our desk.
O
Operate the fix
We work inside the business to make the change hold, aligning leaders, teams and the story they carry.
M
Move on
We hand it back when the change holds without us.
Read the room. Own the problem. Operate the fix. Move on. The name is the method.
Working together
Workshops that end in decisions.
We design and run focused sessions for founders and leadership teams when the business needs shared direction, clear choices and an agreed way forward.
What we can lead
- Founder mission, vision and values
- Leadership alignment and offsites
- Strategy translated into priorities and owners
- Organisation design and ways of working
- Change planning and leadership narratives
What the team leaves with
- Decisions recorded
- Priorities agreed
- Clear owners and deadlines
- A practical plan for what happens next
Not a day out of the office. A day that moves the work forward.
Talk to us about a session →Selected work
Problems we've owned.
The names stay private. The problems were real. The decisions mattered. The outcomes held.
THE ROOMCase / 01
Technology · People model
Several business units, one Group, and a workforce split across onshore and offshore locations. Nobody had drawn the line between what the Group owned and what each business did.
What we owned
- Led three major organisational restructures.
- Defined what sits with the Group and what each business owns.
- Built the onshore and offshore workforce model, with role-specific talent hubs outside the GCC.
The outcomeAn estimated US$2–3m a month in workforce cost reduction, and one People model the whole Group could run.
THE ROOMCase / 02
Technology · In-house recruitment
The business needed to hire at scale across five markets, and agencies were the default way to do it.
What we owned
- Built an in-house recruitment team across five markets.
- Standardised hiring processes, governance and reporting.
- Planned the workforce and sourced locally in each market.
The outcome2,280 hires in eight months, and an estimated US$2.2m a year in agency fees avoided.
THE ROOMCase / 03
Technology · Emiratisation
National hiring targets were set at Group level, but nothing connected them to how roles were planned, hired and kept.
What we owned
- Identified the roles best suited to national talent.
- Ran attraction, recruitment and onboarding end to end.
- Tracked progress against targets, with retention and engagement planning.
The outcome63 Emiratis hired in six months: 100% of the hiring target.
THE ROOMCase / 04
E-commerce · Employer brand
A fast-growing business was hiring internationally through agencies, with an employer story candidates had never heard.
What we owned
- Built the employer proposition and candidate experience.
- Grew the LinkedIn audience from 6,000 to more than 150,000 in a year.
- Hired directly across borders, without agencies.
The outcomeMore than 100 direct international hires, and an estimated AED 2.6m in agency fees avoided.
THE ROOMCase / 05
Mobility · People operations
A fast-moving operational business needed People operations that worked across two cities, without the agency costs it had inherited.
What we owned
- Led People and Talent across both cities with a nine-person team.
- Set up the model for a new customer-experience office.
- Renegotiated the staffing-agency agreements.
The outcomeAnnual savings of AED 3.6m from the new office model and AED 2.1m from renegotiated agency agreements.
THE ROOMCase / 06
Retail · Partnership revenue
A retail brand wanted a bigger presence across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with partners funding the activations.
What we owned
- Developed activation concepts and commercial proposals.
- Pitched global sportswear and beauty brands, and secured funding.
- Coordinated delivery and partner visibility.
The outcomeBrand-funded activations across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, bringing in partner investment while strengthening the brand’s presence.
THE ROOMCase / 07
Technology · Hypergrowth
Growth had outpaced the organisation. Decisions were slowing and ownership was disappearing.
What we owned
- Redesigned the organisational architecture.
- Built a federated operating model.
- Reset governance and executive ownership.
The outcomeThe business could keep scaling without rebuilding itself every twelve months.
THE ROOMCase / 08
Technology · Scaling operations
The business had grown faster than the infrastructure behind it — teams siloed, manual work filling the gaps.
What we owned
- Redesigned the operating infrastructure.
- Connected systems, workflows and governance.
- Automated routine operational work.
The outcomeManual operational support fell by around 30% — and the discipline to keep scaling was built in.
THE ROOMCase / 09
Technology · Global workforce
Every team wanted to hire. The harder question was where talent would create the most value.
What we owned
- Mapped capability, geography and cost.
- Designed the global workforce model.
- Reset compensation and hiring decisions.
The outcomeThe business kept attracting exceptional talent without payroll becoming an unmanaged consequence of growth.
THE ROOMCase / 10
Fashion e-commerce · International growth
The opportunity was strong; the market perception was not. It needed to look as ambitious as it had become.
What we owned
- Defined the employer positioning.
- Rebuilt the employer brand and hiring experience.
- Connected talent strategy to the growth plan.
The outcomeMore than 100 international hires joined in twelve months, building leadership for the next stage.
THE ROOMCase / 11
Technology · Governance
More than 200 key priorities sat overdue across over 20 teams — understood, but not moving. Progress only ever surfaced before the next audit.
What we owned
- Rebuilt the process and tracking system end-to-end.
- Turned a scattered backlog into clearly owned workstreams.
- Aligned leaders and teams across more than 20 departments.
The outcomeOver 60% of the backlog closed within two months — and a system in place to keep it that way.
THE ROOMCase / 12
Marketplace · Ecosystem partnership
The partnership looked good on paper. The real work was making two organisations run it together after the announcement.
What we owned
- Designed the joint operating model.
- Aligned commercial and delivery teams.
- Set governance, ownership and measures.
The outcomeThe launch became a scalable programme — not a one-off campaign.
THE ROOMCase / 13
Technology · Organisational culture
The business had grown, but its story had split — employees, candidates and partners heard different versions of who it was.
What we owned
- Unified the organisational narrative.
- Connected culture, onboarding and internal comms.
- Rebuilt the employer brand around the people doing the work.
The outcomeThe business found one voice — clear enough to align people inside and attract the right people outside.
THE ROOMCase / 14
Founder-led technology · Transformation
The founder was approving too many decisions — and the team had stopped making them. Strategy existed; operating rhythm did not.
What we owned
- Embedded inside the executive team.
- Rebuilt priorities and operating cadence.
- Put decisions back with the right leaders.
The outcomeThe work held without us — so we handed it back.
THE ROOMCase / 15
Consumer technology · Critical response
A major international publication made claims about the organisation. Leadership needed one verified version of the truth.
What we owned
- Broke every claim into an owned workstream.
- Coordinated evidence across Legal, People and Operations.
- Built response scenarios for leaders, Board and partners.
The outcomeLeadership could move quickly and communicate confidently — every decision grounded in evidence.
THE ROOMCase / 16
Banking · UAE · Co-brand card
A bank wanted to celebrate 100,000 cardholders — but the milestone alone wasn't a story anyone would care about.
What we owned
- Reframed it around what customers actually felt — cashback.
- Created “I Get Paid to Shop” — real customers, real cashback.
- Built the creative platform and campaign concept.
The outcomeA corporate milestone became a customer story people actually cared about.
START HERE
Tell us the problem.
Leave it with us.
We read every note. No sales team. No hand-off. You’ll speak directly with the people who will do the work.
- We’ll come back to you within one working day.
- Everything stays confidential.
- If we're not the right people, we'll say so.
Prefer email? hello@theroompartners.com
Download the Introduction