THE FRACTIONAL CAO
THE CHALLENGE
Few executives possess adequate grounding in AI and machine learning to effectively command. Conversely, few data scientists aspire to higher leadership roles that require a shift to soft skills and managerial challenges. Data scientists that do elevate to a leadership position are typically pulled back into technical minutiae, leaving a leaderless operation.
There are very few who can effectively navigate the brackish waters between the C-Suite and the execution lanes. This unique leader must possess social and organizational capabilities to synchronize top-down and bottom-up approaches to resolve natural dysfunction in the middle. This is the unique domain of the extremely rare AI Strategist.
If an organization is lucky enough to identify and attract this executive-level leader, it comes at considerable expense and risk. Early on, resources may be too lean; internal buy-in not well-established; and the environment not developed to justify or occupy a full-time professional for the first year. This usually results in overspend and underutilization of the position, straining the new relationship. Many new CAOs do not stay long because they are restricted to serving primarily in a data scientist role indefinitely.
THE OPPORTUNITY
TMA’S AI Strategist can build and run an industrialized operation that manages a targeted, outcomes-obsessed portfolio of highly vetted projects while overseeing a coordinated team of executives, stakeholders, domain experts, BI/IT staff, modelers, project and change managers, and integrators. Serving exclusively as a visionary, portfolio manager and competency lead, the AI Strategist is not required full-time!
This concept is supported in a Fractional CFO article by Fortune Magazine and another for Fractional CAO by Elite Business.
TMA maintains a rare stable of battle-tested mid-career active captains in our industry. Its unique staff runs from a comprehensive implementation framework at the project and portfolio levels. This allows TMA clients to tap unparalleled experience with the assurance of staff redundancy along with structured service products.
Most of all, TMA’s clients can acquire and right-size an otherwise nearly impossible role to fill and maintain it until the organization can drive forward independently. The Fractional CAO role is highly efficient because the time required to assess, plan and oversee the initial build of an analytic practice is naturally fractional.
THE VALUE
If you think it’s expensive to secure an AI Strategist, consider what it costs to only maintain project leaders. Compare hand-crafting custom widgets to building a factory with parallel assembly lines drawing from a manifest of reusable resources that serve a well-defined and growing market. Get the difference?
IMPACT OF THE ELUSIVE AI STRATEGIST
DIRECT SAVINGS OF FRACTIONAL OVER FULL-TIME
Now, review the reduced costs and lower risk of a Fractional Chief Analytics or AI Officer:
*Burtch Works Data Science & AI Professionals Salary Report, 2023 Edition
You are unlikely to encounter a stronger value proposition for any organizational endeavor. The Factional CAO is intended for the organization that is intentional about leading with classic AI. TMA’s focus is on guiding your organization to avoid trendy distractions, break out with machine learning and establish your team as partners in a powerful story of true transformation.
THE ACTION
The Fractional CAO holds accountability for team and program development as well as project oversight. The Fractional CAO integrates with an existing team of data scientists, subject matter experts, BI & IT, project managers or the PMO, line-of-business leaders and stakeholders.
The scope of the Fractional CAO’s role includes but is not limited to:
- Planning for broader industrialization of the analytics function across the enterprise
- Measuring organizational analytic maturity and readiness
- Project opportunity identification, validation and prioritization
- Strategic sound boarding, planning and roundtable moderation
- Executive micro-training to advance analytic literacy
- General analytics team(s) management
- Intentional collaboration across the lanes that contribute to the analytics function
- Translating data science deliverables for executive consumption
- Guidance in staffing roles for a benefits-oriented analytics practice
- Developing analytic project RFPs and evaluating bidder responses
- Managing and overseeing analytics vendor relationships
- Anticipating cultural friction and facilitating tight collaboration across lanes
- Other strategic analytic oversight responsibilities derived throughout the relationship
THE DELIVERABLES
Three primary functions of TMA’s Fractional CAO and AI Strategist that set us apart from other AI practice leads:
1. Portfolio Manager
Determine portfolio size and populate with projects and programs with highly vetted candidates.
Projects and programs are finite and compete to maintain their place in an ongoing measurable portfolio.
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Fundamental Qualifiers for the Portfolio
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2. Federated Competency Lead
TMA’s Fractional CAO stands up a broader organizational capability and operation through micro-training and establishing literacy across lanes. As well, an infrastructure is created to form an ecosystem of reusable resources, processes and services. The goal is to progress to a federated model with fractional oversight from the AI Strategist.
McKinsey 2018, “10 Red Flags Your Analytics Projects Will Fail”
3. Cultural Liaison
Most organizations underestimate the importance of soft skills and culture in AI at their peril. If you think that project deployment is challenging, organizational adoption is a whole other level of complexity and nuance. Projects cannot deliver value without successfully achieving both.
Jim Sprigg, Director of Marketing for the Intercontinental Hotel Group wrote: “Culture trumps data. I don’t care how good your model is. If you don’t understand the culture, you’re not going to succeed with analytics and deliver success for the business.”
And Gartner wrote “The biggest threat to AI innovation is organizational culture that does not accept failure, doesn’t accept ideas from the outside and cannot change.”
Your TMA AI Strategist is tasked with ensuring frictionless translation, collaboration and leadership across roles and lanes throughout the project lifecycle. The illustration below is a late-process tear-away of meeting milestones across an AI or machine learning project.
ACTIVATION
The Fractional CAO may be activated through TMA’s online form and supported by a purchase order or Statement of Work with NDA and a Master Services Agreement.
The Fractional CAO is relationship-based with accountability for competency-building, practice growth and project performance. As such a 6-month or greater term is recommended although a minimum 3-month term is available. A TMA strategist can help determine whether a dedicated fraction of four or eight days per month is best.
Reference pricing and engagement tiers on the Service Activation page or schedule a meeting with a TMA AI Strategist.
Then welcome your new Fractional CAO and watch the impact of new predictive analytics and AI competency take shape.