What is Interim Management?
Interim management is a contemporary approach to human resources. It bridges the gap between the traditional alternatives of employing permanent managers or using management consultants to provide advice.
Interim managers can be described as highly-qualified executives, commissioned for short-term assignments to achieve specific tasks. In the USA, where the industry is well established, this service is often described as "executive leasing".
Drawing on practical experience and skills gained in real-world environments, interim executives can walk into a situation, rapidly identify what needs to be done, put together a plan and then implement within a given timescale and budget. They often bring with them the capacity to overcome unseen obstacles, lift the morale of staff, and streamline internal processes and other day-to-day issues.
Interim executives are typically engaged to make change happen, relying on a combination of technical skills, management experience and well developed leadership skills. Traditional management consultants are generally engaged to describe and document strategic options. Interim executives often partner with management consultants to implement advice.
Unlike consultants, interim executives hold line-management responsibility, usually at, or just below, board level. They represent an additional internal resource for as long as the assignment lasts, creating an effective gateway for organisations to augment the skills of their core staff. Interim executives are a just-in-time source of intellectual capital and additional capacity, a HR solution sometimes described as "in-sourcing".
A real match in supply-demand economics of the 21st century, the interim management industry reflects one of the main challenges businesses now face; namely, unifying the often conflicting goals of being efficient, lean and capable of expanding to grasp new opportunities. Increasingly, international commentary indicates the next big strategy could be as simple as: be quick and nimble in response to global market forces.
The case for creating organisations which are flexible enough to alter their skills mix, capacity and focus is perhaps best summarised by leading management writer Tom Peters, who states "agility is the core competence of the future". Similarly, Charles Handy's "shamrock organisation of the future" is described as "based around a core of essential executives and workers supported by (specialist) contractors". In essence, they are both talking about a permanent change to the way workforces are constructed.
Analysis of management practices during the 20th century indicates companies tend to oscillate between too much and too little capacity. Right now it is generally accepted that businesses won't be able to carry as much management fat into the immediate future. They will have to travel light and at the same time find ways to access the intellectual capital needed to thrive and prosper - how? They will have to learn to "flex", growing and shrinking their capacity to meet market demand and minimise risk.
Interim management has emerged as a smart option - a contemporary approach to human resources.
Sources
"Attitudes of Britain's Captains of Industry Research Study"
MORI (Market and Opinion Research International), (UK).
"The Interim Manager"
Financial Times, Pitman Publishing, Clutterbuck & Dearlove.
"Is management consultancy dead?"
Trinca, Helen, The Australian Financial Review.