This paper is a contribution to the understanding of the relation between pivotal decompositions of operations on a set A and clones on the same set. In this preliminary study we establish sufficient conditions on a pivotal operation Π so that the corresponding class of Π-decomposable functions constitutes a clone, and discuss the normal form representations that such pivotal operations induce. As a bi-product, we establish that clones of Π-decomposable functions are determined by the unary sections of their members. We also outline several open questions, providing directions for further research