Hire or employ a Chief of Staff? - Chief of Staff Platform

Should we hire a Chief of Staff or buy the capability?

A make-or-buy decision that more management teams are facing

The Chief of Staff (CoS) has evolved over the past decade from being an established function in American corporate management to becoming increasingly common in Swedish organizations as well. However, for CEOs, management teams, and boards that are dealing with increased complexity, a central question arises:

Should we hire a Chief of Staff or should we procure the corresponding expertise through an external advisor or consultant?

This is fundamentally a classic make-or-buy decision. The crucial question is not whether the organization needs support to structure management efforts, strengthen its execution capabilities, and drive strategic initiatives. The question is instead which sourcing model creates the most value given the organization’s maturity, challenges, and ambitions.

What exactly is sourcas?

Many focus on the role. The most successful organizations instead focus on the ability. A modern Chief of Staff often contributes with:

Structuring the work of the management team
Strategic planning and follow-up
Coordination of change initiatives
Management models and decision-making processes
Prioritization of management focus
Communication flows between management and the organization
Execution of strategic decisions

What is meant to be sourced is therefore not primarily an individual but an organizational ability to increase the management's efficiency and effectiveness.

Make: Hiring a Chief of Staff

Hiring a Chief of Staff means that the organization builds the necessary skills internally.

Advantages

Deep understanding of the business. Over time, an internal CoS develops a unique understanding of culture, politics, decision-making history, and business logic. This enables better support for the CEO and management.
Long-term capacity building. The knowledge stays within the organization. Processes, working methods, and management capabilities become part of the company’s long-term assets.
High availability. An internal CoS is present in everyday life and can quickly identify issues, conflicts, and opportunities.
Strengthened management support over time. In mature organizations, CoS often becomes a central node for execution, coordination, and change management.

Disadvantages

Difficult to recruit profile. A successful Chief of Staff usually combines:
- Strategic altitude
- Operational operational capacity
- Business understanding
- Relationship skills
- Change management
- This skill profile is difficult to find.

Longer time to effect. Recruitment, onboarding, and building trust take time.
Risk of incorrect recruitment. If the need is not clearly defined, there is a risk that the role will become administrative rather than strategic.
Higher long-term cost. A senior Chief of Staff is often a significant investment when salary, social security contributions, bonuses, skills development and leadership support are taken into account.

Buy: Acquire the Chief of Staff capability as a consulting service

In this option, an experienced CoS advisor is employed who combines the role with experience from several organizations. The focus is often on establishing structures, working methods, and governance rather than becoming a permanent part of the organization.

Advantages

Immediate access to experience. An experienced CoS consultant has often seen the same management challenges in several organizations. Best practices can be implemented significantly faster than through trial-and-error.
Quick time to effect. The organization gains access to the expertise from day one.
Objectively speaking. An external advisor is not influenced by internal history and can often identify ineffective working methods that have become ”normal”.
Flexibility. The effort can be scaled up or down depending on the needs.
Lower commitment. The organization can test the need before a decision is made about permanent operation.

Disadvantages

Limited organizational knowledge. An external consultant will never have the same deep understanding as someone who has been employed for several years.
Lower availability. The consultant is rarely present in all formal and informal contexts.
Risk of consultant addiction. If knowledge transfer does not take place, no internal capability will be built up.
Limited legitimacy in certain matters. Some changes require long-term internal support and mandate.

The hybrid model is becoming increasingly common

Many organizations today choose a third path.

They start by acquiring experienced Chief of Staff-level expertise to:

Structuring management work
Introducing control models
Establish meeting structures
Define processes for strategic follow-up
Create prioritization models

Once the work processes are established, an internal Chief of Staff is recruited to take over the ongoing function. The hybrid model reduces the implementation risk while the organization builds its own capacity in the long term.

When is it appropriate to hire someone?

Generally speaking, the following factors speak in favor of an internal Chief of Staff:

The organization is larger and more complex
The management team is established
The need is assessed to be permanent
The pace of change has been high for a long time
CEO calls for a close strategic partnership
The organization wants to build its own leadership skills

When is it appropriate to acquire the expertise?

Generally speaking, the following factors speak in favor of external CoS expertise:

Quick effect is required
The organization has never worked with CoS before
The need is unclear or under development
The management team needs structure and discipline rather than another manager
A transformation or growth initiative must be implemented
The organization wants to test the concept before recruiting.

10 Readiness questions for the management team

Before a decision is made, the management team should jointly discuss the following issues.

What problem are we actually trying to solve? Is the challenge strategy, execution, coordination, or leadership capacity?
Is the need permanent or situational? Will the need remain the same in three years?
Does the CEO have sufficient administrative and strategic support today? If the answer is no, a CoS function may be relevant.
Are the management team meetings effective enough? If the same questions are repeated without a decision being made, there is often a structural problem.
Are we having too many strategic initiatives at the same time? Many organizations suffer from initiative inflation rather than a lack of resources.
Is there clear ownership for follow-up and implementation? Strategies often fall on the lack of follow-up rather than on the lack of ideas.
Do we have the internal maturity required to hire a Chief of Staff? A CoS cannot replace unclear leadership.
Is there a suitable candidate in-house or externally? The success of the role is often determined more by the person than by the organizational structure.
How important is it to build your own competencies? If leadership development is strategically important, the make may weigh heavier.
How quickly do we need results? If the effect is needed within weeks rather than months, it often speaks in favor of a buy or hybrid.

Summary

The decision to hire a Chief of Staff or to acquire the corresponding expertise is not primarily about cost. It is about how the organization wants to build its leadership capabilities. An internal Chief of Staff is often the right choice when the need is long-term, strategic, and integrated into the organization’s future governance model. An external Chief of Staff consultant is often the right choice when the organization needs quick impact, objectivity, experience from multiple operations, or wants to test the function before making a permanent investment. However, perhaps the most successful model is often a combination of both:

Buy the experience to establish the ability. Then build the capacity internally to make it part of the organization's DNA.

Therefore, for the management team, the crucial question is not whether a Chief of Staff is needed. The question is which path builds the leadership capability required to execute the strategy most quickly and cost-effectively.

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