Question 1

What does The Tek Atelier do?

Accepted Answer

The Tek Atelier is the independent practice of Mario Pucciarelli. It fills a senior role a company can't yet justify hiring for — Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, or Country and Regional Manager — as an interim executive full-time, or a fractional one a few days a month, across the Gulf, Europe and Latin America. One senior operator does the work; there is no junior bench and no handoff.

Question 2

What's the difference between interim and fractional?

Accepted Answer

Interim is full-time equivalent for one client, six to twelve months, with a defined end date — the shape you want when a role is vacant and there's a date on it. Fractional is two to six days a month, ongoing, with a six-month minimum — the shape you want when the market is real but the headcount isn't approved. Both start with the same fixed first month. One interim engagement, or up to three fractional ones, and never both at once.

Question 3

Why 'the role, before the hire'?

Accepted Answer

Because most companies don't have a hiring problem abroad — they have a sequencing problem. You can't justify the headcount until you see revenue, and you can't see revenue without someone senior. Filling the role first breaks that loop, and it's reversible in a way a permanent hire isn't. A regional director costs you a search, a relocation package, and twelve months before you know whether the market was ever there.

Question 4

How is this different from hiring a consultant?

Accepted Answer

A consultant is paid for the recommendation. An executive is paid for what happens next. In these engagements I carry the number the role carries, attend your management meeting alongside your other leaders, and report from a CRM you can log into. If a board or investor needs to hear from the function directly, I'm the one who turns up.

Question 5

What actually happens in month one?

Accepted Answer

I sit in the role. Real meetings, real accounts, real stakeholders — not a discovery exercise run at arm's length. At the end of it you get a dated, written verdict with the evidence attached: what the role actually requires, what the market said, and whether filling it permanently is justified yet.

Question 6

Can the first month end in a no?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and the fee is identical either way. Before you decide, I'm paid the same whether I say go or stop. After you decide, I'm paid like someone who has to make it work. The incentive follows the question. A documented "not yet" frees the headcount budget, the relocation package and a year of attention for the market that deserves them.

Question 7

What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

A fixed fee for month one, quoted plainly in the first conversation, before anything is signed. After that, a monthly fee — retainer for fractional, full-time rate for interim — with a six-month minimum, plus an outcome component tied to the measure we agreed in month one. No day rates and no meter running. I don't publish numbers because the right figure depends on the role, the region and the shape; you'll have it in the first conversation, not the third.

Question 8

Why is there an outcome component at all?

Accepted Answer

Because after you've decided to go, the honest incentive is for me to be paid like someone who has to make it work. During the decision itself there's no outcome component anywhere — that's the point of the fixed first month. The two phases are deliberately paid differently, and both are written down before you sign.

Question 9

How many clients do you take at once?

Accepted Answer

One interim engagement, or up to three fractional ones. Never both. An interim engagement consumes the whole practice, which is why there's only ever one. When capacity is full, you get realistic timing in writing rather than a queue you never hear from again.

Question 10

Who is this not for?

Accepted Answer

Companies with a working local team that need capacity rather than leadership — hire people, not me. Companies that want introductions and access rather than someone accountable for a result. Buyers comparing day rates across an interim-management panel; the panel will quote lower and you'll get someone competent. And anyone who wants an assumption applauded rather than tested.

Question 11

What happens if it isn't working?

Accepted Answer

You hear it from me first, dated, in writing, with what I'd do about it. Either of us can end a fractional engagement after the six-month minimum with a month's notice. An engagement that quietly stops being useful and keeps invoicing is the exact pattern this practice exists to be the alternative to.

Question 12

Do you handle the handover to a permanent hire?

Accepted Answer

Yes — for interim engagements it's part of the scope, not an afterthought at the end of it. The point of filling a role temporarily is that the permanent hire inherits a working function rather than a year of unrecorded context.

I fill a senior role you can't yet justify hiring for.

Most companies don't have a hiring problem abroad. They have a sequencing problem.

Every engagement starts with month one.

What the permanent hire costs you before you know whether it worked.

Three times I will tell you not to buy this.

If one of those roles is unfilled at your company, let's have one serious conversation.