POWEROPTIONS · FRACTIONAL COO
Returning 35% of executive capacity to an $8M energy consortium
35%
of CEO and SVP capacity returned to strategic work
Redesigned
organization, with capacity shifted toward account management, product development, and solar and electric
1 new role
a Director of Operations, designed from the executive team's own workload and filled
CLIENT
PowerOptions, a nonprofit energy consortium
ROLE
Fractional COO, reporting to the CEO
SCALE
$8M organization
DURATION
December 2021 to April 2022, including Board presentation
AREAS OF WORK
The situation
The CEO set out to hire a Chief of Staff. The gap underneath was operational. The CEO and SVP were carrying execution work that no role owned, which left little room for the strategic question in front of them: how the organization would evolve as its markets moved toward new energy.
I came in as a fractional COO, not the Chief of Staff originally scoped, because the problem called for an operator.
What I did
Mapped where executive time was going. Identified the recurring execution work sitting with the CEO and SVP that belonged with a dedicated operator.
Designed the Director of Operations role, then hired for it. Built the role and its execution framework from that work, so the new seat owned outcomes the executives had been carrying, and ran the search to fill it.
Redesigned the organization around where the business was going. Extended the engagement to plan how the retiring SVP's role would phase out over the following year, shift capacity to account management and to a product development team the organization did not yet have, and direct more investment toward solar and electric, the newer energy lines PowerOptions was already in.
Took the plan to the Board. Returned after the engagement closed to present the redesign and three-year roadmap to the Board, with a reporting cadence to track progress against it.
The outcome
The new structure returned 35% of executive capacity to strategic work. A Director of Operations was in the seat, and the SVP transition was planned, and the Board had a three-year roadmap shifting capacity and investment toward account management, product development, and solar and electric, with a way to track it.
IN THE CLIENT’S WORDS
“The project Jaramogi helped us with was invaluable to translating my very rough vision into concrete plans for organization redesign. And bonus points, he helped communicate to the Board much better than I could that sold the plan as well!”
WHY IT TRAVELS
Many CEOs reach for a Chief of Staff when the real gap is an operating role. Designing that role from the executive team's own workload means the hire, whoever fills it, takes real weight off the top of the organization from day one.
Bring me the operating problem.
The first conversation is about the problem, not the proposal.