Interim and fractional leadership
Providing experienced senior operational leadership when and where you need it.
When you need this
- Your COO or Operations Director has left, and the search will take months
- A senior operational role needs covering for maternity leave, illness or a sabbatical
- The business needs that level of experience but cannot yet justify it full time
- A specific programme needs senior ownership that your existing team does not have capacity for
- An investor wants experienced operational leadership in a portfolio business, quickly
What Kernva does
This is not advisory. Henriette takes the role, holds the accountability, runs the team and reports to the board or investor in the same way a permanent appointment would.
In practice that means:
- Ownership. Owning operational performance and, where the role calls for it, the P&L
- Leadership. Leading and developing the existing team rather than working around it
- Decisions. Making decisions, including the uncomfortable ones, and standing behind them
- Reporting. Reporting to the board or investor with a straight account of where things stand
- Handover. Building the capability and the handover so the business is stronger when the role ends
That last point is deliberate. A good interim leaves an operation that does not need them. Part of the brief is preparing the ground for a permanent successor, including helping to define and assess for the role.
How an engagement runs
Interim: full time or close to it, typically three to twelve months, covering a gap or leading through a defined period.
Fractional: one to three days a week on an ongoing basis, for businesses that need the seniority without the full-time cost.
Both can usually start within two to four weeks. Scope, reporting line, decision rights and success measures are agreed in writing before the start, which avoids the most common failure in interim work, which is ambiguity about what the person is actually allowed to decide.
What changes
- Continuity, so momentum does not stall while a search runs
- Decisions made rather than deferred to the next permanent appointment
- A team that has been led and developed rather than held in a holding pattern
- A clean handover, and a successor set up to succeed
16 years leading operations from front line to C-suite. P&L accountability across businesses up to £70m and 250 employees. PE-backed and public companies, UK, US and Europe, in heavily regulated environments.
Questions people ask
- What is the difference between interim and fractional?
- Interim is a full-time role for a fixed period, usually covering a gap. Fractional is a permanent arrangement at part-time capacity, for businesses that need the experience but not the full-time cost.
- Which sectors have you worked in?
- Large, complex, multinational public and PE-backed organisations, in heavily regulated environments, across the UK, US and Europe.
- Would you consider a permanent role afterwards?
- That conversation happens sometimes and is worth having openly. It should not, though, be the reason for the appointment.
Related services
Worth a conversation?
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. If Kernva is not the right answer, we will let you know and also point you somewhere more useful if we can.