TheInterimSolution
16 November 2008
Interim Management can play a valuable role when organisations are going through substantial and possibly unforeseen changes...
The board, coupled with the HR Director and the chief executive, must therefore work as a team to ensure the development and readiness, not just of a successor chief executive, but also a substitutes’ bench of executives for all key management positions throughout the organisation. It is important to stage successions and not create races.”
Interim Solution
Interim Management can, in some cases, provide and effective buffer to ease succession at the highest level. Interim management covered virtually every contingency associated with succession, said Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, business development manager of InterIM Solutions.
“Any one of a range of factors can hinder the selection and recruitment of suitable replacements for departing staff, including a critical shortage of talent or experience, or salary competition from bigger and more powerful rivals”, she said.
“The current downturn muddies the waters even further, because although it might ‘release’ high quality management ability in one sector, in another it might dampen the appetite for movement and hence achieve the opposite effect.”
By hiring in an interim manager, Carr said, companies could keep day-to-day operations on track, with ample time and space to identify the best candidate to take over at the helm.
“What interim management provides is a senior executive who has the experience and ability to slot directly into the position that has been vacated, providing continuity of service,” he said.
O’Shaughnessy said the interim approach had a particularly valuable role to play where developments were unforeseen or sudden.
“If speed is of the essence, then there is no more appropriate response than interim management, which can bridge a talent gap literally within days,” she said.
“This applies at all levels of the organisation, from senior technicians to head of function and even to chief executive level.”
From the Sunday Business Post 16th November 2008