A lot of mid-market companies do not have a product problem or a talent problem; they have a growth problem. That is where Chief Outsiders comes in, embedding experienced marketing and sales leaders inside the business to help companies build the commercial engine they need to grow in a more repeatable way.

Art Saxby, Founder and CEO of Chief Outsiders, built the firm out of a career that combined blue-chip brand leadership with hands-on turnaround work. After senior roles at companies including Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, and Compaq, he went on to help reshape businesses facing more immediate operational and commercial challenges, experience that informs Chief Outsiders’ focus on practical growth leadership rather than advice alone. In the following interview, he discusses how companies move from uneven growth to a more durable system, what differentiates Chief Outsiders’ approach, and how AI is changing go-to-market execution.

“The goal is not a short-term lift. It is to build an enduring model for growth that fundamentally changes the trajectory of the business.”

The Consulting Report: Can you provide an overview of your firm's areas of specialization, whether based on sectors or functional areas?

Art Saxby: We help founder-led and private-equity-backed mid-market companies achieve repeatable, predictable growth and increase enterprise value by embedding seasoned fractional CMOs and CSOs into the business as part of the CEO’s leadership team, together with the execution resources needed to drive results in today’s market.

Many of the businesses we work with are operationally strong, but not fully market-driven. They may have good products, strong service, and solid leadership, but the commercial engine is not working the way it should. We help them add market focus to their operational strength so they can grow more consistently and create more value.

Ultimately, that is our specialty: building the complete growth engine—people, process, and technology—needed to power that shift. It includes the leadership and execution capabilities needed to move the business forward, guided by our proven, research-backed Growth Gears framework and operationalized through Growth Gears OS, our AI-native platform.

The goal is not a short-term lift. It is to build an enduring model for growth that fundamentally changes the trajectory of the business.

The Consulting Report: How does your firm differentiate itself from competitors?

Art Saxby: What makes us different is that we bring a proven, research-based operating model, The Growth Gears, along with 120+ full-time Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Sales Officers to build the strategic, operational, and organizational strengths and operate a repeatable, predictable growth engine from the inside. That is very different from consultants or firms that may focus only on one function, like sales or marketing, or on one piece of the growth engine, like strategy or execution.

That starts with insourcing a seasoned CMO or CSO into the client’s business—a strategic operator who has led growth through adversity before. It expands through Team Outsiders, which brings critical go-to-market execution capabilities onto the client team without the cost or commitment of full-time hires.

Unlike many fractional teams, this is not a loose network of independent consultants. We are a connected team that regularly shares ideas and pressure-tests one another’s thinking. So clients get not just one point of view, but the benefit of our collective experience.

Underpinning it all are our proven Growth Gears framework and Growth Gears OS, our proprietary platform that securely harnesses best practices and the power of AI to accelerate results. 

When we started 17 years ago, we were the original fractional CMO firm. Today, that model has expanded and is trusted across more than 2,500 clients, 5,000 engagements, 70+ industries, 300 private equity firms, and 500 portfolio companies, driving billions in client revenue growth and a world-class NPS score of 75+. 

The Consulting Report: Are there one or two major client projects that you are particularly proud of and that help demonstrate your firm's capabilities?

Art Saxby: Two examples come to mind, and they are in completely different markets, which really shows the range of what we do.

One was an industrial construction company that had stalled out. They lacked a defined sales process or pipeline, and the team had turned over multiple times. We rebuilt the commercial engine with new sales leadership, a clear structure, a defined sales process, CRM implementation, and a full sales playbook. Sales grew 15%, which was their first positive year in a long time, and pipeline increased 30%. Just as important, they now have a stable team and a system that can continue to scale.

Another example is a consumer business early in its lifecycle that was entering a crowded category and needed to stand out quickly. We defined the positioning, built the go-to-market strategy, and created a multi-year innovation pipeline, including taking one concept to a fully defined brand and product range in just 45 days. The business generated more than $200 million in first-year sales and is projected to exceed $1 billion as it scales.

These are different businesses, but the pattern is the same. We get in, act as part of the company’s leadership and execution teams, find the real issue, and build a growth system that produces results both now and over time.

The Consulting Report: How would you describe your firm's culture?

Art Saxby: Our culture starts with a simple idea: we want to make big things happen for clients while building a place where top growth leaders can do the best work of their careers, surrounded by people they love to learn from. That shapes how we work and how we support one another.

We have seven core values. Most brand experts would tell you that is too many, but they reflect how we actually operate every day. The culture is built around collaboration, accountability, continuous learning, and a bias toward action. 

And we love to learn from each other. We spend about 2.5% of sales on training and development. What makes that especially meaningful is that our employee base is primarily made up of people who held VP of Marketing or VP of Sales roles before they came to us. Even at that career stage, none of us has seen everything. No sales or marketing leader can know every market, every model, or every challenge. Sharing ideas and learning from each other in real time makes the work better and, frankly, more enjoyable too.

What I find especially remarkable is that we have built this culture across the country without a central office, and it is stronger than many companies I have worked in face-to-face.

“The key point is that AI is a powerful enabler, but not the strategy itself.”

The Consulting Report: Has the increasing prevalence of AI changed the types of client mandates you are hired for?

Art Saxby: In 2024, we purchased a software development firm because we believed in the AI-native process management system that they were developing. This has become our GrowthGears Operating System.

AI is changing go-to-market work in a meaningful way. It is streamlining insight generation, improving personalization, and helping teams move faster from analysis to action. That is only going to accelerate as we move from generative AI that responds to prompts to agentic AI that can actually take action across workflows.

At the same time, what clients need from us has become even clearer. They do not just need access to AI. They need leadership, judgment, and practical help applying AI in an operational and systemic way that actually improves the business. That is what we are increasingly being hired to do. AI can absolutely accelerate growth—or it can amplify incomplete data, weak processes, and fuzzy strategy if you are not careful.

That is one of the benefits of the GrowthGears Operating System. With our own development team and platform, we are able to operationalize The Growth Gears with best practices and securely leverage the power of AI.

The key point is that AI is a powerful enabler, but not the strategy itself. First you build the right growth system. Then you use AI to make that system smarter, faster, and more effective.