Ongoing leadership · Fractional COO
Fractional COO leadership for the point between founder control and a permanent hire.
I take operating ownership across the boundaries that usually fall back to the CEO: delivery, commercial operations, margin, reporting, team design, and execution. The role is senior enough for the boardroom and hands-on enough to change the work.
When it fits
The signs this is the work.
- The CEO is still coordinating work that should move through the leadership team.
- Functional leaders are capable, but nobody owns the whole path from sale to customer outcome.
- Capacity, margin, commitments, and risk are not visible early enough to manage.
- A permanent COO may be needed later, but the operating problem needs ownership now.
What changes
The operating result.
CEO headroom
Fewer operating decisions and exceptions returning to the founder by default.
Leadership alignment
Shared priorities, decision rights, and measures across commercial, product, and delivery teams.
Operating control
Earlier visibility of capacity, customer commitments, margin, risk, and execution.
How the work runs
A defined path into the work.
Establish the mandate
Agree the decisions, outcomes, and operating boundaries I will own with the CEO and leadership team.
Run the operating system
Lead the cadence, resolve cross-functional constraints, and make the numbers useful enough to act on.
Build the next shape
Strengthen the team and operating model, then help define whether the next step is continued fractional leadership or a permanent appointment.
Relevant evidence
£600k to £12m turnover. 300 to 7,000 customers.
As CEO of Need4Feed, I led the commercial and operating change over two years while carrying a personal £600k quarterly sales target.
More about my operating experienceQuestions
What buyers usually need to know.
- What does a fractional COO do?
- A fractional COO takes senior operating responsibility on a part-time or defined-term basis. The work commonly spans delivery, commercial operations, margin, reporting, leadership cadence, team design, and cross-functional execution.
- How is this different from an operations consultant?
- The difference is ownership. I do not stop at recommendations. I join the leadership work, make decisions within an agreed mandate, and remain accountable for implementation and operating progress.
- Can a fractional COO help before a permanent hire?
- Yes. A fractional engagement can stabilise the operating model, clarify what the permanent role actually needs to own, and reduce the pressure to make a rushed executive appointment.
Next step
Describe what is happening.
I will reply personally and tell you whether this is the right engagement.
Describe the problem