Author: Renée Taylor and Julie Scardamaglia
Published: 25 October 2024
Every business working with a tight budget goes through this. You need expert help to grow now, but you can’t afford it yet. If you had the help, you could be growing sooner and then you could afford it. It’s a classic chicken and egg situation.
For example, the startup or mid-sized firm wants to grow and can’t afford a full-time senior marketing expert. Or they need to set up their people management processes, or make their brand more powerful. All specialist tasks that are critical to the growth they seek. Typically, firms make three types of compromises, all of which have significant drawbacks.
Firstly, the leaders may do it themselves, often dividing specialist strategic roles between partners. This usually doesn’t go well because the Partners are experts in other fields and lack the necessary knowledge. They often don’t realise they lack this knowledge. What’s more, they’re using valuable billable time that needs to be given to client work. This is slow and less effective and rarely results in the growth they were hoping for.
The second approach is to hire a more inexperienced person who will cost considerably less than an experienced strategic executive. The new hire is generally strong on execution but weak on strategy and usually requires considerable partner supervision. This approach often leads to costly mistakes and missed opportunities as the junior person doesn’t have the strategic experience.
The third approach is the growth-based gamble. That means delaying strategic hires in the hope that revenue will eventually increase enough to fund them. The firm risks stagnating and missing market opportunities while this happens. This can lead to long-term competitive disadvantages that mean revenue may never rise to the levels hoped for.
There is an alternative – bringing in senior level expertise on a flexible, as-needed basis. Not a consultant who may come in, do a review, give you a report and disappear, but a senior resource who will partner with you in building your business on an as-needs basis.
Business academics are giving it a new name, fractional leadership, and it has many advantages. It gives you access to expert-level strategy without the cost and commitment of a full-time executive hire. And it offers an objective external perspective on your business challenges that an internal hire may not.
Perhaps the most valuable benefit is the flexibility. Fractional leadership means you can bring in the expertise you need when you need it. It will allow the rapid implementation of best practices according to your needs. The flexibility applies to costs, too. Flexible engagement terms mean you pay for expertise only when it’s needed. For example, when your firm has a project to undertake, is facing a crisis, or circumstances have changed, like a merger or new service. All this leads to lower overall investment than full-time executives.
It leads to lower risk, too. Senior, experienced experts are more attuned to the risks your business faces in these specialist areas. They’ll also be building the capabilities of your existing people as they work with your firm to achieve its goals.
Growth challenges come at different times to professional service firms, whether they’re starting up, moving into a new market, or facing succession challenges. On demand senior leadership offers a pragmatic solution to the expertise gap. It provides a bridge between current capabilities and future aspirations. It allows them to build internal capacity sustainably and grow at the same time.
The work environment is evolving and businesses who are able to adapt are seeing the benefits of a different approach, getting the expertise they need at the right time.
Author: Renée Taylor and Julie Scardamaglia
Published: 25 October 2024
Every business working with a tight budget goes through this. You need expert help to grow now, but you can’t afford it yet. If you had the help, you could be growing sooner and then you could afford it. It’s a classic chicken and egg situation.
For example, the startup or mid-sized firm wants to grow and can’t afford a full-time senior marketing expert. Or they need to set up their people management processes, or make their brand more powerful. All specialist tasks that are critical to the growth they seek. Typically, firms make three types of compromises, all of which have significant drawbacks.
Firstly, the leaders may do it themselves, often dividing specialist strategic roles between partners. This usually doesn’t go well because the Partners are experts in other fields and lack the necessary knowledge. They often don’t realise they lack this knowledge. What’s more, they’re using valuable billable time that needs to be given to client work. This is slow and less effective and rarely results in the growth they were hoping for.
The second approach is to hire a more inexperienced person who will cost considerably less than an experienced strategic executive. The new hire is generally strong on execution but weak on strategy and usually requires considerable partner supervision. This approach often leads to costly mistakes and missed opportunities as the junior person doesn’t have the strategic experience.
The third approach is the growth-based gamble. That means delaying strategic hires in the hope that revenue will eventually increase enough to fund them. The firm risks stagnating and missing market opportunities while this happens. This can lead to long-term competitive disadvantages that mean revenue may never rise to the levels hoped for.
There is an alternative – bringing in senior level expertise on a flexible, as-needed basis. Not a consultant who may come in, do a review, give you a report and disappear, but a senior resource who will partner with you in building your business on an as-needs basis.
Business academics are giving it a new name, fractional leadership, and it has many advantages. It gives you access to expert-level strategy without the cost and commitment of a full-time executive hire. And it offers an objective external perspective on your business challenges that an internal hire may not.
Perhaps the most valuable benefit is the flexibility. Fractional leadership means you can bring in the expertise you need when you need it. It will allow the rapid implementation of best practices according to your needs. The flexibility applies to costs, too. Flexible engagement terms mean you pay for expertise only when it’s needed. For example, when your firm has a project to undertake, is facing a crisis, or circumstances have changed, like a merger or new service. All this leads to lower overall investment than full-time executives.
It leads to lower risk, too. Senior, experienced experts are more attuned to the risks your business faces in these specialist areas. They’ll also be building the capabilities of your existing people as they work with your firm to achieve its goals.
Growth challenges come at different times to professional service firms, whether they’re starting up, moving into a new market, or facing succession challenges. On demand senior leadership offers a pragmatic solution to the expertise gap. It provides a bridge between current capabilities and future aspirations. It allows them to build internal capacity sustainably and grow at the same time.
The work environment is evolving and businesses who are able to adapt are seeing the benefits of a different approach, getting the expertise they need at the right time.
