Simply put, a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer is a part-time leader of innovation in an organisation. With this approach you get 80% of the benefits for 20% of the costs (or there abouts).
It's no secret that organisations need to innovate. Larger companies need to innovate to stay ahead and smaller companies need to innovate to create their space in the market.
The problem is that innovation has become something of a buzzword. Everybody uses it, many without understanding it and this is a problem for many companies. We've worked with many companies, large and small, who have spent hefty amounts on innovation training but with little to show for it.
The processes and frameworks for innovation can be taught easily. The reality is that they are much harder to implement, and even more difficult to implement well.
Currently, organisations generally leave innovation to the various department heads and C-level. But they are too busy delivering on their day-to-day work to give much thought to innovation. Then the leadership wonders why the business isn't innovating at all.
This is where a Chief Innovation Officer comes in. It's their job to drive the mindset, processes, frameworks, and culture that a business needs to be able to innovate. And as each company is different, their needs are different too.
And just like marketing, or sales, innovation is not a one-time thing. Innovation is a continuous process that requires more than a 2-day workshop to do well.
However, it's expensive to hire a Chief Innovation Officer. In the US the average salary for a Chief Innovation Officer is $202, 243 per year. That's before you add in the cost of hiring, equipment, office space, insurance, and other benefits. It's simply too heavy an investment to make for many organisations when they don't know what the benefits will be and if it's worth it.
This is where a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer can shine. Their job is to guide your business in your innovation journey, provide expertise and feedback, and help you create the platform you need.
With a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer in place, your team won't be wandering around aimlessly with no direction. It's still on your employees to deliver on projects but now they'll have the proper guidance and support to do it efficiently and effectively.
And because the Chief Innovation Officer is Fractional, the cost is also a fraction of a full-time employee. For example, we charge $3,000 a month for our Fractional Chief Innovation Officer as a Service (meaning you can cancel anytime).
Benefits of a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer:
- A fraction of the cost of a full-time Chief Innovation Officer
- They provide your team with a wealth of knowledge and experience so that you don't have to learn the hard (and expensive) way
- It's a great way to test out if you want to hire a full-time Chief Innovation Officer yourself. You'll see the impact they have and be able to compare that to the costs
- As they are from outside your organisation they can see things with fresh eyes and spot opportunities and issues that may be overlooked by internal staff
It's not all roses though, there are some potential downsides to finding a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer:
- The Chief Innovation Officer is a relatively new role and the talent pool to choose from is small, especially so for a Fractional one
- A Fractional employee of any kind may not be as invested in your company as full-time employees are; this is why it's important to find the right person
Do you need one?
This depends on you.
Firstly, do you have the right mindset? Innovation inherently involves risk. Some ideas will fail, in fact you will encounter a lot of failures along the way. You need to embrace these and learn from them. If you're expecting to create the next iPad from each of your innovation projects then you're probably not ready to hire a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer.
Secondly, how committed are you to it? It will take some resources, people, time, and money for innovation to happen and you need to be willing to commit them. If you don't then projects will stall, stagnate and people will lose their motivation. The resources required can be small, but they can also become very large. It depends on what kind of industry you're in and what you're trying to innovate.
Thirdly, do you have a clear vision of what the future looks like and what problems you want to solve? This is not a deal breaker as a good Fractional Chief Innovation Officer can help you figure this out. But if you already have an idea of why you're hiring them it will help speed up the journey.
I believe that most organisations would benefit from hiring a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer. Every business has challenges they need to overcome and opportunities they want to exploit. A Fractional Chief Innovation Officer can help you find new ways of approaching and exploring them with reduced risk and cost.
