Commercial Growth
Taking commercial load off a founder without hiring a director
One day a week of senior commercial leadership: pricing, margin and new business given structure, owners and a reporting rhythm.
Build
Build stronger foundations.
Senior commercial and operational leadership inside your business, typically one day a week, without recruiting another full-time director. Foundations that let the business perform without exhausting the people running it.
What is fractional leadership?
Fractional leadership is the appointment of an experienced director to a leadership team on a part-time, ongoing basis, usually one or two days a week, with real responsibility for a defined part of the business rather than an advisory brief.
A fractional commercial director sets commercial priorities, puts numbers behind decisions, owns pricing, margin and pipeline discipline, and holds the leadership team to the plan. The work is the same as a permanent director's; the commitment and the cost are not.
ANDvisory works this way with founder-led businesses that have outgrown their structure but do not yet need, or want, another full-time appointment. Engagements normally begin with three months, typically one day a week, and settle into monthly leadership meetings, commercial reporting and a small number of live workstreams.
What a fractional director actually does
A fractional director joins your leadership team on a part-time, ongoing basis and takes real responsibility. Not a report and a recommendation, but the work: setting commercial priorities, giving numbers to the decisions, holding people to the plan and being in the room when it gets difficult.
Most engagements begin with an initial three-month period, typically one day a week, and settle into a rhythm of monthly leadership meetings, commercial reporting and a small number of active workstreams.
Where it helps most
- Founders carrying commercial strategy, pricing and new business personally
- Businesses that have grown faster than their structure
- Leadership teams with an operational gap they are not ready to hire into
- Companies that are busy but not profitable enough
- Boards that want senior experience without a permanent appointment
Foundations we put in place
- Commercial structure and commercial models
- Operational structure, process and workflow
- Team structure, roles and accountability
- Leadership, management and culture
- Management information and reporting rhythm
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Supplier strategy and supplier relationships
- Responsible working, freelance and supplier practice
Build a business that performs without exhausting the people running it
Most founder-led businesses are held together by a few people working very hard. That works until it doesn't: growth stalls, good people leave, quality slips and the founder becomes the bottleneck for every decision.
The foundations we build are commercial and operational, but they are also the conditions people work in: clear roles, sensible workloads, managers who manage and decisions that don't all route through one person. Get those right and the business performs better and is a better place to work. The two are not separate projects.
Ways of working
Fractional leadership: embedded senior leadership on an ongoing basis, typically one day per week.
Advisory projects: focused work on a single challenge, opportunity or period of change, from an intensive strategy session to a multi-month programme.
Interim leadership: senior cover through rapid growth, restructuring, recruitment, acquisition or a gap in the management team.
Questions founders ask
When should you bring in a fractional commercial director?
Usually when the founder has become the commercial function: pricing, negotiation, new business and margin decisions all pass through one person, and growth has started to depend on their availability.
Other common triggers are a period of fast growth that structure has not caught up with, a leadership gap that is not yet a permanent role, or a business that is busy without being profitable enough.
What is the difference between a fractional director and a consultant?
A consultant is normally engaged to analyse a problem and recommend a course of action. A fractional director joins the leadership team, carries responsibility for outcomes and stays to implement the work.
In practice the distinction shows in accountability. A recommendation ends with a document; a fractional appointment ends with something changed in the business. ANDvisory works in both modes, but the default is the second.
Do you still need a full-time commercial director?
Eventually, many businesses do. A fractional appointment is often the step that makes that hire successful, because it defines the role, builds the reporting and commercial disciplines around it, and gives the founder a clear view of what they are actually recruiting for.
How much does a fractional director cost?
Fees depend on the days committed and the length of the engagement rather than a fixed price list, and are agreed before any work begins. The comparison worth making is not day rate against day rate, but the cost of senior time against the salary, employment cost and risk of a permanent director.
Related work
International Operations
Holding commercial control across international markets
Multi-market delivery given a single operating model and one line of commercial accountability, from budget to completion.
Better businesses perform better.
Commercial performance and organisational health reinforce one another. It is the philosophy that runs through everything ANDvisory does. Read why →
Advice action.
Senior commercial and operational leadership inside the business, without another full-time director.