Profile of Interim Manager

People, not organisations, change. As someone once said, when it comes to changing the performance of your company, you have two choices: you either change the people or you change the people. Unfortunately, few leadership teams have the skills to manage change well. As a result, research shows that less than one in five change programs deliver the benefits that were expected of them. Often, this is because the change causes disconnection and loss of engagement between the company and its people.

Many organisations use interim managers to spearhead change programs. It is about engaging a specialist consultant to help plan the change and then guide the leadership team through its implementation. This may involve changes to the personal development and people management practices of the company as these are often key enablers to change.

Universal Hunt’s panel of international interim management experts comprises of figures like Gary Saunders who has worked with over 60 organisations ranging from major transnational to smaller, typically fast-growing companies over the past 20+ years. Gary has a reputation for delivering exceptional value because, unlike many change specialists, Gary believes that one of the secrets of change is the involvement of people throughout the organisation. Consequently, his approach is to work with clients rather than for them, which means lower consulting fees as well as more capable clients.

Why Gary as a Change Agent:

Gary works in a number of different ways. As an expert consultant, he helps in setting up the change program, assessing the client’s readiness to change, identifying and planning to mitigate major risks, preparing the key individuals and supporting them through the process. This will include ensuring that there is a clear vision that is aligned with the core values, a robust strategy, a well-communicated plan, appropriately skilled people with the right incentives to change and sufficient resources (time, people, leadership and investment) to make the change successful. Where any of these are missing, Gary has the skills and experience to help to address any gaps.

As an adviser, recognising that change can also be a significant challenge for the most senior leaders, Gary helps them to work through the thought process for themselves and then acts as a mentor and discussion partner through the change journey. He also has significant technical skills to offer advice on the people management and development practices that need to change in order to reinforce changed behaviours (for example, performance management and incentives).

As a trainer, where the client needs to develop the skills of leaders, managers and change agents. Gary has trained hundreds of people at all levels of seniority to deliver change in organisations, as well as ensuring that managers are better prepared for change as part of their overall personal development. He has also worked with clients’ own learning and development teams to help them to build and deliver programs that improve managers’ change capabilities.

As a facilitator, bringing groups of people together to find solutions and make effective plans. Gary has successfully facilitated groups from Board level to shop floor, often producing

outcomes that significantly exceeded expectations in terms of both time and scope.

As a change agent, more involved in the detail of making the change process itself work effectively. Gary has played this role in organisations where many of the key success factors for change are not in place and the urgency of the requirement has meant that there is not enough time to take any other than a hands-on role. This is similar to the change agent role we describe in the Interim Management service.

Some of the benefits you can expect

Like an interim manager, Gary offers an outside, independent view. In addition, the sheer diversity of Gary’s client experience means that he has seen at first hand most of the things that can go wrong in a company and can offer this perspective to the leadership team, giving them some reassurance that the process will deliver if they hold their nerve.

Gary’s philosophy of consulting means that he prefers to engage with the client. This delivers both lower costs and more capable clients. It also often means that the process is completed more quickly.

Having worked as a consultant for as long as he has, Gary understands that delivery is key and that this has to be achieved within an agreed budget and timescale. Once these parameters of the change program have been agreed, the client can be sure that they will not be compromised.

Recommendation:

“Gary has worked with us for more than ten years now, and during that time has been a significant asset to the management team, particularly in his facilitation of meetings on subjects as diverse as strategy, branding, restructuring and customer focus. He understands our issues in depth, which has added to the quality of the decision making as he will always challenge us, not allowing us to get away with the easy, and therefore not always the best, options.

Having said this, his style is a gentle, coaching style which makes the most difficult sessions more relaxed and more comfortable – putting people at ease is one of his great strengths. Another of his strengths is his ability to let us make the decisions ourselves, rather than impose some pre-ordained direction, and regardless of his own considerable knowledge he never attempts to give you the answers, but steers us expertly through the process. He enables us to come up with ideas and then turn these into actions, always doing so with pragmatism and good humour. I recommend him highly.“- John Beighton, CEO, Goldshield Group

For expression of interest, contact us on: interim@universalhunt.com