Creating new paths for future growth
Creating new paths for future growth
The predictions and advice available on how best to weather these times of great uncertainty and business disruptions are many. Macroeconomic instabilities and a looming global slowdown affect us all. Adding our perspective to the mix, we see a key characteristic that organisations will have to practice and integrate, to thrive in the future - flexibility. Taking on an interim solution is for many companies and organisations still a new approach to create room for flexibility, growth and improved efficiency. Below, we outline some of the benefits of an interim solution as a way to tackle our current unpredictable labour market and secure future growth for your company or organisation.
Current times require many leaders to step out of their comfort zone, to be brave and try something new and not fall in the trap of relying on a return to “normal”. Organisations find themselves without the ability to develop the specific skills needed to keep pace with market developments, let alone anticipate and monetise them in a timely fashion. Recruiting the best senior executive for a role will always take time and resources and sometimes a business needs a faster, albeit provisional solution in order to bridge the gap. Interim management is typically used to either execute and deliver a specific organisational assignment or to plug a specialised skills gap that exists within the organisation, for example, following an impromptu exit by a senior executive. An interim solution can empower an organisation to break free of the time constraints that traditionally hinder their recruitment efforts and rapidly place a person with the specific skills and competence needed.
So, who are interim managers and what sets them apart?
Outstanding interim managers choose their career path specifically because of the challenges and rewards that are in abundance. They possess a wealth of experience and mastery in often several core business areas for example leading through challenging periods within business, change management, or perhaps very specific technical and project delivery skills. They are capable of immersing themselves within an organisation’s operations and culture with confidence and little onboarding in order to become decisive catalysts for change. By definition, untainted by company politics, they are able to access and address situations from an unbiased perspective.
A great interim manager is swift and practical. They will have a strong track record of success and a ‘can-do’ attitude, they will get to the heart of the problem quickly. They are also by necessity flexible. They are available at short notice and will focus on providing significant results-based value within a specified timeframe. Their typical experience, skills and gravitas will allow them to hit the ground running. There is also flexibility in the cost of taking on an interim solution.
Being able to deliver clearly and concisely to a range of stakeholders is paramount. This is especially important when it comes to pushing back and challenging attitudes and systems in particular. Adding a valuable external perspective on your business can also help provide new ideas for how you can disrupt business models, change your organisation around, innovate and identify new paths of creating value in an ever-changing market.
“As an Interim Manager, you need to be able to handle a variety of scenarios, with resilience yet maintain a sense of human nature to really embed yourself into a business and gain respect from your team and wider business. We work with many senior interim executives that can attest to this and that have delivered excellent results for many of our clients.”
Agents for change
The best interim managers have the ability to tap into everything they have ever learnt about business and for a short time bringing all of this to bear on a new assignment. Much of their job satisfaction comes from the knowledge that they have made a measurable difference to the business and succeeded against their performance indicators. They are bold, brave, and brilliant at what they do.
Able to start within days, highly motivated, brilliant communicators and purely focussed on delivering measurable success, interim managers can add great value. You could say an interim manager is the modern-day game changer.
“With over 30 years’ experience in the executive search business and having built our broad candidate pool, we are able to access a wider network of potential candidates with niche expertise outside of the purely interim market, says Pauline Nilsson Cattaneo, Head of Alumni Interim Management. She continues, “We also have our exclusive network of highly professional executive interim managers that all excel in their field of expertise, and they thrive on the no-nonsense delivery of commercial results.“
Head of Interim management services
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