An illustration depicting "The Strategy and Execution Gap"; A woman walking across a bridge where one side of the cliff is labeled strategy and the other side is labeled execution. The bridge is labeled FUTURE on a forward pointing arrow signpost.

A Chief of Staff is a force multiplier for your business.

Are you a CEO that is…

Struggling to find time for your most critical priorities?

  • Lacking time for priority tasks

  • Needing more time to think strategically

  • Getting information or research too late to plan proactively

Bogged down and often reacting to the latest fire drill?

  • Underprepared for key meetings

  • Functioning on reaction instead of proaction

  • Unable to plan for strategic initiatives due to lack of space in your schedule

Lacking the support you need to close the gap between strategy and execution?

  • Unable to implement and build out operations

  • Overwhelmed by too many things to do

  • Needing hands-on support for your highest priorities

A talented Chief of Staff empowers a CEO
to bring your vision to reality.

A Chief of Staff helps start-ups scale across three areas.

Strategic Advisor

Outcome: A strategic plan for 1, 3, and 10 years.

How We Do This 

  • Create and document a strategic plan for 1, 3 and 10 years.

  • Develop and facilitate off-sites for leadership teams. 

  • Act as a sounding board for ideas prior to sharing with teams.

  • Establish a diverse and inclusive talent plan, including organizational design and budget parameters.

  • Develop and maintain effective issue and risk mitigation plans.

  • Establish and run the Rhythm of Business (the cadence of your business from annual to daily events).

  • Prepare board materials. 

  • Run board meetings and follow-up with actions.

  • Support with capital raising strategies.

Business Operations

Outcome: An organized operational infrastructure that enables you to scale quickly.

How We Do This 

  • Set up collaborative goal-setting methodologies, such as OKRs.

  • Map and steer the executive level critical path. 

  • Develop clear roles for leadership teams.

  • Create a Business Health Dashboard to track metrics.

  • Support the recruiting and hiring process to identify and attract top talent.

  • Implement and streamline effective business and technology tools. 

  • Source and manage vendor relationships to align with business needs.

  • Establish 5-8 key processes to position your organization for scalability.

People and Change

Outcome: Established pathways and engagement plans to optimize retention and output.

How We Do This

  • Collaborate with HR to identify and define an effective people engagement plan. 

  • Determine and set an appropriate people engagement budget.

  • Develop listening systems to better understand the employee experience and action plans to improve it.

  • Implement a communication strategy and awareness plan for all stakeholders that aligns with the company’s Rhythm of Business. 

Client Case Studies

  • Tech Industry

    Trigger to Hire a Chief of Staff: Merger event with rapid growth

    Results: Our Chief of Staff joined the team as hire number 21. We kicked off by organizing and facilitating a global offsite to bring together two leadership teams as part of a merger. This kicked off a 1.5 year engagement which started as part-time support for the CEO focused on operationalizing the business cadence and eventually grew into a full-time hire. Since the beginning, annual sales have quadrupled and the team has also grown 4x, across 7 countries.

  • Professional Services Industry

    Trigger to Hire a Chief of Staff: Start-up moving into growth stage

    Results: Created a North Star target for the team. Developed a quarterly OKR structure resulting in consistent, predictable growth per quarter. Since our Chief of Staff started the company ARR has doubled.

  • Professional Services Industry

    Trigger to Hire a Chief of Staff: Delays in timeline for product delivery

    Results: Created a strategy and tactical work plan to execute the launch of the first paying product and aligned clear team roles & responsibilities. Support with hiring those roles and managing accountability.

  • Tech Industry

    Trigger to Hire a Chief of Staff: Private Equity (PE) acquisition

    Results: After a PE acquisition, our team worked with the Chief of Staff to plan and organize key initiatives including setting up an executive rhythm of business, OKR tracking, strategic planning and board deck updates.

  • Non Profit Industry

    Trigger to Hire a Chief of Staff: Non-profit looking to expand

    Results: We built an operating system, hired key roles and created an infrastructure to allow the founder to bring in a new executive director to continue the mission of the organization.

What Our Clients are Saying

How do we match our Chief of Staff with your company?

At Vannin, we strategically select the right Chief of Staff through a proven competency matrix to quickly ramp up and begin supporting you and delivering value.

Rigorous Interview Process

We run a rigorous 3 round interview process, including a panel interview, business case presentation, reference and background check.

Tailored Contracts

We work with you to customize the Chief of Staff support you need. Our contracts are anywhere from 15 to 40 hours a week.

Ramp Up Quickly

Given our team’s seniority, consulting and project based background we are able to ramp up quickly using our customized 30, 60, 90-day onboarding guide.

Continuous Support

Chief of Staff Center of Excellence. Vannin provides centralized project management deliverables, systems and support for you and your Chief of Staff.

 

A Vannin Chief of Staff will act as your Advisor, Operator, and Communicator, working to reduce overwhelm and remove obstacles so you can focus on what matters most. 

 FAQs

  • The Chief of Staff plays an important role in minimizing distractions and interruptions from the executive’s day by prioritizing, organizing, and executing on projects so they can focus on the vision and growth of the company. The Chief of Staff is able to bridge the gap between strategy and execution by transforming big-picture thinking into tangible, daily actions and facilitating cross-functional collaboration across the C-Suite and organization.

  • The Chief of Staff is able to flex in and out of functional areas as needed, but focuses primarily on strategic advising, business operations, and communication. This may look like hosting strategic planning sessions, identifying key initiatives and the critical path for success, identifying gaps in roles and responsibilities, tracking and reporting of performance through a Business Health Dashboard, launching the Rhythm of Business to create accountability, and more.

  • Typically, the Executive Assistant handles more tactical activities and is responsible for administrative tasks, meeting prep, note taking, follow up, and managing the executive’s calendar, expenses, and travel. Whereas the Chief of Staff has a more strategic focus and is responsible for identifying priority projects, delegating, cultivating and maintaining relationships with stakeholders and other executives, as well as planning, project management, and communication across departments.

  • The COS is the right hand to the leader they serve, whereas the COO serves the entire organization. The COS’s primary focus is maximizing their executive’s time and resources, while the COO is focused on doing the same throughout the entire organization. For instance, the COS typically stays behind the scenes while advising the CEO and helping them to be the most effective leader, whereas the COO is more outward facing both in and outside the organization. The COS and CEO usually share a team and it is uncommon for a COS to have direct reports, but it is common for the COO to have their own team, direct reports, and even their own COS.

  • Fractional workers are individuals who fulfill the roles and responsibilities of traditional positions for a “fraction” of the time a normal, full time employee would work. A key difference is that fractional hiring is not project-based and the time for which a person is contracted is usually more than a typical part-time work contract.

  • No, an interim employee, unlike a fractional employee, is someone who works full-time at a single company for a set period of time without becoming a long-term employee.

  • Fractional hiring gives companies access to skilled experts with deep industry experience and knowledge at a fraction of the cost as hiring a full-time employee. This is especially beneficial for early stage startups where budgets are tight and gaps are still being identified.

  • Fractional work provides flexibility to employees and often results in a healthier work-life-balance, which has been shown to increase productivity and engagement in the workplace. As fractional hires become more familiar with your organization over time, they are able to invest more time and attention to your business compared to a freelancer whose main goal is completing the scope of work or a specific project.

  • Rigorous Interview Process

    We run a rigorous 3 round interview process, including a panel interview, business case presentation, reference and background check.

    Tailored Contracts

    We work with you to customize the Chief of Staff support you need. Our contracts are anywhere from 15 to 40 hours a week.

    Ramp Up Quickly

    Given our team’s seniority, consulting and project based background we are able to ramp up quickly using our customized 30, 60, 90-day onboarding guide.

    Continuous Support

    Chief of Staff Center of Excellence. Vannin provides centralized project management deliverables, systems and support for you and your Chief of Staff.

  • Our Chiefs of Staff have a wide range of experiences across industries, but we specialize in professional services companies and nonprofits in the early stages of growth and funding.

  • We work on all kinds of projects, both big and small, check out our recent case studies here.

  • With decades of corporate management consulting and Chief of Staff experience, we bring best in class business operations and project management methodologies to support you in your growth. We have a growing roster of the best of the best talent and provide you with a seasoned, master generalist who embraces change. We offer flexible contracts that can be personalized based on your specific needs and budget.

 

Ready to Accelerate Your Growth?

Whether you are a CEO or Founder looking to hire a Chief of Staff or you are a Chief of Staff looking for training—we are here to help.