Singapore · Situation
Scaling past the founder in Singapore
There is a size — usually somewhere between thirty and eighty people — where the informal systems that got a company here stop working. Decisions queue, quality slips, and the founder is working harder than at any previous point.
The fix is structural and the capability to build it is temporary. Once the operating rhythm exists and the managers can run it, the mandate ends.
What this calls for
- An operating rhythm with real management cadence
- Org design, role clarity and decision rights
- Systems that carry the process rather than people remembering it
- A first line of managers who are actually managing
- Reporting that tells you what is happening before it becomes a problem
What is specific to Singapore
- A foreign-owned SME frequently cannot obtain an Employment Pass for a full-time foreign executive because of COMPASS. Contracted leadership is the only legal route to that expertise.
- Employer CPF is capped at S$17,340, so the saving is not statutory-cost avoidance but pure salary avoidance — a S$300,000 package against a S$120,000 retainer.
- Regional headquarters structures need CFO-grade capability across several ASEAN entities long before any one of them justifies a full-time hire.
- Titles are audited here, not decorative. MOM cross-checks job title, salary and company profile on every EP application, and MAS-regulated entities need named, approved appointment-holders. A nominal "fractional CFO" can simply be rejected as not credible for the role.
Roles usually bought
COO
Fractional COO in Singapore
Turning a business that works because people try hard into one that works because it is designed to.
CHROFractional CHRO in Singapore
Employment structure, senior hiring and the people risk nobody looks at until it is expensive.
CFOFractional CFO in Singapore
Cash, controls, reporting and the numbers investors and lenders will actually believe.
The Singapore numbers
Fractional, per monthLight advisory S$600–1,500/month; SME growth mandates S$1,500–4,000; startup and fundraising work S$3,000–8,000; embedded one to two days a week S$5,000–15,000+ (USD 3,900–11,700). A typical retainer buys 15–30 senior hours a month.
Full-time, all-inBase S$180,000–300,000 for a mid-market CFO or COO; all-in with CPF, bonus and insurance, S$210,000–390,000. With recruitment fees the true first-year cost runs S$294,000–501,000 — roughly USD 165,000–305,000.
SeveranceNo statutory severance. Retrenchment benefit is a tripartite norm rather than law — two weeks to one month of salary per year of service, with unionised firms typically at one month. Statutory notice runs to four weeks at five years’ service.