/ 05 — Engagement

How a fractional CEO engagement works.

Predictable cadence. Real authority. Planned exit from day one.

Topic: fractional CEO services, hire a fractional CEO

Book an intro call See the track record

/01Sequence

From intro call to exit.

/01

Intro call

30 minutes. Situation, scope, fit. No deck.

/02

Scoping (week 0)

Two working days. Read the numbers, talk to 5 people. Output: scope, cadence, KPIs, exit criteria.

/03

First 90 days

Land operating cadence. Fix top 3 P&L leaks. Hire or fire one leadership role if needed.

/04

Months 4 to 18

Run the plan. Monthly board update. Quarterly re-prioritisation. Exit when the criteria are met.

/0290-day plan

What the first 90 days look like.

/Days 1 to 30

Diagnose

Read every line. Talk to the top 10 people. Output a single-page situation note with the 3 things that matter.

/Days 31 to 60

Install cadence

Weekly operating review. Monthly board update format. KPI tree. Hiring plan with budget.

/Days 61 to 90

Move the number

Execute the 1 to 3 changes that will show in next quarter's P&L. Park everything else.

/03Reporting

Reporting line and authority.

Who does the fractional CEO report to?

The board or the founder/owner. Inside agreed scope, the fractional CEO has full decision authority including hires and fires.

Authority is non-negotiable. If the role does not have it, it stops being a CEO role and becomes advisory. Advisory is fine, but it is not what this is.

How is the exit handled?

Exit criteria are written on day one. When they are met, the engagement ends and the role is handed to a full-time successor.

Typical exits: a full-time CEO is hired, the founder is ready to resume the seat, or the company has crossed the operating threshold that needed external horsepower.

What if the role escalates to full-time?

The engagement converts to interim CEO with a separate engagement letter, or the role is handed off to a vetted operator from a temporary management network.

When the company tips into a full-time leadership need the toolset changes. Routes inside the network: temporarymanager.work for a broader European operator pool, hireinterimceo.it when an English-language interim CEO is needed.

/04

Start with the intro call