Interim executives

Citation

(2003), "Interim executives", Work Study, Vol. 52 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2003.07952gaf.005

Interim executives

Interim executives

Interim management is more than the simple filling of a temporary gap; it is a flexible, yet relatively short-term, way of providing specific intellectual and practical expertise, capable of "hitting the ground running". Interim Executives are experienced people with established track records of driving change and managing projects.

John Cox, chief executive of the UK Pensions Protection Investments Accreditation Board (PPIAB), is a firm believer in the value that interim executives can bring to organisations, in both the private and public sectors.

John describes the role of an interim executive as "not only telling you what needs to be done, but actually staying there to do it". This is fundamentally different from a consultant who generally bows out at the implementation stage of his/her recommendations. The interim executive delivers.

An interim executive must have good analytical and communication skills. They can look at problems without any preconceived ideas. John explains that as an interim "you don't have any established precedents in your mind and you're not attached to the way it's always been done". In setting up PPIAB, John's self reliance proved to be another key asset: "As an interim you do tend to be very self-contained and able to deliver a lot without relying on supporting systems."

For an interim placement to be effective, finding the right candidate is essential. John offers some advice: "Someone who has succeeded in both small and large enterprises is much more likely to be successful from the vision and strategic level right the way through to the very detailed and mundane day-to-day level."

John's experiences in working with BIE Interim Executive both as a candidate and as a client, have demonstrated to him the importance of working with an interim supplier who is both responsive and capable of adaptive thinking. "BIE has been quite conspicuous in delivering possible solutions quickly. I have dealt with other interim providers that haven't moved with quite the same speed, or the same commitment to finding out what the client needs and then going out of their way to match that with the characteristics of the interims they have available." John believes that BIE are also imaginative. "My own selection was quite imaginative. It required intelligent, adaptive thinking to see that my background in manufacturing and knowledge of voluntary regulation was actually the right mix of skills and know-how for this particular assignment."

With extensive public sector experience, John has found some resistance to the use of interims. "There is a conservative approach to the sort of remuneration that may be needed to attract a good interim manager and insufficient realisation of the added value that can be brought." In addition, the tendency to resist change can cause obstacles to interims in the public sector: "They do have very strongly established routines and disciplines and established practices and it's quite difficult to change all of that quickly." In order to counter this, an interim must "show that he's able to understand and work within established practices".