Michelle Allbon: The Fractional Directory CEO on the company signing a deal with the Singapore Government

The Singapore Government has teamed up with New Zealand-founded start-up The Fractional Directory for a new pilot programme.

The project will pair fractional leaders - experienced professionals who work with multiple organisations on a flexible basis - with Singaporean companies.

Company CEO Michelle Allbon says this may seem similar to consultant roles, but there's some key differences.

"The different between consulting and fractional is that a fractional leader is fully embedded...we've seen this be really, really effective, it's not just giving them advice and throwing their PowerPoint over the wall."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
First though, this is an interesting one. This is about
fractional leadership. Have you heard of this? Chances are you
probably haven't. I didn't hear about this until for the
first time until yesterday. But a key WE company that
specializes in this new way of company leadership has just
landed a pretty big contract with the Singapore government. The
company is called Fractional Directory. The CEO is Michelle Aubon

(00:23):
and she is with me now, good evening, Yes, hello,
great to have you on the show. Michelle. First of all,
you need to explain us, explain to us what fractional
leadership is.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Absolutely, it's really something that before about six months ago,
most people were asking that constantly, and now we're starting
to hear it more and more. And what it really
is is it's just using a full time leader at
a fraction of their capacity. So maybe that's two days
a month, four days a week. It's just more or
less part time senior leadership.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Who are these people? Why are they part time? Why
are they why their full time jobs? And are we
talking like CEOs and CFOs stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, So the word part time gets a bit of
a bad rap, doesn't it. But the truth is is
that actually this is a completely different model. So what
happens is that we actually we've been watching this in
our directory over the last two years. And two years
ago there was forty three publicly operating people and that
has fourteen x in two years. And these are these

(01:26):
senior most kind of top executives in the company excuse me,
the country who are untethering from the five day work
week and going back into companies, you know, as one
or a couple days a week and as kind of
senior leaders working just in their expertise.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Is this Are they not just consultants business consultants.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, And the common question because everyone's familiar with consulting,
but the difference between consulting and fractional is that a
fractional leader is fully embedded. So I'll give you an
example company who's hired a fractional chief marketing officer. Everyone
understands the kind of outcomes you'd want, but a fractional

(02:08):
chief marketing officer pretty much does the same thing. It's
just almost like they're not in the company two days
a week, but there were really specific outcome that they
only need that kind of reduced time to hit. So
we're seeing this be really really effective, and it's not
just giving them advice and you know, throwing a PowerPoint

(02:28):
over the wall. It's actually being in with the leadership
team alongside them. And it's really amazing kind of the
effect that we're starting to see this have in New
Zealand and around the world.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
So what's the deal, Michelle, You've got with the Singapool government.
What are you actually doing for them?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, so this the poor government started to see a
bit of traction in this model, as quite a lot
of senior leaders there are either approaching this as a
result of mass layoffs, people are going, I want to
work in a different model, and we're seeing some of
the top talent you know, no longer go back into
full time jobs but actually just emerge as fractional leaders.

(03:06):
And then the other thing that we're seeing, which is
our deal with the government, is we're seeing that when
four Singaporeans are actually going to be a retirement age
in ten years, and there's these senior leaders who have
these big playbooks that have kind of proven out their
expertise over their career, and they're going, how can I
still you know, be be relevant and be impactful in

(03:29):
a company without having to retire and so the government
is basically piloting the model and we're helping them to
take fifteen companies through a full placement to actually show
the impact that fractional can make instead of have full
timely embedded in the company.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Michelle, you're the CEO of the Fractional Directory. Are you
a fractional CEO? Are you like a full time CEO?
And is that not a contradiction if you are?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, you know, it's actually it's a really relevant question
because I started as the fractional CEO of our startup
and then as we've moved into you know, out of
New Zealand and into other countries, we gone full time.
But it's true, you actually you can work in either.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
No, fair enough, I didn't wasn't being serious, Michelle. Thank you.
Michelle Auborne with our CEO of the Fractional Directories. For
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