If you are at a turning point in your business where you feel that an outside perspective would help your company, you are perhaps weighing the pros and cons of enlisting a consultant versus a fractional COO. Both professionals certainly have their specialties; the key is not to think of a consultant or a fractional COO as better than the other, but to consider which avenue will lead to better results for your business. In this article, I’ll discuss how the offerings of consultants and fractional COO’s differ and how my company, Fraction Force Strategies, may provide the help that your business or nonprofit is seeking out.
Differences Between a Fractional COO and Consultant
The key difference between a fractional COO and a consultant is that a fractional COO becomes an integral part of your team for an extended period of time. When I begin working with businesses and nonprofits, I interview employees and gain a deep understanding of the company culture to help streamline workflows and resolve issues. Meanwhile, consultants may specialize in a particular area of need, but they ultimately serve more of an advisory role, providing a plan and action recommendations typically without integration with the company. Below is a further breakdown of these differences:
- Day-to-Day Operations:
- Since a fractional COO operates as a team member, they are integrated into each facet of the company and therefore understand day-to-day operations more. From this standpoint, they can ensure tasks are effectively executed in real time. Fractional COOs are much more on-call and in contact with their team than a consultant would be. Overall, a fractional COO has much more involvement in the day-to-day movements of a company than a consultant.
- Long-Term Goals:
- The main advantage of hiring a fractional COO for a company looking for long-term growth is that a fractional COO is there for the long haul. They will commit themselves to a team and stay through the execution of the plan that they have developed. A fractional COO can help businesses navigate obstacles that arise while implementing changes in their business and adjust plans in real time to overcome issues.
- Consultants work diligently to develop a specialized plan but may not be in continuous contact with the business or nonprofit to see it to fruition. If a business anticipates a lot of growth and change and does not have a system in place to execute on the long term goals, it may be helpful to have someone with them for an extended period of time as opposed to periodic consulting engagements.
- Influencing Company Communication & Culture:
- Many businesses where different departments are siloed do not interact, even if they work on the same project. If I notice this setup as a fractional COO, I will establish modes of communication (whether software, email, etc.) to generate a natural flow of information. Consultants may also prescribe that businesses and nonprofits invest in certain software or technology to help their business.
- Unless a consultant is a culture consultant, they will not play a role in company culture, as they are not typically integrated with the entire team. On the other hand, a considerable part of being a fractional COO is ensuring a healthy company culture. Part of team integration means ensuring that team members are communicative and hold themselves and each other accountable. This is perhaps a unique perspective that a fractional COO can bring: looking at your current company dynamics and questioning how it can be improved to make the changes and plans implemented function more fluidly.
Additional Considerations For Businesses and Nonprofits
Since both roles have significant value and can make valuable changes for a company, I recommend that a business thoroughly assess its specific challenges to help inform its decision between a consultant and a fractional COO.
- The Importance of The Right Choice:
- A client of mine hired a consultant who brought great value and insight to many aspects of their company, but the company did not have the team in place to execute the provided plans. There was a need for someone to step in and take some of the workload off of the CEO for day-to-day operational tasks so the consultant’s plan could be put into motion, which is the role I took on while helping this company.
- Common Misconceptions:
- A common misconception about fractional COOs is that they are a resource that only works for very large companies, when in fact, they are better suited for small to medium-sized companies that do not have a full-time COO in place.
- As mentioned above, some business owners believe that consultants will be more involved in the daily workings of their company than they typically are. Consultants can provide clients with excellent recommendations, plans, and tools, especially if they are specialists, but their availability and involvement is much more limited than that of a fractional COO.
- Lastly, many may not realize that as a fractional COO, I can work with consultants and have done so to revamp a company or nonprofit’s workflows and systems. If a company has a niche area that they would like advisors to focus on, consultants that specialize in that area are a great resource, while I can draw upon my varied experience in corporate and nonprofit leadership to execute these plans and transform the organization.
At Fraction Force Strategies, we are happy to help businesses and nonprofits improve workflows, build a strong company culture, and look toward the future with confidence. We can be contacted through our website and by phone at (615) 733-9505 to answer additional questions and provide more information about our services!