Gannett.Partners
- A CEO thinks "fractional leadership" is the future.Chris Gannett's "fractional boardroom" is driven by leaders who want a better work-life balance.The model offers flexibility and access to executive-level talent for startups.
Holding out for the gold Rolex when you retire isn't the goal for many leaders anymore.
Chris Gannett, the founder and CEO of Gannett.Partners, believes fractional leadership is the way forward.
He's launched a new leadership model called the "fractional boardroom," which is driven by the changing nature of work. More professionals are seeking portfolio careers and a better work-life balance.
Over three decades, Gannett has built a "fabulous network" of talented people through multiple career reinventions. His varied path led him through the world of consumer goods, finance, and media, from Dr. Pepper, Mondelez, Citibank, and Sony Music Entertainment, to becoming the CMO of American Idol.
"All of these are steps that cumulatively allow me to do what I do today, which is reinvention," he told Business Insider.
Gannett, 52, wanted to invite some of those he met along the way to his new venture, which aims to help budding entrepreneurs turn their visions into reality through training, coaching, and investment.
He also spent a lot of time away from his family over the years and wanted to change that when he started Gannett.Partners, creating a fractional boardroom of executives who felt the same.
"Executives who have a similar profile to myself, we've been operating for 20 and 30 years," Gannett said. "We're very well established in our careers. We want more agency, and we want to work on projects that inspire us, and we want to work with people who give us energy."
In the two years since launching, Gannett.Partners has gained clients in 10 countries across 15 industries and continues to expand.
'Outcomes, not optics'
Two members of the fractional team at Gannett.Partners are Gregg Bernard, the CBO at the AI video platform Channel 1 and former executive of WWE, and Rob Sender, who was the senior director of brand and marketing for the Dallas Cowboys.
Bernard told BI he was attracted to the fractional model by its focus on "outcomes, not optics," and how leaders can bring in the exact expertise needed to a company, rather than "settling for generalists."
"You're not hiring someone to warm a seat or deliver a deck — you're engaging a group of seasoned operators to solve real problems at high-leverage moments," he said. "For early-stage and growth companies, it's also a way to access executive-level talent that would otherwise be out of reach, financially or structurally."
Bernard said fractional leadership is a "smarter, more flexible way to work," and founders "will feel that difference immediately."
Sender told BI the effectiveness comes from diverse perspectives "without the commitment or risk of hiring full-time."
"Especially in the early stages, most companies don't need — or can't afford — a full-time CMO or COO," he said. "This approach gives them the ability to bring in experienced leaders who've operated at the highest levels, but with more elasticity and a sharper focus than they'd get from a traditional consultancy or playbook-driven firm."
Sender said that for him, he gets to choose projects that genuinely excite him, which makes it a better fit when he's working with a new startup. If there's another leader who is a better fit, that's fine.
"That optionality creates real alignment," he said. "You're not assigning work, you're matching energy and expertise to opportunity."
For Gannett, culture has always been super important. He believes that with a fractional boardroom, everyone is fully engaged, and "learning from each other," he said.
'Sustainable model'
"The type of executive that we're increasingly bringing around us is these folks who are very good at what they do, and they have the same type of curiosity that I have," he said. "By working on projects that are outside the scope of their day job, which they're fully engaged in and highly competent at doing, they're just constantly fed, their brain is fed, and our clients are the beneficiaries."
Gannett said he's "quite bullish" about the future of fractional leadership, seeing it as a "very sustainable model across all industries."
"We're all trying to operate in a more capital-efficient way. Anyone who's not isn't going to be competitive."
