AQuickFixManagementSolutionwithaLong-termLegacy
03 August 2008
The pre-boom experience of Interim Managers is a highly valuable asset to organisations...
The benefits of utilising an interim manager are well documented, but they could be amplified by the current economic situation. An interim manager is an unattached senior executive who can be parachuted into an organisation to cover an absence, or to fulfil a specific role; and each one will, by his or her nature, be mature, highly qualified and widely experienced. But, crucially, given their age, they will likely have honed their skills in the preboom period, making them an ideal foil for those executives who have known nothing but continuous boom.
“Interim managers are some of the men and women who kept Irish industries and services trading through the tough times,” said Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, general manager of InterIM Executives, an interim management service provider. “The last serious downturn was during the early 1990s, and since then we have seen sustained growth and job creation. So the role played by management has involved dealing with growth and operating in a positive economy.
That has changed, and management may require a different outlook, with different skills sets.” Utilising the skills and experience of an interim manager could actually be a cost effective way of securing a different perspective, because the benefits of an interim are apparent not just for the duration of the assignment.
Indeed, thanks to the managerial imprint left behind, the impact of the interim manager can be felt long after the person has moved on to another project.
“Some executives may have no direct experience of a recession,” suggested O’Shaughnessy. “Their skills may have been developed in a high-growth, low inflation time when healthy expectations were the norm. But stagnant turnover, retrenchment and job losses may be alien concepts to some senior managers, and the strategies needed to emerge on the far side intact may not be part of their arsenals. This is why using an interim manager at this time could be so rewarding.”