Fractional Leaders feat. Rob Dekker

In this blog, we catch up with Robert Dekker, an accomplished Fractional Leader with a career spanning global brands like Microsoft and Universal Music, as well as dynamic scale-ups like Games Workshop and LeapFrog.

Here, Robert shares his journey into fractional consulting, his proudest achievements in scaling businesses, and valuable advice for startups and scale-ups aiming to drive sustainable growth and navigate the challenges of rapid expansion.

Can you please introduce yourself and your journey to becoming a Fractional Leader?

I’m Robert Dekker, originally from the Netherlands, but I’ve been living and working in the UK for the past 20 years. I’ve had roles at Universal Music, BOL.com, Microsoft, LeapFrog, Ladbrokes, Games Workshop, and a few start-ups and scale-ups along the way.

I started my career in product marketing, then moved into driving international expansion through both product and brand marketing. Over the last decade, I’ve been more focused on digital marketing, eCommerce growth, change management, digital transformation, and consulting.

Even though I only began working as a fractional consultant two years ago through my own agency, Aurantus, a lot of my recent roles have involved helping senior management teams and boards, so the transition to fractional work felt like a natural next step.

Let’s talk impact, what achievements are you proud of the most?

Some of the early achievements I’m most proud of include helping Games Workshop triple its revenue and increase profit sevenfold in just three years, growing LeapFrog UK from a top 25 to a top 10 toy brand, and launching the Xbox 360, establishing it as the number one selling video game platform in emerging EMEA markets.

More recently, I’ve had success launching new brand and marketing strategies, campaigns, and websites for Siloxa, a Germany-based industrial biogenic gas cleaning company, as well as developing and implementing product, brand, and marketing strategies for Warlord Games’ new Bolt Action Introductory Set.

Based on your work with start-ups and scale-ups, do you have any pieces of wisdom you could share with businesses in scale-up mode?

Especially with businesses in scale-up mode, there’s a risk that people who’ve been involved from day one can become too close to their product, brand, or industry. This can make them lose perspective, leading to a focus that’s too product-driven, repetitive, or even self-serving. That’s why it’s so important to constantly ask, “Why should people care?” or even, “So what?” Better yet, get out there and see what’s happening in the real world—visit (online) stores, read forums and reviews, and engage with what customers are asking online or in customer service emails. Best of all, conduct regular research with your existing, lapsed, and potential customers.

Another challenge is that people aren’t always open to understanding why their ROAS suddenly drops. Scale-ups, especially those who’ve had early success and built growth plans around it, can find that what worked before is now much harder and more expensive. The first instinct is often to question the new marketing team or agency—after all, you had success when you were doing it, right? While it’s possible mistakes have been made or the new people are less knowledgeable, more often than not, it’s the circumstances that have changed. This calls for a review of the current strategy, or sometimes even a fresh approach altogether.

On a related note, with today’s focus on “growth marketing,” it’s important to remember that marketing should be the driving force behind this concept. Rapid growth is possible, but it needs to be built on solid marketing principles. Otherwise, the risk of it becoming unsustainable—or even unprofitable—is high.

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