01
Integrity
Honest assessments, fair terms and raising difficult issues early.
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Erithacus / Fractional COO
Operate.Build.Invest.
Personally delivered fractional COO leadership for founders, owners and boards. Robin Whatling works alongside your team to turn strategy into clear priorities, accountability and delivery.
Who we are
Experienced operational leadership, working personally alongside the people responsible for results.
Erithacus is an independent, founder-led operating business. It provides fractional Chief Operating Officer leadership and defined operational support to founders, owners, boards and senior management teams.
The work is practical. Erithacus joins the operating rhythm of the business, helps establish direction and accountability, and takes responsibility for agreed priorities, so the company makes stronger decisions, delivers what it commits to and builds the capacity to sustain progress.
What Erithacus is
Senior operating leadership for an agreed commitment, rather than a permanent executive appointment. Clients work directly with the person delivering the work. Specialist professional advice is coordinated when it is needed.
Why it exists
Growing businesses reach a point where founder energy and capable managers are no longer enough. Erithacus bridges that gap with experienced leadership, better routines and clear ownership of delivery.
When clients call
Growth outpacing structure
More priorities than the leadership team can hold together.
Change or recovery
Reorganisation, turnaround or a change of ownership that needs steady hands.
New foundations
A new venture or market entry that needs structure, coverage and partners.
A COO, not a hire
Senior judgement and follow-through without a permanent appointment.
Track record
Commercial experience first.
Erithacus is led by an operator who has held senior operating and commercial responsibilities across security, technology, automotive, building products, architecture, investment and renewable energy. That experience includes group operations, corporate reorganisation, governance and the development of new commercial opportunities.
Every engagement is led personally by the founder. There is no handover to junior staff and no layers between the client and the person accountable for the work.
20×
Sales growth (1,900%) in an automotive business, turned from monthly losses to profit without new investment.
+50%
Revenue growth helped deliver at a national security provider, with its valuation doubled.
1,000+
National operatives, grown from around 150 regional in twelve months for a UK technology launch.
$26bn
Iraq market-entry pipeline. Structuring a framework of UK companies across six sectors, with government engagement in the UK, Iraq and Bahrain.
Figures relate to the founder’s previous appointments, not outcomes delivered by Erithacus. Earlier employers and operating groups are intentionally not named.
Experience
Proven through growth, complexity and change.
Middle East & Iraq
As a director of a UK group’s Middle East entity, the founder leads market entry into Iraq for a framework of UK companies, managing an active $26bn pipeline across project management, architecture, renewable energy and battery storage, logistics, education and development. He led the investment strategy for a proposed $600m renewable-energy project and took part in a Whitehall round table with a visiting Iraqi government delegation.
National security provider
Progressed to Operations Director within two years of joining the private sector. Led operations involving more than 30 people and helped deliver around 50% revenue growth and a doubling of valuation.
Automotive business
Turned losses of more than £50,000 a month into profit without new investment. Sales grew twentyfold, enabling a corporate restructure and a business exit for the owner.
App-based start-up
Joined at the UK launch of a South African start-up at pre-seed stage. Grew a network of around 150 regional operatives to more than 1,000 nationally in twelve months, securing a partnership with Europe’s leading provider of monitored security and alarm systems.
Building products
Helped form the UK enterprise for an American roof light and sun tube manufacturer, securing UK distribution rights and setting up the company structure.
The formative years
Fourteen years in the Metropolitan Police, including specialist intelligence and surveillance work. Seven Commissioner’s Commendations and an ACPO Award for Lifesaving, the grounding for the judgement, resilience and sense of responsibility behind Erithacus.
How we work
Practical leadership
for meaningful progress.
01 / How we work
Senior operating leadership, clear priorities and accountable follow-through.
03 / How we work
Longer-term partnership with selected clients. Further detail to follow.
The primary offer
Fractional COO.
Senior operating leadership on an agreed commitment, with accountable follow-through alongside the people who own each function.
- Agreed on-site and remote days each month
- Clear mandate, access and decision rights
- A seat in leadership meetings
- Management reporting and KPIs
- Practical problem solving
- Follow-through with every function owner
Areas of involvement
Strategy into plan
An executable operating plan with named owners and milestones.
Operating rhythm
Meetings, management information, KPIs and escalation.
Accountability
Across functional managers, including HR and finance, without running those departments.
Commercial & change
Opportunities, cross-functional delivery, reorganisation and restructuring.
Adviser oversight
Coordinating qualified advisers on legal, compliance and specialist risk.
Systems & resilience
Procedures, resilience and crisis response within the agreed mandate.
Ways to engage
Scoped to what the business needs.
Entry
Diagnostic
A focused two-to-four-week review of how the business runs, with clear findings and priorities.
Core
Fractional COO Retainer
An agreed monthly commitment of senior operating leadership, on-site and remote.
Defined
Operational Intervention
A time-bound piece of work to stabilise, restructure or deliver a specific outcome.
Selective
Commercial Partnership
A separately documented, longer-term relationship where Erithacus contributes materially.
Each appointment defines fees, scope, authority, reporting and review.
How it begins
01
Conversation
An open discussion about the business and what is holding it back.
02
Diagnostic
Where it helps, a short review to establish the facts first.
03
Mandate
Scope, authority, reporting lines and fees agreed in writing.
04
Deliver & review
Work begins, with regular reviews against agreed priorities.
Our principles
Clear principles.
Practical leadership.
02
Accountability
Agreed responsibilities and visible delivery.
03
Judgement
Weighing evidence, people and risk before acting.
04
Respect
Treating employees, founders, clients and partners properly, particularly when change is hard.
The founder
Robin
Whatling.
Robin is an experienced operator and trusted adviser to founders, owners and boards. He brings calm, commercial judgement to complex moments — creating the clarity, cadence and confidence needed to move a business forward.
Let's talk
Start with a conversation.
If you're exploring a fractional COO, strategic support or investment, let's talk about what would make a real difference.
