Engagement · Outside-In View
Leadership interviews, operating data, and market-pattern judgment — synthesized into a written Brief that names where the business really stands, what the market would likely see, and the three things to fix first. Built for a coming transaction, a leadership transition, a parent or sponsor review, or a performance reset.
When to Use It
Most operators don't lack opinions about the business — they have too many. The leadership team, the board, the warehouse banker, the consultant from last year, the producer who left. The Outside-In View is none of those: a single outside operator, four weeks, one written Brief. The trigger is usually one of four moments.
What Happens
Three workstreams run in parallel — the inputs that produce an Outside-In read rather than another internal diagnostic. Each leader gives 60–90 minutes once. The CEO gives the bookends.
The four-week shape
How It Runs
The materials reviewed across every Outside-In View, adjusted for what's actually available. Operating maturity varies — the Brief is built around what the data does say, with notes on the gaps.
The work is run personally by Howard. Interview notes are not circulated. The Brief is delivered only to the CEO or President and shared only at their direction.
NDAs are signed on request. Standing engagement confidentiality terms are part of the contract.
What You Get
A focused written document — typically 12–18 pages — built to be read in one sitting and shared with whomever you trust. Organized around the verdict, not the inventory: strengths to press into, gaps to address, and the three things to fix first. Direct language, operator vocabulary, no filler.
Inside the Brief
The Brief typically contains five to eight findings. Three are elevated as the first fixes — the items most likely to change strategic direction, transaction posture, margin, or operating performance. Any follow-on advisory, if useful, is separately scoped; the Outside-In View is designed to stand on its own.
Where I look across the four weeks
Strategy and direction · Sales leadership and recruiting · Operations and service · Pricing and capital markets · Financials, branch profitability, and ownership posture · Marketing and technology. Six operating lenses. Eight to ten interviews. One written synthesis.
A Sample Finding
Synthetic and anonymized — composed from patterns common across IMBs in the $1B–$5B range. A real finding in a real Brief is more specific, names internal mechanics, and ties to your numbers. The shape and tone, though, are the same.
Retail production has been flat-to-declining for three reporting years while wholesale has carried the topline. Internally, the leadership team treats this as a cyclical issue — wholesale up, retail soft, it'll turn. The data doesn't support that read. Wholesale isn't picking up retail's slack; it is, increasingly, the only thing growing.
The market reads this in three ways at once. Recruiters are routing top producers toward peers with cleaner growth stories — your name comes up, but as a backup, not a first call. Owner-operators considering a sale see a single-engine business and price it accordingly. And the parent capital provider is starting to weigh whether retail deserves continued investment, even if no one inside the company has framed the question that directly yet.
Underneath this is a structural issue: there is no named owner of retail growth, no in-house recruiting motion, and the branches are expected to recruit while running their own loan board. That works in markets where producers are looking. It does not work in markets where producers are being actively recruited — which is the market you're in.
Pick a posture and commit. Either declare the wholesale-led model openly — and re-cut comp, P&L, and recruiting around it — or rebuild retail's top-of-funnel discipline within twelve months with a named owner, weekly metrics, and a recruiting infrastructure that doesn't run through people with day jobs. The current ambiguity is more expensive than either choice.
A real Brief contains five to eight findings of this depth, sequenced for the operator's actual decision path.
A diagnostic, not a deck. A decision read, not an inventory of issues.
The earlier the read, the more time you have to act on it.
Who This Is For
Best fit: IMB CEOs, Presidents, and owner-operators at companies producing roughly $1B to $10B annually. Smaller or larger platforms can fit when there is a specific question — a coming transaction, a parent review, a leadership transition. The work is not built as a generic advisory engagement.
Howard Michalski. Founding COO of a national mortgage platform scaled from zero to $10B in annual production. Head of M&A and Growth across 100 transactions diligenced and 70+ acquisitions closed. Later, COO of a PE-owned platform, with full acquisition-to-exit responsibility for a specialty lender/servicer, including renegotiation of GSE servicing contracts.
The Outside-In View is run personally. No associates, no team underneath, no rotation. More about Howard →
A 30-minute intro call. No pitch, no agenda beyond understanding your situation. If it's a fit, we'll talk about scope and timing. If it's not, you'll get an honest read on that too.