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The specialist interim manager

All too often sickness, holiday, lower than expected corporate results or a requirement to improve an aspect of the business means that experienced outside leadership is needed. A specialist interim manager is the often the best call for a variety of reasons and are employed typically for highly specialist projects, a critical management problem or for periods where permanent management staff are just too difficult to find or not the right choice.

Typical divisional requests for interims:

• Interim IT Managers - When long running legacy systems start to break down, and new systems are needed, it often requires management to employ an outside specialist, an interim manager or a team to establish clearly the best course of action. The best IT platforms, the best IT consultancy for the job and the processes required in the planning and management of the projects.
• Interim HR Managers - Laying off huge numbers of staff due to unexpected crisis or credit crunch? Then it is expected that a corporate will bring in specialist HR consultants - usually employed part time interim HR manager to help the existing in-house HR managers.
• Credit Managers - A naturally critical and high turnover job - often an expanding or contracting business finds need for interim credit managers to oversee new systems, cover for absence or as is quite likely, to improve outdated or failing systems.
• Interim Finance Managers - Finance interims tend to be at a higher level of management and often a trusted manager may be serially employed as an interim in companies that have been bought up and where little is known about the existing management.
• Interim CEO - High level, high profile, usually business turn-around experts and often they have the difficult job of reducing staff numbers, renegotiating the companies debts, borrowing money and closing departments. Particular skills that would not have been needed had the current CEO had them!
• Interim CFO - Again, usually for rapidly changing companies that need specialist financial expertise, rearranging finance, renegotiating existing banking arrangements and taking a grip on existing systems.
• Strategic Purchasing - typically in an area of business that is not the main corporate behaviour, a specialist purchaser may be needed just for the length of the project
• Sourcing and Procurement - It may be that the company is investigating a new line of product or that the existing managers are new to the job, in which case a specialist interim may be called upon.
• Logistics - Head office or subsidiary moves, Warehousing relocation etc are not usually within the corporate day to day remit and a specialist can be called upon early on in the planning stages to ensure smooth relocation.
• Interim Operations Manager - absence of staff or quite often due to management requirement for increased production, an interim manager can usually stir things up a bit with hopefully the chips falling in more productive positions.
• Manufacturing - similarly, a new look at systems that may have been in process for many years may reap reward for management if a qualified outsider takes employment on a short term consultancy basis to give suggestions from a specialist point of view.
• Supply Chain Development and Management - Critical areas to the success of the business are often strategically renewed to keep improving efficiency and cutting costs. Often this falls to the job of the manager to inject change where existing line managers have embedded habits.

Finding a good senior interim manager

Often the requirement for an interim manager is due to corporate change in business fortunes, sometimes for rapid growth, increasing takeover activity or internationalisation, however, more often than not it is due to unexpectedly poor performance for some period. It is often an imperative to act quickly to get the subsidiary, department or company back on track (or closed down) but it is not often that easy in practice.

Finding a good interim manager can take time

Two points there, the quality of the manager and the time it takes to find them. There is a third issue and that is that if a company is in need of a turn-around, the potential new interim managing director may not wish to stake their reputation on a loss making enterprise. If it is a well known brand and the troubles are well publicised, ironically, this makes it more rather than less likely for a well known manager to step in because there is less downside. If the manager fails, well everyone knew the company was in big trouble, however if it turns around then the manager gets good kudos.

In order to reduce this time taken to find a good interim manager the following points should be considered:

• Use a reputable employment agency or consultant
• Use a specialist interim manager agency for the job in question as they previously would have made it there business to source the top prospects
• Have a clear set of objectives and requirements for the job specification against which you can judge an agency's progress
• Have a knowledgeable, experienced person on hand to help make judgement
• Give enough time to the job
• Consider looking internationally
• Look to treat each prospect cordially as it would be unwise to lose the best candidate on a matter of politeness or decency at interview
• Look to plan the negotiation well as the prospect almost certainly will have done so and often you hold the weaker hand for the better management

Aspects of the interview negotiation may include:

• base salary negotiation
• term bonus structures
• long term incentives, such as share schemes, pensions
• scoping of responsibility
• who, how many and what staff he/she may want to bring to the table
• or lose
• financial arrangements e.g. tax, residency, pension, social security arrangements etc
• holiday periods
• after hours expectation
• family arrangements
• travel and relocation arrangements
• induction and introduction period
• times and schedules for delivery
• perks
• perhaps severance from whatever job or agency he/she is currently working with
• office space
• transport arrangements - eg. company car, business class or first class flights etc
• press and media coverage of the appointment

Interim Manager Agencies

A fuller list of Agencies and Consultancies offering interim manager services can be found on our Interim Managers Resources page. Interim Managers Resource page and externally. The list includes the following:

• Albermarle
• IMS
• Nexus
• Veredus
• Russam
• Capita
• Bie
• Calibre
• Connect
• Hughes
• Praxis
• Alexander Hughes
• Penna
• Tribal
• KPMG
• Serco
• Amtec
• Green Park
• Hays
• Jefferson Salt
• Malikshaw
• Norman Broadbent