The thinking of a C-suite executive, backed by a delivery team.
Fractional CFO · CIO · COO · CMO · CHRO/CPO. Advisory (1–4 days/month) or Embedded (5–10 days/month). Plus regulatory specialty roles (CISO, NIS2 Named Person, Fractional DPO, AI Officer preview) for compliance triggers. DACH only.
Not placement-only, the role plus the team that executes.
Most fractional providers place an executive and leave you to coordinate execution. Here the fractional executive runs the functional workstream, and a delivery team stands up alongside them, handling the detailed process mapping, documentation, and deliverable production. The Principal Consultant scopes every engagement, integrates the handoff, and reviews every client-facing deliverable.
Five anchor roles (CFO, CIO, COO, CMO, CHRO/CPO), two tiers per role (Advisory, Embedded), and four standalone regulatory specialty roles (CISO, NIS2 Named Person, Fractional DPO, AI Officer as a preview). The only meaningful European alternative to "place an executive and leave you to coordinate execution".
Which role do you need?
Role selection is the first routing decision. You pick the function where the capacity gap lives.
Fractional CFO
Strong financial leadership for growth and investment.
Fractional CIO
Technology strategy that aligns with the business.
Fractional COO
Strategy for operations and growth.
Fractional CMO
Marketing strategy built on pipeline, not presentations.
Fractional CHRO/CPO
Leadership talent and organisation design for growth.
Advisory or Embedded.
Tier selection happens on the scoping call. We never pitch Embedded where Advisory fits; we never under-scope Advisory where Embedded is what the moment requires.
Advisory
Embedded
Strong financial leadership for growth and investment.
A funding round exposed a governance gap. Cash visibility is slipping. A full-time CFO hire fell through or is two quarters out. Exit preparation requires investor-grade reporting.
Included: FP&A, cash management, investor reporting, fundraise / exit readiness, unit economics, systems selection (ERP / FP&A), finance-team hiring support.
Not included: Audit signing, tax filing, controller-level transactional work.
- Finance Strategy Document
- Monthly Board Pack template
- 13-Week Rolling Cash Forecast
- Fundraise Readiness Diagnostic
- Systems Map (ERP / FP&A)
- Capability Transfer Plan
Technology strategy that aligns with the business.
First senior IT hire is too expensive; post-Series-B governance gap; AI governance gap exposed by a customer or board; cybersecurity posture review demanded by an investor.
Included: Technology strategy, vendor selection, cybersecurity posture, AI readiness, board reporting, governance frameworks, capability transfer.
Not included: Hands-on IT operations, helpdesk, tool administration, development. We bring specialist partners for that.
- Technology Strategy Document
- Cybersecurity Posture Assessment
- Board Technology Dashboard
- Vendor Consolidation Plan
- Full-Time CIO Hiring Brief (exit-by-design)
- Capability Transfer Plan
Scale-Up CIO and Growth CIO are internal scoping cues, not public sub-variants. The CIO role description above absorbs both stages. CISO, NIS2 Named Person, and Fractional DPO are standalone regulatory specialty roles below.
Strategy for operations and growth.
Operational stall the founder can no longer personally cover; scale-readiness gap; post-acquisition 100-day plan with no internal lead; exit prep 12–18 months out; under-performing portco mid-hold.
Included: Operating model design, organisation design, functional process redesign, KPI architecture, scale-readiness assessment, M&A integration, PE 100-day plan execution.
Not included: HR / payroll admin, line-management of >15 staff on a permanent basis, P&L accountability.
- Operating Model Map
- Organisation Design Output
- KPI Architecture
- Scale-Readiness Assessment
- 100-Day Plan Output (PE variant)
- Capability Transfer Plan
Boundary with TRANSFORM: a COO engagement can recommend and govern a TRANSFORM, but cannot substitute for one on projects requiring full delivery-team execution. This boundary protects the consulting anchor from being commoditised.
Marketing strategy built on pipeline, not presentations.
Failed full-time CMO hire; positioning collapse against a new entrant; post-funding GTM scale mandate; PE growth-equity value-creation thesis with marketing as the lever.
Included: Positioning and messaging, demand-generation strategy, marketing-funnel architecture, marketing-team design, GTM-systems selection (CRM, marketing automation, attribution), brand standards, partnerships and channel strategy.
Not included: Hands-on creative production, agency management without a strategic frame, day-to-day campaign operations.
- Positioning & Messaging Brief
- GTM Strategy Document
- Demand-Gen Funnel Map
- Marketing Function Build Plan
- Quarterly Board Marketing Report
- Capability Transfer Plan
SME bench composition leans demand-gen-orientated rather than brand-orientated; B2B / SaaS / industrial-tech overweight reflects the SME buyer profile. Consumer / B2C CMO engagements are out of scope at Wave 1.
Leadership talent and organisation design for growth.
Post-acquisition cultural integration; senior-hiring collapse; comp-design crisis pre-fundraise; succession planning; key-talent retention risk; HR function build past founder-led people management.
Included: Organisation design, comp and benefits architecture, talent strategy, leadership-pipeline design, post-acquisition cultural integration, performance-management system, employee-experience strategy, HR function build, employment-law alignment with operating model.
Not included: Payroll administration, day-to-day case management, individual employee disputes.
- Organisation Design Output
- Comp & Benefits Architecture
- Talent Strategy Document
- Cultural Integration Plan (post-acquisition variant)
- Performance Framework
- Capability Transfer Plan
Highly complex IR / works-council situations (DACH Betriebsrat-heavy) are partner-augmented; the standing bench handles the operating-model and people-strategy weight.
Tier-3 meta-frameworks for the CIO role
Fractional CIO conversations use the Tier-3 meta-frameworks as the governance language that translates our operating-model work into artefacts the board, auditor, and regulator expect.
NIST CSF 2.0
The default lens for board reporting; the six functions (Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover) structure every technology posture brief.
COBIT 2019
The reference for IT governance and management; operating-model maturity assessments.
ITIL 4
The reference for IT service management when operational service quality is the board's question.
CIS Controls v8
The reference for technical control prioritisation when the board asks "are we doing the right basics first".
Four standalone roles for regulatory triggers.
A different buyer journey from the five anchor roles: you arrive with a specific compliance forcing function (auditor flag, regulator inbound, customer CAIQ, EU AI Act exposure) and ask "do you cover this?". Same engagement structure (Advisory/Embedded), standalone positioning.
Fractional CISO
Security with a name, for investors, customers, regulators.
Named security responsibility required (investor, enterprise customer CAIQ, NIS2 essential entity). Security Governance Charter, Incident Response Plan, Board Security Report. Typical duration 12–24 months. Sold standalone or alongside Fractional CIO.
Where DORA scope is involved, we coordinate with specialist delivery partners for operational-resilience requirements.
NIS2 Named Person
When the legally responsible person must be external, with a clear liability structure.
NIS2 in-scope entity (essential or important) with named-person personal-liability obligation. Named-Person Governance Brief, NIS2 Art. 21 Risk Management Plan, Art. 23 Incident Reporting Protocol, Art. 20 Board Attestation Pack. Typically sold alongside SPECIALISE Compliance (NIS2) or Compliance SUSTAIN.
In some DACH jurisdictions the named responsible function cannot be fully outsourced. The engagement is structured as a shared responsibility model: an internally named director/officer holds the legal appointment; Small Scale delivers the operational execution, reporting, and continuity. Client-side legal counsel review before engagement start is non-negotiable. We do not take on statutory liability, we deliver operational coverage.
Fractional DPO
GDPR Art. 37 DPO, appointed, independent, documented.
GDPR Art. 37 mandatory DPO appointment OR voluntary appointment for commercial/trust reasons. GDPR Record of Processing (Art. 30), DPIA Library (Art. 35), Data Subject Rights Workflow (Art. 12–22), Annual DPO Report, Supervisory Authority Liaison Log.
The DPO must act with independence (Art. 38(3)). This is a statutory protection reflected in the engagement structure. Client-side legal counsel review of the appointment structure before engagement start is required.
External DPO subject-matter expertise is sourced per engagement through partners until Small Scale has directly delivered three or more DPO engagements.
Fractional AI Officer
Preview · on requestWhen the EU AI Act becomes real, a named owner for AI governance.
EU AI Act in-scope deployer with Article 26 / 27 obligations; named AI Governance role requested by board, customer, or regulator; high-risk AI system inventoried and requiring human-oversight governance. AI System Inventory, AI Risk Classification Pack, Human-Oversight Governance Plan, AI Vendor Due-Diligence Pack, ISO/IEC 42001 alignment artefacts.
Preview, not a full bench. The role is offered on request as the EU AI Act enters its DACH-enforcement phase. Productisation gates on 3+ AI Officer engagements within 9 months OR EU AI Act DACH-enforcement maturity, whichever is sooner.
How the bundle actually works.
The fractional executive runs the functional workstream. The delivery team (associates working under PC direction) executes the detailed process mapping, documentation, evidence collection, and deliverable production. The Principal Consultant scopes every engagement, integrates the handoff, and reviews every client-facing deliverable.
The proposal shows CxO days and delivery-team days as distinct line items.
Example: the Fractional CFO defines the cash-reporting cadence; the delivery team builds the 13-week rolling forecast template, integrates it with the client's ERP, and documents the owner-operator protocol.
Capability Transfer Plan.
Every engagement has an explicit Capability Transfer Plan, reviewed at months 6 and 12, naming when the internal hire replaces the fractional, typically 12–18 months for Advisory; 6–9 months for PE Embedded.
The four regulatory specialty roles do not always graduate to internal hires (statutory roles are often retained externally for independence reasons). In those engagements the Capability Transfer Plan names the renewal cadence and the scope-reduction trigger instead.
How a role surfaces SL1 opportunities, and vice versa.
- CFO → QUALIFY/TRANSFORM (finance processes), SCALE (Foundation, Exit).
- CIO → SPECIALISE (Compliance / AI Governance), SCALE (Remediation), CISO regulatory specialty.
- COO → TRANSFORM (operating-model redesign), SCALE (Integration).
- CMO → TRANSFORM (commercial operations), SCALE (growth-equity value creation).
- CHRO → TRANSFORM (organisation design), SCALE (post-acquisition integration), strong tandem with COO.
- Regulatory cluster → typically sold alongside SPECIALISE (Compliance by Design / AI Governance) or Compliance SUSTAIN.