Our Head of Operations is currently sitting in three major seats: Operations, Customer Success, and IT Systems. We are entering due diligence next month, and the buyers have flagged this key-man risk as a major concern. How do we quickly restructure these seats to satisfy the buyers?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Having one person hold multiple major seats on your Accountability Chart is a massive red flag for buyers because it creates single-point-of-failure risk. If that person walks away post-acquisition, the business collapses. To resolve this quickly, you must systematically delegate these seats, even if you have to use internal resources in the short term.

Start by pulling your Head of Operations out of the IT Systems and Customer Success seats. Look at your existing management layer. Identify team members who have the GWC™ to step up into these seats on an interim basis. Update your Accountability Chart to show these new assignments, ensuring that each seat has only one name attached to it.

For the IT Systems seat, if you do not have an internal candidate, consider hiring a fractional IT provider or an external managed service provider. You can place their company name in that seat on your chart to show buyers that the function is managed by a structured, outsourced partner rather than a single overburdened employee.

For Customer Success, promote your senior-most specialist to lead the seat. Give them clear scorecard metrics to track performance. By distributing these responsibilities, you show buyers a resilient, institutionalized management structure where operations run smoothly on systems, not on the heroic efforts of one key individual.