The Growing Trend of Part-Time Executives

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Imagine you’re leading a small organization, but you’re struggling to recruit and afford the senior talent you need to grow. You could hire a part-time executive. So-called “fractional leadership” is common in startups and is spreading to other businesses and nonprofits. But while a fast-growing number of senior leaders seek this work arrangement, many companies are unsure of how to go about it. Tomoko Yokoi and Amy Bonsall are experts on the practice. Yokoi is a researcher at the TONOMUS Global Center for Digital and AI Transformation at IMD Business School. Bonsall is a former executive at IDEO and Old Navy who works as a part-time chief product officer with several organizations. They explain when and how fractional leadership works best—for the individual as well as the organization—and how to do it right. Yokoi and Bonsall wrote the HBR article “How Part-Time Senior Leaders Can Help Your Business.”

Transcript

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0:59.0	Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish.
1:06.4	Imagine this. You're leading a small organization, but you're struggling to recruit and, frankly,
1:13.9	afford the senior talent you need to grow. What can you do? Today's guests propose an innovative
1:21.0	solution that's picking up momentum. It's called fractional leadership. If you're not familiar
1:27.3	with this idea, it's where leaders who might otherwise serve as full-time C-suite executives instead offer their skills to multiple organizations.
1:36.3	They dedicate only a fraction of their time, a portion of their time, to each one.
1:41.3	Can't afford a chief marketing officer or don't need one full-time, hire a part-time
1:47.3	one. But how do you know if this approach is right for your company? What challenges do you need to
1:53.1	anticipate to get the most out of working with a fractional executive? And if you're a senior leader,
1:59.3	how do you know if a fractional role could be a good
2:02.0	fit for you? Our guests today are experts on this growing practice. Their combined research
2:09.0	and practical experience will help us understand how fractional leadership actually works and whether
2:15.3	it's right for you in your organization.
2:24.1	Tomoko Yo-Koi is a researcher and advisor at the Tonomus Global Center for Digital and AI Transformation at IMD Business School. She studies the impact of emerging technologies on organizations
2:30.7	and work. And Amy Bonsol is the founder of Collective and a former leader at
2:36.0	IDO and Old Navy. And she currently works as a fractional chief product officer with several
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