Trends and Profile NEWS

Interim Management: a concept

By John Bridges for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:October 23, 2008

With the economy tightening, many organisations are increasingly turning to flexible Interim Management (IM) solutions, hiring an experienced interim executive for a few months to a year rather than making a permanent appointment. ‘The IM sector has gown steadily over the past c. 15 years to about £1bn a year in fees’ says John Bridges, an AMBA member and an experienced interim programme manager, ‘and there are now over 10,000 interim executives active in the UK, some operating internationally’.

For the hiring organisation, the benefits of IM include almost immediate access to highly experienced and relevant, cost-effective, and motivated management skills, to lead new initiatives, to cover absences through illness or maternity leave, or to operate as a safe pair of hands, since most interims are ‘sensibly over-qualified’ for the roles they are put into.

For the interim executive, IM offers a challenging lifestyle, variety of assignments, good earnings, good work/life balance, and the satisfaction and autonomy of running one’s own micro business. ‘Additionally, interims operate largely outside the normal corporate politics and hence are normally viewed as less of a threat than a new career appointment’ adds John. ‘It is challenging though, since one has to be able to find and secure new assignments 2-3 times a year! Normally each opportunity is selected competitively, and so one has to be able to find the opportunity and then win through the interviews to secure the assignment’.

Typically, interims operate at about half to two-thirds of equivalent management consultancy day rates and hence often provide much better value than consultants. The distinction between interims and consultants is not always clear cut, but typically consultants review data and advise senior management, whereas interims plan and then implement solutions within an organisation, working as part of the management team.

There are now about 200 IM agencies and providers in the UK, and most of the leading ones are members of the Interim Management Association . Having said that, some c. 70% of assignments are found by the interim themselves, through their own networking and business development activities, so the interim providers (agencies), rather surprisingly, don’t yet control the majority of the market.

Unless one has a very specific skill set and industry focus, the best way to obtain the all-important initial IM assignment is through personal networking – often with the interim’s last or a previous employer. Once the interim has completed one or two assignments, then the providers are more likely to view the interim as an established operator and register them on their databases. ‘Some of the leading providers have over 8,000 interims registered on their systems, and so making personal contacts and managing relationships become key’ adds John.

Experienced managers often decide to become interim executives following (planned or unplanned) redundancy from their employer. They realise that they have the experience, skills and personal qualities to be able to add value to clients and also feel the need to do something entrepreneurial, such as launching their own business. Nowadays it is fairly easy to set up a limited company and launch a micro business, but the real challenge is learning how to network and uncover and secure new assignments.

‘One of the benefits of being an interim is the ability to have more family time overall, since most interims only work on assignment c. 70% of the time’ says John. ‘It is not the kind of lifestyle that should be entertained by someone with major financial commitments, due to the uncertainty in income over the year.’

One of the things that John does to differentiate him in the market is to join many relevant professional associations, for the networking opportunities, and to seek a high level of accreditation, in John’s case as a Prince2 and MSP Practitioner, Certified Project Manager (CPM) and a Certified Management Consultant, with SC security clearance. ‘But they key thing overall is your personal relationships, with providers, other interims and with former employers and clients’ adds John.

When not working, the typical interim will be networking with other interims and with potential clients, meeting the providers, trying to develop business and further developing their skills and accreditations. As John says ‘It is a challenging lifestyle and not for the faint hearted. But it is great to have so much family time too!’.

Interims are similar to consultants in that they are driven by client needs. As an example, over the last 6 years John has worked on assignment in Edinburgh, Warrington, London, Hatfield, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester, in a variety of sectors and organisational cultures, and this shows how flexible and adaptable one needs to be as an interim. ‘If you’re lucky, you can work from home or from a local client office, just like a client employee’ adds John, but the norm is to be based on the client site. Some interims try to work within say an hour’s commute from their home, but this naturally limits the number of assignments for which they can be considered.

IM seems to benefit both the clients and the interim executives themselves, and its growth over recent years shows that it is an executive resourcing policy that will only become more acceptable and mainstream over time.

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