I’m closely investigating the possibility of working with multiple businesses as a fractional COO. This is a new space and many seasoned executives are looking at it, trying to figure out how to make it work. But what is a fractional COO? There seem to be a lot of different answers. Here is my vision and definition.
Just like a full-time COO, a fractional COO (fCOO) acts as a strategic partner with the business owner. The job of the fCOO is to enhance the existing leadership team into a group of people who can run the day-to-day without the the business owner’s constant intervention. The fCOO drives execution of the owner’s vision with the leadership team (and, by extension, the rest of the company).
The fCOO is the leader of the leadership team. This is not an outside consultant; the fCOO is part of the org structure and the leadership team reports to him or her, even in a fractional engagement. The fCOO ensures that all of the various functions and departments of the business are integrated with one another and that everyone is rowing in the same direction.
A VP/Head of Ops/General Manager, on the other hand, is just one member of the leadership team who reports to the fCOO. He or she is responsible for the actual product and/or service that the business provides to its customers or clients.
One reason for confusion between the fCOO and the VP/Head of Ops/GM roles is that in the majority of businesses where the COO is full-time, he or she also serves as the organization’s VP/Head of Ops/GM. 80% of the full-time COO role is managing the business operations day-to-day, and 20% of the role is strategic development of the owner’s vision.
The fCOO focuses on the strategic 20% of the role. That’s why it’s fractional (not full time). The fCOO may perform this service for multiple companies at the same time.
Based on my experience, when it comes to operations many small & medium companies are in a state of chaos. It’s not for lack of effort or desire, it’s because the way an organization works when it’s getting off the ground is chaotic. Everyone wearing multiple hats, people stepping up to pull all-nighters or do heroic acts. It’s awesome to watch and be a part of; however, that bust-down-walls do-whatever-it-takes mindset starts to get in the way as an organization matures.
The operations team knows the business and the clients; they keep the trains running by executing current processes, but they may not know how to scale. The fCOO helps install a scalable operating framework, customized for the business, into which the existing leaders can grow and manage as the business expands.
This is my working definition for a fractional COO role. In future posts, I’ll describe the scope of services and ‘how’ to approach this work on a fractional basis.
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