Fractional Chief of Staff

The business is growing. But you're running out of bandwidth to lead it.

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Pain Points

Time inside the business crowding out time on it?

Too many competing priorities

Effort and capital diluted across too many initiatives, with no clear winner.

Founders stuck in operations

You're deep in the day-to-day. Strategic work keeps getting pushed to next week.

Strategy that doesn't land

A plan exists, but it hasn't cascaded into the team or changed how work actually gets done.

Decisions without clear data

No reliable management information. The business is flying without clear sight of performance.

Governance gaps

Too many escalations. Decisions made in the wrong rooms. No forums for cross-functional alignment.

Team not yet self-managing

Accountability still sits with the founders. The team isn't yet capable of running without you.

If any of this resonates, let's talk. →
What I do

Five areas. One interconnected approach. Value that compounds.

I work across both the strategic and operational layers of your business, helping you cut through the noise, build the structure you need to scale, and make better decisions with a trusted partner alongside you.

01
Strategy & prioritisation

Helping leadership teams get focused on what actually matters and building the measurement frameworks to track whether it's working.

  • Annual and quarterly planning cycles
  • OKR / KPI design
  • Horizon planning and scenario analysis
  • Strategic comms from leadership to the business
02
Operating model & governance

Designing how the business is structured, how decisions get made, and how information flows so the organisation can scale without the founder becoming the bottleneck.

  • Operating model design
  • Decision rights frameworks (RACI / RAPID)
  • Meeting architecture and governance design
  • Org design and team structuring
03
Business process improvement

Identifying where the friction is, where work slows down, where handoffs break. Then fixing it and making sure the changes land and embed.

  • End-to-end process mapping and redesign
  • Cross-functional workflow improvement
  • SOP development
  • Change management and implementation
04
Founder & team dynamics

Working at the human layer. Helping leadership teams work better together, developing team members to take on more, and building a resilient culture.

  • Leadership team effectiveness
  • Performance framework design
  • Onboarding and capability development
  • Culture and values work
05
Advisory & honest challenge

Being the trusted partner in the room. Asking the difficult questions, telling you what I actually think, and helping you make better decisions.

  • Confidential sounding board
  • Board and investor preparation
  • Difficult decision facilitation
  • Strategic problem-solving

Value creation framework

01
Focused strategic priorities
›
02
Organisational effectiveness
›
03
Business intelligence
›
04
Better decision making
›
Result
Sustainable growth

Sustainable growth creates the capacity and capital to invest further in strategic priorities. This is where the Chief of Staff value compounds.

Credentials

I'm an experienced Chief of Staff. Not someone applying adjacent skills to a new context. Someone who has done this work, and delivered meaningful results.

BrainGain  ·  Fractional Chief of Staff  ·  18 months
£5m → £10m Revenue
<0% → 9% Net margin
3× Peak season volumes Versus prior year
Read the full case study →

The Fractional Chief of Staff role is both strategic and tactical. You need to think clearly at the level of the whole business, and stay close enough to the ground to make sure change is delivered effectively. Most advisors can do one or the other. A Fractional Chief of Staff does both, and that combination makes the difference between strategy that sounds good and change that actually sticks.

I've built that range over a decade inside Philip Morris International, a Fortune 500 company going through a global transformation. During my time there, I earned 6 promotions and worked across Supply Chain Operations, Strategy & Transformation, External Affairs and Commercial.

Each time, working directly alongside Senior Directors, helping them shape and translate strategy into something the organisation could actually deliver.

Competencies developed
Strategic planning

Translating leadership intent into clear priorities and organisational action plans

Cross-functional leadership

Driving delivery across teams who didn't share a reporting line

Governance & decision-making

Designing the forums, cadences, and decision rights that allow a business to function

Operating model design

Restructuring how teams are organised and how work flows between functions

Trusted advisor

Acting as the senior leader's right hand. Honest, discreet, and always in the room

Change management

Embedding new ways of working that stuck, not just designed on paper

Team capability

Coaching and developing people to take on more, so leadership could focus on leading

Management information

Building the KPI frameworks and dashboards that gave leadership clear sight of performance

I describe myself as someone with a cool head, a warm heart, and busy hands. I think clearly, bring structure without bureaucracy, leadership without formal authority, and pace without panic. I'm the critical friend your business needs to thrive. Someone who has the business' best interests at heart, and will give you the honest challenge that genuinely helps.

Husein Merali
Testimonials

Simple by design.

I work with a small number of founders at any one time, at depth, not at volume. The fractional model means you get genuine attention, genuine care, and genuine challenge.

1
Initial conversation

No pitch, no proposal. An honest discussion about where your business is, what isn't working, and whether there's a fit. If it feels right for both of us, we move forward.

2
Diagnostic

I start by getting into the business, speaking to you, your team, and understanding how the problems actually manifest in practice. The goal is to surface the real root causes, not just the symptoms.

3
Design and build

We agree a plan of attack. I work across the business, with you and with your team, to design and implement solutions that are fit for where you are, not borrowed from somewhere else.

4
Embed and sustain

My role is temporary by design. As the work lands, I'm raising capability and building structures that sustain themselves, so that when I step back, the business is stronger than when I arrived.

5
On your terms

The capability without the overhead, with the flexibility to dial up or down as the business needs.

Partnering with me works best when...

You've built real commercial momentum, but you're feeling the weight of it.

Typically past the £5m mark, growing fast, but the complexity is starting to outpace the structure.

You're talented and driven, but stretched too thin to lead strategically.

You need someone to hold the strategic thread while you focus on what only you can do.

You want to build something sustainable.

Not just react to what's in front of you, but put the right foundations in place for lasting growth.

You want honest challenge, not validation.

Someone who will tell you the truth, even when it's not what you want to hear.

This isn't the right fit if you need...

A consultant who produces a report and disappears.

I work inside the business, not above it.

A project manager for purely tactical tasks.

My work is strategic and structural.

Someone to replace your team rather than work alongside them.

I raise capability. I don't substitute for it.

Let's talk.

If any of this resonates, the first step is a conversation. No pitch, no commitment. Just an honest discussion about where your business is and whether there's a fit.

Start a conversation