You’ve got a successful business. The team is in place, product is moving toward market, and now you’re looking at the runway thinking “how do I get this thing off the ground?” What you’re looking for is a boost to exponentially increase your growth potential for the coming months. It’s time to build your executive team.
Enter the new Executive…
Executive-as-a-Service, a fresh style of consulting practise, is the answer to many of your concerns for the growth of your tech start up. As we’ve seen in previous blog posts, accessing external resources can be a tremendous asset to your business. The Executive-as-a-Service model is a top-level practise that can give you access to a wealth of assistance you might otherwise never get; think Expertise on Demand. It allows you to retain the services of a specialist to join your management team to set a course and create strategies and policies to reach your goals.
The Executive-as-a-Service asset is more than an outside consultant; they are meant to become an embedded part of your company. Their job is to provide strategic thinking and leadership to help your company reach new levels. Because of their relationship with your company, you can bring an outsourced executive in for a day or two per week for a few months. When they’ve reached their goals, bring in a different person without worrying about employment contracts and hiring practises. An EaaS asset requires no training, no interviews, no notice. They are an immediate C-level input to your management team, and you only pay for what you need.
The scalable solution…
An EaaS approach to your company’s growth can be a great model for scaling your business. Outsourced executives can bring a top-level strategy and experience to your team, and act as an on-site expert for every aspect of its execution. They see a few moves ahead on the board, and use their experience to guide you through it. With dedicated outsourced executives, you free up your own time to work on your business instead of in it. You can leverage the expertise of several resources to work together to reach your goals; an outside CFO and CTO are a great tandem to bring in and set the technical measures your company needs.
EaaS resources will likely come from management consulting firms, giving you access to more resources within the same service contract. Each executive will be able to consult with other executives on their firm’s team, giving you access to peer-reviewed strategies. The strength of a resource is amplified by the experience of the whole of the firm.
EaaS resources stand at an arm’s length from your business, giving them a broad perspective that you may be too close to see. Seeing the forest rather than the trees, allows your outsourced executive the opportunity to develop an all-encompassing strategy rather than focusing on today’s list of fires to put out.
Lessons learned…
Setting goals for your business is one of the best ways to grow your company. Bringing the right resources to bear can be a quick and efficient path to attaining those goals. Contracting executives to specific milestones gives you clear deliverables, specialized skill sets, and a scalable solution for your business. So find the right fit for your team, and get back to making your product the best it can be. Now if only we could find a consultant with a roster of great advisors…