Executive Advisor: Role, Scope, Fees and When to Use One
An executive advisor is a former operator retained by an owner, a chief executive or a board to improve the quality of a small number of decisions. The work is judgement, not delivery capacity, and it is priced accordingly.
What an executive advisor actually does
- Sits with the chief executive or owner on the two or three decisions that will set the year
- Pressure tests the plan and the numbers behind it before money is committed
- Reads the organisation and says who is in the wrong seat, which nobody internal will say
- Brings a pattern library from having carried the same problem personally, in more than one company
- Prepares the leadership team for board, investor and lender conversations
- Stays out of execution, so the management team keeps ownership and accountability
Advisor, consultant, interim and non-executive compared
When an advisor is the right purchase
- The management team is capable but has never seen this particular situation before
- The decision is reversible only at high cost: a market entry, a pricing reset, a senior hire
- The owner needs a counterparty who is not on the payroll and not selling a follow on project
- A consultancy would produce a document when what is needed is a decision inside two weeks
- The company cannot yet justify a full time chief executive or chief marketing officer
When an advisor is the wrong purchase
- The work is execution: someone has to run the function, which is an interim mandate
- The company needs 200 hours of analysis it cannot staff, which is a consultancy
- The real problem is that the chief executive will not decide, which advice does not fix
- The board wants statutory oversight, which requires a properly appointed director
How the engagement is structured
- A paid diagnostic of two to four weeks before any retainer, so both sides can walk away
- A written scope naming the three decisions in the period and the person who owns each
- A fixed monthly cadence: one working session with the chief executive, one with the team
- Direct access between sessions, bounded to a stated number of hours
- Thirty day notice on either side, and no automatic twelve month lock in
- An explicit end point, because a permanent advisor stops being useful
How to measure advisory work
Red flags when selecting an advisor
- A portfolio of logos with no statement of what the person personally decided
- No willingness to be measured against anything
- An advisory retainer that is a route into selling a delivery team
- No question about the profit and loss, pricing or cash position in the first conversation
- Reluctance to provide a reference from someone who reported to them
https://niklaslindahl.com/guides/executive-advisor