What is “Fractional CDO”?

One of the ways that I can support your data journey is called a “Fractional CDO”. “Fractional” is a bit of a new concept, so in this article I explain a little bit more about what this does (and doesn’t) mean.

The Fractional Executive

The internet is a bit vague about when this term came up. Wikipedia has a definition which is pretty useful:

Fractional executives are professionals who offer their management services to organizations on a for-hire, part-time basis, also known as fractional work.

So that seems to make sense and the definition of fractional work is also helpful in defining why its of interest to people:

This work model has gained popularity in recent years due to the increasing demand for flexible and cost-effective solutions for businesses to access specific expertise.

So the term is pretty self explanatory, engaging with a Fractional CDO would be buying the services of someone who is experienced in running data teams on a less than full time basis.

Why might you need Fractional CDO services?

So, obviously you could just buy a consultant to work on a specific project for a period of time (and you can do that… see here). Buy why a Fractional CDO?

There are a number of situations that we can imagine where a part of a whole person might be helpful:

• You already have a number of data leaders in your organisation, but they don’t have external experience to give themselves the confidence in their decisions. A Fractional CDO can provide advice, support and guidance and help them on their way;
• You are a CDO, struggling with internal stakeholders, budgets, hiring and team building and you need a some extra hands to help;
• You and your organisation has fantastic data capabilities in some areas, and need some specific data leadership support to work with you over a number of months to grow your operating model.

Why isn’t this just “hiring a consultant”?

Why not just hire a consultant to do some specific work for you?

A Fractional CDO is more about a long term engagement, with continuity over a period of time. That means I wouldn’t be supporting just one piece of work, but together we would be committing to something longer. I would become part of the team, and would make sure that I spend a little bit more time thinking about working in your organisation, your team, culture and how to get things done. We will agree some KPIs and objectives for the work. You will define the outcomes and I will show how I can achieve that.

Also, you are getting a slice of time and capability. If you want someone with years of data experience, but only want 5 days per month then you can have that. If you want all of the input focussed on Data Management then you can have that.

Get in touch to discuss more

Do you need some ongoing support on a fractional basis? Get in touch!