Senior leadership when your business needs it most.
I work with founders, boards and leadership teams facing growth, change or complexity, providing experienced executive leadership without the need for a permanent full-time appointment.
As a former CEO and COO, I bring practical experience of scaling businesses, leading transformation and turning strategy into action. Whether joining a business as a Fractional COO, stepping into an interim executive role or providing specialist support within the umbrella and contractor services sector, my focus is always the same: bringing clarity, momentum and stronger execution when it matters most.
When Growth Starts To Get Messy
Sometimes, the way you got here won't get you where you're going next.
Growth is rarely tidy. As businesses evolve, the structures, leadership habits and ways of working that once served them well can begin to creak under the pressure.
The founder becomes the bottleneck. Decisions take too long. Accountability becomes unclear. The leadership team is busy but not always aligned. Strategy exists, but day-to-day demands keep getting in the way of delivering it.
At other times, the challenge is more immediate. A senior leader leaves unexpectedly. An acquisition needs integrating. Performance has stalled. A business is preparing for its next stage of growth but lacks the executive capacity to get there.
These are the moments when experienced leadership can make a real difference. Not another report. Not generic advice from the sidelines. Someone who can understand the business, ask difficult questions, make decisions and help turn intention into action.
It's all down to you
Too many decisions, problems and relationships depend on the founder or CEO, leaving little space to lead the business properly.
Delivery is inconsistent
Everyone is working hard, yet priorities compete, actions drift and important work does not always translate into measurable progress.
Nobody owns the gaps
Individual teams may perform well, but accountability becomes unclear when work crosses departments, responsibilities or reporting lines.
How I can help
- 01.
Fractional COO & CEO Leadership
For businesses that need experienced executive leadership but do not need, or are not ready for, a permanent full-time appointment. I work as part of your leadership team, helping to strengthen operations, improve accountability, translate strategy into action and build the structures needed for sustainable growth.
- 02.
Umbrella & Contractor Services
Specialist strategic, commercial and operational support for businesses operating across the umbrella, CIS, payroll and contractor services sector. Drawing on more than a decade of executive leadership within the industry, I support businesses with growth, transformation, operational performance, customer experience, governance and the changing demands of an increasingly complex market.
- 03.
Strategic Projects & Advisory
Sometimes you do not need another permanent employee. You need experienced leadership focused on a specific challenge. I work with founders, boards and leadership teams on defined strategic and operational priorities, from business transformation and operating model reviews to growth strategy, leadership effectiveness and service improvement.
What A Fractional COO Brings
Senior operational leadership, without the full-time overhead.
A fractional COO becomes part of the leadership team on a flexible, ongoing basis, providing the experience, challenge and operational focus needed to move the business forward.
The role is not simply to offer advice. It is to create the conditions in which better decisions are made, responsibilities are understood and plans are actually delivered.
Clarity
Growth often creates competing priorities, making it difficult for leaders to focus on what will have the greatest impact.
I help establish clear objectives, meaningful measures and a shared understanding of what matters most across the business.
Structure
As organisations grow, informal ways of working can begin to slow progress and create confusion.
I introduce practical systems, decision-making frameworks and operating rhythms that support consistency without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
Accountability
Strong businesses rely on clear ownership and follow-through, not assumptions.
I help leadership teams define responsibilities, track commitments and create a culture where decisions lead to action and measurable results.
Even the best plans can stall when day-to-day pressures take over.
I provide the focus and challenge needed to keep important initiatives moving, ensuring progress continues while leaders remain focused on running the business.
MOMENTUM
Experience built through delivery
My approach is shaped by more than a decade spent leading growing, operationally complex businesses and being accountable for what happened next.
£140m+
Executive leadership of a rapidly scaling business that grew annual turnover from approximately £35 million to more than £140 million within 12 months, while navigating the operational demands and complexity that come with growth at pace.
Rapid employee growth
Scaled a business from supporting approximately 800 contractors to more than 4,500, building the operational capacity, leadership structures and service experience needed to support sustained growth over more than a decade.
5% → 35% Customer Retention
Led a significant transformation in customer experience and service delivery that helped increase customer retention from approximately 5% to 35%, using customer feedback, operational insight and process improvement to drive measurable change.
MY MANIFESTO
I've spent my career on the inside of businesses, not advising from the sidelines.
I'm Joe Taffurelli, a former CEO and COO with more than a decade of executive leadership experience across highly regulated, fast-growing and operationally complex businesses.
I've led organisations through significant growth, restructuring, regulatory change, transformation and periods of genuine uncertainty. I've built and led large teams, worked with boards and government, contributed to national policy discussions and experienced first-hand the reality of being responsible when difficult decisions have to be made.
That experience is important because I do not approach businesses with a textbook or a predetermined methodology. I understand that organisations are complicated, people are unpredictable and the neatest strategy in the world is worthless if nobody can actually deliver it.
I created The Long View because I believe businesses often need something between traditional consultancy and another permanent senior hire: experienced leadership that can step in, understand what is really happening and help move things forward.
Featured Insights
A collection of observations, lessons and perspectives on leadership, growth, strategy and organisational change.
INSIGHTS
Why Growth Isn't Always Progress
Insights
The Hidden Cost of Complexity
insights
Better Questions, Better Decisions
whitepaper
INSIGHTS
The Leadership Tax
The Cost of Short-Term Thinking
Modern organisations have never had access to more information, yet many leaders have never felt less certain. The Cost of Short-Term Thinking explores why urgency has become the default operating model for so many businesses, the hidden costs this creates and how leaders can regain perspective in an increasingly complex world. A practical guide to making decisions that stand the test of time.
“Whenever I speak to Joe, I leave with more clarity than I started with. He has a knack for cutting through noise, focusing on what really matters and helping leaders make confident decisions.”
Leadership Team, Global MARKETING AGENCY
Start a Conversation
If you're navigating a challenge, exploring an opportunity or simply looking for an independent perspective, I'd be delighted to hear from you. The best conversations rarely start with a sales pitch. They start with curiosity, honesty and a willingness to explore what's possible.