Why use an Interim Manager?

Interim managers are employed for a number of different reasons:

• Crisis Management: They can be used at a time of crisis to turn round a failing service or business. They may offer expertise to a challenged management team. This could mean bringing sound financial management or wise counsel to an organization with specific focus area.

• Specific Solutions: As well as the ability to tackle issues such as grievances, poorly managed commercial relationships, broken procurement contracts or problems in internal relationships.

• Change Agents: Interim managers may also be brought in at a time of change for an organization. Start ups, new business development, mergers or acquisitions, or restructuring within a company are all productive areas for interim managers.

• Recruitment Gaps: Equally an interim manager can give a company or organization some breathing space during the recruitment of a permanent executive or a period of temporary absence of an existing executive. This is to avoid building pressure on management to select a senior executive in time of vacuum created due to unexpected situations. Temporary Internal manager can be more dangerous due to ongoing internal relations and expectation management.  

• Innovation: Many clients who are seeking to improve or innovate take advantage of the specialist cross-sector skills interim mangers offer to develop new products and services. For example, if you're a thinking of developing a new revenue stream, then bringing in a retail expert may be the right solution. Thinking of outsourcing your HR service? Then hiring someone who has done it before makes sense, but it's unlikely you'll need them forever. Indeed in our opinion the most effective use of interim management is when it is deployed in a focused and controlled way with outcomes and timescales clearly defined and managed.