Checking in is what I have been doing for the last three weeks, along with long, detailed conversations with senior stakeholders. While the situation is still unfolding, one thing is already clear: the businesses that come through this period in good shape will be the ones that move with judgement, not just speed.

We have been having versions of this conversation for the better part of two years. 2025 was already a tight year, with margins under pressure. Now, in early 2026, the case for experienced leaders who can hold a function for a defined window has only sharpened.

Fractional Leadership is not a workaround. It is a deliberate decision to bring in someone with the experience and judgement to read a situation quickly, call out what is actually happening, and build the right response.

At Mindfield, we have spent 21 years placing senior leaders across 32 markets in the MEA region. We know what good looks like at the C-suite and one level below. More importantly, we know who can operate at the seat we are being asked to fill, and who only looks like they can on paper.

We are now formally launching Fractional Leadership as a dedicated service. Across functions. Across markets. Available now.

Anurag Kumar, our Managing Director and former CHRO of PepsiCo MEA, leads the matching process on our side. He is the person who sits across from a fractional leader and decides whether their experience fits the seat you are asking us to fill.

If you are sitting with a leadership gap, a transformation that needs owning, a turnaround, or a team that needs senior guidance for a defined period, let us talk. And if you are a senior leader who has done the work and wants to take on fractional engagements, we want to hear from you.

Two years of conversations led here. One deliberate step forward.

— Anjali Samuel, Managing Partner  |  anjali@mindfieldresources.com