What is Interim Management?

An interim manager allows you to harness the talents of highly experienced individuals to match the needs of your organization during times of transition.

Why hire an interim manager?

In general, an interim director or manager is utilised for various reasons:

  • Interim managers lend their expertise to an active management team, filling a gap left open during transitional periods. Well-seasoned interim managers are capable of activating a turnaround for deteriorating services or businesses by breathing fresh air into a stale room.
  • They provide rigorous guidance to financial management and proper direction to an organisation that has lost its discipline and ability to tackle pressing matters such as procurement contracts, grievances, internal relationships and inadequately managed commercial relationships.

Valued interim managers benefit business start-ups, new business improvements, acquisitions and mergers or the complete restructuring of a company. Their ability to flexibly orchestrate change during times of stress is one of the strengths they bring to the table.

These skilled professionals provide navigation during the placement process of a permanent executive or a period of provisional absence of the current executive.

We believe that the most effective employment of interim management occurs when it is positioned as a project-based and coordinated approach with timetables clearly in place to ensure result-driven outcomes.

Specialist cross-sector skilled interim managers provide expertise in specific fields and allow you to handle matters in a timely fashion.

Advantages of an Interim Manager

Value for money

  • Hiring an interim manager provides an accountable and agreed upon fixed cost structure. There are no surprises and no loopholes. Executives tend to be generously compensated; adding in bonuses, health coverage, NI contributions, holiday pay, pension and company car benefits. The real cost to the business can become a burden. Whether you are retaining an executive on leave or wooing potential replacements, an interim manager allows for effective cost management.

Availability

  • Time is money, right? Interim managers are available here and now, when and where you need them. No interview process, no negotiation period. It’s just help, when you need it.

Skills and knowledge

  • They come with specialized, customized expertise. Interim managers offer aptitude and competence with a deep insight into their industry, often coming in with comparably higher qualifications than those they are replacing.

Impartiality

  • Interim managers are objective, providing a fresh perspective, encouraging active deliberations and debate. Unburdened with pre-existing relationships, office politics, or career advancement goals, they virtually define the “no strings attached” module. Get in, do the job, move on- providing results-driven service.

Speedy results

  • Given a time table and an objective, interim managers are capable of minimizing risks and maximizing outcomes. They immediately deliver results, identifying quick wins and rapidly building relationships, providing enhanced yields on your assets.

Interim Manager vs. Consultancy

Interim management may share similarities with consulting, but they are by no means the same. Consultants provide expertise for a limited time, but they do it externally, not internally.

Their loyalty and drive are motivated by project completion, rather than in seeing the whole organization through their transitional period.

Interim managers add long-term value to an organization rather than the quick fix mentality of their management consultant counterparts. They work with more flexibility than management consultants as they are independent professionals working within their own time constraints and guidelines.

Benefits of Interim Management

Flexibility in Deployment and Immediate Resources

Interim management is deemed to be an immediate solution to bring resources to the assignment quickly, deploying the best of the best candidates to provide the deliverables needed.

Interim manager resources can be taken on-board in a span of a few days contrary to weeks/months that one may encounter for permanent candidates. In a critical situation where there is a sense of urgency, waiting another day or two means putting more risk on the company, thus losing more money as each day passes.

Flexibility is the key to Interim Management. The very nature of Interim Management means the greatest flexibility from a client’s perspective including the extension, development or conclusion of the agreed services.

Succession planning is not a priority for Interim Managers because they are permanent resources of the company, thus their role does not threaten any internal resources and any related succession planning procedures.

Permanent headcount is also not impacted because Interim Management delivers solutions when clients are constrained on permanent headcount. Provided this, they are still required to deliver the business goals.

The Rise of Interim Executives

Why Hire an Expensive Permanent Executive When You Can Get Someone Interim?

Nowadays, it has become a trend amongst corporate businesses to turn to interim executives to fill temporary openings in leadership roles and expertise. Interim Managers are the ones who “make things happen,” as noted by Robert Kuhn. They are usually the resources from the C-Suite level or Very Senior Level people who have the expertise in Finance, Research and Development, Human Resources, Legal and Management. They are people who are usually over-qualified for the role, but filling the gap training the internal resources and move on when the project is done.

Interim executives usually are not freelancers. Nor executives consultants. However, most consulting firms these days are adding Interim Management to their services. Recently, most companies have become less happy with consulting companies because consultants only provide recommendations based on their study and leave it to the company to implement them. In contrast, interim executives identify the problem, provide the solution and start the implementation by training internal resources, then move on.

Why hire an Interim Executive?

When a company loses a key executive, they would usually need an interim executive to fill the role until they find the right person to take over the position permanently. Some companies would put someone on a part-time basis to simply achieve a specific goal. For example, when the company loses an HR Executive, an Interim HR Executive could take the role to set up better policies and provide training.

Interim executives have specific expertise that is unavailable within the company. Some examples are:

  • Turnarounds
  • Acquisitions
  • Expanding into international markets.

Some companies have difficulty positioning new ownership for the company because most owners do not know how to sell their own company. Interim Management has gained its popularity in the United States only in the last decade. However, Interim Management is highly accepted and used in Europe.

It is said that Interim Executives were mainly hired in the healthcare, manufacturing and technology sectors. However, the scope of the sectors have already diversified in almost all industries and Private Equity deals are usually important in the growth of interim management.

Who are the Interim Executives?

They are the experts. They are usually entrepreneurs who have bought and sold companies many times.

It is said to be cost-efficient to use an interim executive on a long-term basis because there is no need to pay hiring fees, benefits or severance.

How much is the usual daily rate?

$1,000 to $2,000 a day

Why is the price this high?

These are experts who can run the company in a few days. There is no room for a rookie.

Source: www.fortune.com