Boards and Teams · Comparison
When the room is the buyer.
A board, founding team, or ownership group evaluating outside structural work usually has four options on the table: Tier 03 Operating Partner, board consulting, interim CXO, or executive coaching. Each is built for a different shape of problem.
Four shapes. One row at a time.
Each row is one structural dimension the room cares about: where authority sits, what the cadence looks like, what the deliverables are, how the fee is structured, and what exit looks like. A "yes" answer in one column does not mean the others are wrong. It means the others are built for different problems.
Shape
Tier 03 Operating PartnerStan Tscherenkow
Board consultinge.g. McKinsey, Bain, Big 4
Interim CXOe.g. fractional CFO/COO/CEO
Executive coachinge.g. ICF-credentialed coach
Authority
Sits at the table during decisions. Names the structural read out loud. No operating authority; the principals decide.
Recommends; does not decide. Authority sits in the deck and the partner relationship.
Holds operating authority for the duration. Signs decisions in their named role.
Develops the principal’s judgment one-on-one. No room presence.
Where the work happens
In the team’s actual meeting. No parallel one-on-ones with individual principals.
In workshops and steering-committee meetings. Outputs land in decks.
In the executive seat. Day-to-day operations.
In confidential one-on-ones with the principal. Never in the room.
Cadence
Every two to four weeks for two to six months, scoped to the transition.
Project-based. Six to twelve weeks of intensive engagement, then close.
Daily-to-weekly during tenure. Six to eighteen months typical.
Weekly or biweekly hour-long sessions, often ongoing.
Deliverables
None unless the sponsor explicitly asks. The conversation is the product.
Deck, recommendation memo, sometimes implementation plan.
Operational outputs of the role. Reports, plans, hiring, P&L.
Reflection prompts, occasional written summaries, no business deliverables.
Fee structure
Scoped against the transition, not billable hours. By application.
Project fee. Six to seven figures typical for board-level engagements.
Monthly retainer. $25K-$50K/month for senior interim roles is common.
$300-$1,500 per session, sometimes packaged across months.
Confidentiality / conflict
Formal conflict check before every engagement. No information ever crosses engagements.
Conflict checks at the firm level; partner-by-partner protocols vary.
Operating role places the interim inside the org’s confidentiality boundary.
ICF code of ethics applies. One-on-one confidentiality is the default.
Exit
Closes when the transition closes. Not when the calendar runs out.
Closes when the deck is delivered and accepted.
Closes when the permanent hire starts or the role is dissolved.
Open-ended. Closes when the principal disengages or the budget runs out.
Best fit
A specific transition or governance decision the room must close together.
Strategic clarity at scale. A single big question with a clean recommendation.
A vacant operating seat that needs to be held while a permanent search runs.
A principal’s personal development, judgment, or behavioral patterns over time.
Apply for Tier 03 Operating Partner
If the shape on the left fits the room, the application begins in writing.
Apply for Tier 03 Personal reply within 48 hours · Conflict check before every engagement