Fractional and interim leadership
Senior leadership, when you need it.
Two ways to work
In the seat, or beside it.
Holding the seat
An open or changing leadership role. We run the function until your permanent leader is in place, and help you hire them.
Alongside your leaders
A senior partner to the CIO, COO or CFO you already have. We own the parts of the work they hand us, and they stay in charge.
When it fits
- A leadership role is open, changing hands, or not ready for a full-time hire.
- Your CIO, COO or CFO needs a senior partner on operations or AI, not a replacement.
- Growth has outpaced your operations, and no one owns fixing it.
- AI is spreading across teams and tools, and no one is accountable for it.
What the leader owns
A seat with real ownership.
Operations and technology
- Team structure, roles and hiring
- Priorities, intake and the roadmap
- Business applications, vendors and renewals
- Service levels for the business
AI
- Who owns each AI initiative, and the rules they follow
- What AI costs, and whether it is paying off
- Architecture and tooling decisions
- When and how to build, and with whom
How it works
Your first 90 days.
Weeks 1 to 3
Map and own
Learn the business, the team, the systems and the backlog. Agree what we own, who we report to, and how we will measure progress.
Weeks 4 to 6
The fix list
A short list of what to fix first, each item with an owner and a date, and a weekly operating rhythm to keep it moving.
Weeks 7 to 12
Run it and hand over
Run the work with your team, measure it, and build the transition to your people from the start.
- A defined weekly commitment, typically 20 to 25 hours
- Clear scope, decision rights and reporting line to your CEO, CFO, COO or CIO
- Led by our founder, with a limited number of fractional clients at a time
Example engagement
Interim CIO, cybersecurity software company
$300M+ ARR · Interim CIO, reporting to the CEO
After a restructuring, the business technology organization needed leadership, and AI was spreading across teams and tools faster than anyone could account for it.
- Repositioned the business technology organization around internal service delivery, treating employees and business teams as its customers
- Stabilized IT operations and help desk service, and redesigned roles and the operating model to match
- Set up one record of owners for applications, vendors and renewals
- Stood up a single intake for AI, with an approval step before anything goes live: a named owner, a security review and a test of how it performs
- Brought AI administration and spend under one accountable function, with usage limits set by role
- Made build, buy, keep or retire calls on software renewals
Earn your complexity.
A fractional leader should make the company simpler to run, not add another layer. We start with people, roles, processes and the business problem, and only then with tools and systems.
Already have a CIO or AI lead?
Good. We work with them and under their direction, adding senior capacity on business operations, business applications and the data AI depends on. They stay in charge of the platforms, business teams own their workflows and how they adopt AI, and finance owns how value is measured.
One owner, not two.
How we engage.
Scoped engagement
A defined time, scope and fee, from working out where to start through to the result. We own the result. Your team owns the decisions and the systems, and we sign off on the work together.
Fractional or interim leadership
Ongoing, typically 20 to 25 hours a week. We hold the seat or work alongside your leaders, and plan the transition from the start.
Need a senior leader, in the seat or beside you?
Start with a 30-minute conversation. You will leave with a view of where we would begin, and whether we are the right fit.