Skip to main content
Speak with a Strategist 865-217-6753
← Back to Glossary

Executive Hiring

Published

Executive mis-hires are among the most expensive mistakes a growing company makes: recruiting fees, months of salary, opportunity cost of a stalled function, and team attrition often total several times the annual salary, and marketing leadership roles fail at notoriously high rates.

The root cause is usually role ambiguity, not candidate quality: companies hire a title before defining the work, then discover the candidate’s strengths don’t match the actual job.

De-risking approaches include defining the role through a strategy sprint before recruiting, fractional engagements that test fit with real work, and structured 90-day plans with explicit success criteria agreed before the start date.

Related Articles

Aug 9, 2026

How to Hire a Fractional CMO: An Operator's Guide

How to hire a fractional CMO in 2026: scope the role first, 3 sourcing paths compared, 10 interview questions with good answers, and a 90-day scorecard.

Read Article

Jan 7, 2026

What Is a Fractional CMO? Costs, Fit, and First 90 Days

A fractional CMO gives you senior marketing leadership part-time. What they do, what they cost, and five signs you need one.

Read Article

Jan 5, 2026

Fractional CMO vs Full-Time CMO: The Year-One Cost Math

A full-time CMO's true year-one cost runs $450,000 to $800,000 with benefits and equity. The fractional route costs far less. Side-by-side numbers.

Read Article

Want help putting this into practice?

Talk to us about what this means for your business.

Get a Free Audit

Tell me about your business. I'll tell you what it needs.