Common Fractional Roles in the C-Suite and Beyond: What is the Value I Can Expect of These Hires?
Introduction
The traditional model of hiring full-time executives for C-suite roles has undergone a drastic transformation in recent years. With the increasing capacity for flexibility and specialized skills, companies are increasingly turning to fractional C-suite roles. These positions offer a cost-effective alternative to hiring full-time executives while providing access to top-tier knowledge and experience.
Fractional C-suite roles are part-time or contractual arrangements offered to experienced or expert professionals without the hefty price tag. Essentially, it is the ability to bring someone with the knowledge and experience (who has hopefully walked the journey before) to solve a problem for your business. The impact of such a hire can be immense and concretely felt in the balance sheets. In this article, we will explore the most common C-suite fractional roles.
Common Fractional C-Suite Roles and Their Impact
Fractional roles encompass a wide range of positions, each with its own unique impact on a company's success. The most common fractional roles we have placed include CEOs, COOs, CTOs (along with VP Engineering), HR Managers, VP of Sales, Fundraising Advisors and VP Marketing.
Fractional CEO: Steering Companies Towards Growth
The fractional CEO is a unique and pivotal role that companies need to define closely to be able to derive full value. Usually brought on by the Board to partner an inexperienced CEO or by an existing CEO to complement their skill set, the fractional CEO provides strategic guidance and leadership in steering companies towards growth.
Depending on the problem statement provided by the company, this can take many forms. In our experience, we’ve seen fractional CEOs who were industry insiders (eg. in pharmaceuticals, construction) that complemented a startup CEO, as well as CEOs with a particular niche in fundraising or sales that could help a company’s massive push in that direction. We’ve also seen second-gen companies bring in a fractional CEO to ‘keep an eye’ on the business as they transition out of an active management role.
To derive maximum value, companies must closely define what the expectations of the fractional CEO are. Are there objectives or goals they should strive for? Make it clear, ideally a one-liner, to give the role meaning and direction. The fractional CEO should also meet with the leadership team to develop and implement strategies that drive business growth. They should already be familiar with market trends and opportunities in the industry.
An advantage that’s not commonly spoken about with fractional CEOs is the impact of company culture that they can bring. With a good fractional CEO, you can essentially extend the CEO’s reach, bringing management closer and fostering tighter alignment on goals and initiatives. Our fractional CEOs have typically been founders or professionals who have done it before and both inspire and motivate the teams they are working with. Talk about intangible impacts!
Fractional CFO: Financial Expertise on Demand
A fractional CFO brings strategic financial leadership to the table without the full-time commitment of a traditional CFO. In many cases, the businesses who seek fractional CFOs have cashflow issues, poor management reporting, lack of processes or are seeking investment.
One key benefit of using a fractional CFO is the ability to customize your ask of them. For example, if you need someone who’s an expert in budgeting & forecasting for a retail business or financial planning for property development, you can define that and seek out such an expert. This gives the business invaluable, targeted expertise to leverage on - all while avoiding the hefty expense of a full-time CFO.
Fractional CTO: Traversing Business and Technology
Very few companies today can truly claim they do not need a tech expert within the business. However, in businesses that are not tech-first, or who are just coming into the practice of being digital-first, it is not only a struggle to afford a full-time CTO but also a steep learning curve in learning how to find one.
A good fractional CTO will be able to combine technical expertise and business strategy to show a business how to leverage today’s technologies for growth, and how to scale it sustainably. This can range from building custom software from the business to cybersecurity & infrastructure management. In one case, we’ve even had a fractional CTO who helped to create and automate simple Excel scripts that drove revenue growth for an engineering company!
Sometimes, our fractional CTOs are brought in to do tech due diligence for angel investors – this has been an interesting trend that has only grown in recent years. They are also commonly asked by CEOs to do audits of projects delivered by third-party vendors, and to help the CEO effectively communicate with the tech team, both internally and externally.
If you have a third-party vendor or outsourced tech team, a fractional CTO can advise you on the hiring, management & training of your developers. Say goodbye to hiring blindly and hoping for the best (not as uncommon among SMEs as you would’ve thought) – and let someone who can fluidly traverse business and technology cross that chasm for you.
Fractional HR Manager: Culture and Compliance is a Competency
With HR often being seen as a cost-center, many businesses are often reluctant to spend on a HR manager – yet the positive impact of a good HR manager can hardly be overstated. It’s one of those things that businesses often need but don’t want to pay a premium for. Fractional HR managers help to build a thriving organizational culture and ensure compliance to local labour laws, all of which make your investment on employees worth multiples more.
HR Managers are some of our most common fractional placements. Almost without fail, the fractional role defined has something to do with developing an employee handbook (for good reason, as this is often the pivotal point between culture & compliance), developing processes around hiring, performance management and training, or guiding the team to ensure that the company is compliant with MOM/TAFEP laws. In many cases, they are supported by anywhere from one to a team of administrators who is a HR/Finance/Admin generalist to do the day-to-day work and execute the processes that they’ve set up.
Fractional HR has been one of our most successful verticals due to the sheer visibility and positive impact of having someone manage the HR function. For startups and SMEs, fractional CHROs/HR Managers offer scalable support, allowing businesses to access HR expertise without the commitment of a full-time hire.
Fractional VP of Sales: Sales Leadership Tailored to Your Needs
Sales leadership is essential for driving revenue growth and expanding market reach. Good sales fits for not just the business’ industry but also business culture are what we’ve heard people describe as “unicorn hires”. So imagine if you could have someone to bring a sales network, strategy and operational process to your company – and they probably know more about your industry than you do, given their deeper experience. In one case, our fractional VP of Sales knew the private education industry so well, all our client needed was to brief him on existing customer profiles, hand him the sales deck and introduce him to the team. Within months, the team had a well-documented sales process, a fully-populated and customized lightweight CRM, and a higher closing rate than before – one of the many cases in which the impact of this fractional hire was immediately visible in the P&L.
Many business owners we know struggle with setting up a sales organization, particularly services companies who may not know how to price, bundle and manage salespeople – this is a problem statement we are seeing more often, and for which a fractional VP of Sales would be an immediate fix.
Fractional Fundraising Advisor: Navigating Startup Success, One Investment at a Time
Fundraising has today become a critical skill for founders to develop, but when it comes to navigating the intricacies of investment types, structures, deals and especially across different geographies, it is much more expedient for startups to engage an advisor who’s able to not just provide strategic guidance and support.
Our fundraising advisors typically come in to perfect the pitch as a first step. They also connect startups to investors of your choice, whether they’re VCs or angels, and advise the founder on the valuation, fundraising ask and the structure of the deal. Many times, they step in to clean up the cap table and prepare the due diligence so that fundraising proceeds smoothly. Leveraging advisors with their network and knowledge of how to craft compelling pitches and navigate the tumultuous journey of fundraising can help the founder to focus and grow through the fundraising process.
These fractional fundraising advisors are typically involved for a short period of time (anywhere from 3 months to 12 months) and will typically work closest with the founder and their Board.
Fractional VP of Marketing: Strategic Marketing Mastery Unleashed
Building brand awareness, driving customer acquisition and increasing market share are not typically skills a founder comes equipped with from the get-go. For companies in a scaling stage, they may not yet have the resources or even know what kind of hire they are looking for in such a senior role. In these cases, a fractional VP of Marketing can help bridge the gap.
Typically, the ask of a fractional VP of Marketing is to develop a marketing strategy, make hires for the marketing team, source for and/or oversee third-party vendors and create processes within the team. A good Fractional VP of Marketing will bring deep expertise in digital marketing, branding, and market strategy development. They often offer strategic guidance and execution support, empowering businesses to elevate their marketing efforts and achieve their growth objectives. Within our expert circle, they all come with a unique approach to marketing - some of them are deeply data-driven, others have a sensitivity to consumer trends that has helped B2C companies find their voice and effectively engage their customer segment. One of the key impacts that we’ve seen a fractional VP of Marketing have is in being able to promote cross-functional collaborations for incredibly meaningful campaigns.
Conclusion
The value of fractional roles extends beyond cost savings; it lies in access to specialized expertise, flexibility, and scalability. By leveraging fractional professionals, businesses can tap into a diverse talent pool, address specific needs, and adapt to changing market dynamics more effectively. Whether it's filling a temporary gap, supplementing existing teams, or accessing high-level expertise on a part-time basis, fractional roles offer a strategic advantage for businesses looking to thrive in today's competitive landscape.
This post is written by Chelsea Kang in conjunction with Quills At Work (Q@W).
Q@W makes it possible for industry experts to build their own content repository and brand by developing and documenting their knowledge, experiences and ideas to share with the world. We run branding campaigns, build newsletters and ghostwrite books. If you are an expert looking to share your expertise with the world, workwithus@quillsatwork.com.
