Executive Leadership & Operations Advisory Services

Executive leadership that starts producing in weeks, not quarters.

Ruh Industries engages in two ways: an executive seat filled, or an operating problem sized in cash and margin and solved end to end.

Book a 30-minute call CXO services Advisory services
  • Fractional
  • Interim
  • Full-time placement
  • Operations advisory

Led by Ben Ruh. Executive experience across finance, operations, and supply chain, including senior roles supporting the Olympics, the World Cup, and numerous Fortune 500 clients. Background

What We Do

Three executive seats. One point of view.

Finance, operations, and supply chain are usually treated as three separate problems. In a growing company they are almost always the same problem, seen from three chairs. We sit in all three.

  • Operations Leadership

    Chief Operating Officer

    Turn heroics into process.

    • Operating cadence: goals, KPIs, weekly business review
    • Org design, role clarity, and accountability mapping
    • Process design and documentation people actually follow
    • Workflow automation across finance, sales, and ops handoffs
    • Practical AI adoption: where it earns its keep, and where it does not
    • Systems selection and implementation oversight (ERP, CRM, planning)

  • Financial Leadership

    Chief Financial Officer

    Know your numbers before you need them.

    • 13-week cash flow and rolling forecast
    • Month-end close discipline and clean reporting
    • Unit economics and margin analysis
    • Board, lender, and investor reporting packages
    • Fundraise, credit facility, and diligence readiness
    • Budgeting, variance review, and capital allocation

  • Supply Chain Leadership

    Chief Supply Chain Officer

    Inventory is strategy, not a spreadsheet.

    • Sales & operations planning (S&OP) stand-up and cadence
    • Demand planning and forecast accuracy
    • Inventory planning, safety stock, and working-capital release
    • Sourcing strategy and category management
    • Supplier negotiation, contracts, and scorecards
    • Procurement process, approvals, and spend visibility

What a seat actually involves, week by week, and what stays behind when it ends: see CXO Services.

What We Solve

Any operating problem, worked in steps you can stop after.

The other way in. A defined operating problem, sized in cash and margin, then worked in steps that are scoped and priced one at a time.

ENTER AT ANY STEP Assess and define sized in cash and margin Case and budget a model you can challenge Design and build a process with an owner Sustain a cadence and measures STOP AFTER ANY STEP SCOPED AND PRICED ONE AT A TIME ENTER OR STOP AT ANY STEP Assess and define sized in cash and margin Case and budget a model you can challenge Design and build a process with an owner Sustain a cadence and measures

Most engagements do not run the whole arc, and plenty start in the middle because the assessment already happened internally. The eight problems this gets pointed at.

Who We Work With

Where you are decides which of the two you need.

Operators and owners of industrial, consumer, and live-operations businesses who have outgrown spreadsheet finance and heroics in ops, including private-equity-owned companies mid value-creation plan.

The two arms are not interchangeable, and the difference is not preference. It is whether the function exists yet. Find yourself on the line.

WHERE YOU ARE Pre-revenueno function yet Early revenueVC-backed Scalinggrowth outran process PE-ownedvalue creation plan Establishedlarge cap, systems in CXO SERVICES Fractional · interim · full-time placement OPERATIONS ADVISORY Any operating problem, worked end to end BOTH, OFTEN IN SEQUENCE
CXOADVISORY WHERE YOU ARE Pre-revenueno function yet Early revenueVC-backed Scalinggrowth outran process PE-ownedvalue creation plan Establishedlarge cap, systems in core fit sometimes

Pre-revenue. There is no finance or supply chain function yet, so there is no defined problem to scope. What you need is someone to build the function and lead it, at a fraction of a full-time hire.

Early revenue, VC-backed. The function is one overloaded person and a spreadsheet. A seat brings the discipline in before you can justify the salary, and hands it over when you can.

Scaling. Growth has outrun the process, and usually that calls for a seat. Advisory fits here when the trigger is a system: evaluating the options, selecting one, and getting the process and the data underneath it right before anyone signs.

PE-owned. Both, and often in sequence. A seat to stabilize the function and get the reporting honest, then advisory projects run against the value creation plan with a number attached to each.

Established, large cap. The function is staffed, the systems are in, and the budget exists. What you need is one defined problem solved inside it, not another leader.

The three executive seats or the advisory practice.

Where We Work

Sectors where operating detail decides the outcome.

Industrial & Consumer Goods

Manufacturing, automotive, and retail. Inventory is working capital, sourcing is margin, and supplier terms are cash flow. The work is category strategy, planning accuracy, spend control, and the unit-cost reporting that shows what a product, a plant, or a channel actually earns.

Travel, Hospitality & Live Events

Airlines, hotels, and sports and entertainment. Capacity is perishable and the date does not move, so the result is set in contracting, provisioning, and service-level economics. The work is vendor negotiation, budget ownership, and the reporting that shows what each route, property, or event actually costs.

Technology & Services

Technology companies, insurance, and financial and professional services. With little to count in a warehouse, cost sits in headcount and third-party spend. The work is recurring-revenue reporting, gross-margin architecture, vendor and software rationalization, and the transition out of founder-led operations into a company that runs on systems.

Why Ruh Industries

Speed to value, then a clean exit.

  • The principal stays involved

    Ben Ruh is involved in every engagement and guides it end to end: setting the approach, reviewing the work, and staying close enough to steer it. Where a piece of work needs capability beyond his own, we bring it in deliberately: an advisor from the practice where we have that depth in house, a trusted external specialist where we do not.

  • We start in the work

    Week one is spent in your systems and your numbers, not in kickoff meetings. You should have something you can use by week two.

  • Built to be handed off

    Every process we design is documented, owned by a named person on your team, and still running after we leave. Dependence on us is a failure mode.

  • Sustainable, not heroic

    We design for the team you actually have. A process that only works when the smartest person in the building is watching it is not a process.

Common Questions

Before you book a call.

What does “fractional” actually mean?

You get a senior executive for a defined slice of their week, commonly one to three days, on an ongoing basis. They attend your leadership meetings and own real deliverables, working to the same priorities a full-time hire would. Where you need a defined problem solved instead of a seat filled, that is advisory work and it is scoped and priced differently.

How quickly can you start?

Most engagements begin within one to two weeks of a signed scope. Week one is spent inside your systems and your numbers rather than in kickoff meetings, and the first concrete deliverable lands inside week two.

What size company do you work with?

Operators and owners of industrial, consumer, and live-operations businesses: manufacturing, automotive, and retail; airlines, hotels, and sports and entertainment; technology, insurance, and financial and professional services. Stage matters less than complexity. Multiple channels, real inventory, meaningful headcount, or outside capital usually mean there is enough operational surface area for this to pay for itself. In practice that runs from a first finance hire through an established business working an ownership group’s value-creation plan.

Do you replace our bookkeeper, accountant, or CPA?

No. Those roles record and report what happened. A CFO decides what should happen next and makes sure the company can see far enough ahead to act. We work alongside your existing accounting team and, frequently, make their job easier by fixing the process feeding them.

How is pricing structured?

Fractional engagements are a flat monthly fee tied to a committed number of days per month. Interim coverage is priced as a full-time equivalent for the length of the window. Advisory work is priced by step, agreed before each step starts, so you can stop after any of them. We do not bill hourly, and we do not invoice for surprises.

Can a fractional engagement turn into a full-time hire?

Often, and we plan for it. Part of the work is defining what the permanent role should actually look like in your business, whether that is a seat you are creating for the first time or one you are rebuilding. When you are ready, we help write the role, help identify candidates, and hand the work over cleanly, however you choose to run the search.

Do you work remotely or on-site?

Both. Most of the recurring work is remote, but operations and supply chain engagements in particular usually require time in the facility and with suppliers. We scope travel explicitly up front so it is never a surprise line item.

What happens when the engagement ends?

You keep everything: the models, the documentation, the reporting package, the vendor contracts, the training materials. Every process is assigned to a named owner on your team before we step back. A successful exit means nothing breaks when we stop showing up. What is still here after we go.