
Has interim management changed in the last 2-3 years in terms of skills, talent and age?

Is there a place for interim managers to be seen as part of your longer term business strategy?
"Generally we don’t plan for interims as a part of our business cycle. As I mentioned before we still use interims as a reactive response. Using interim managers or technical experts as part of a planned development is still relatively new and undeveloped. I can see how built in capacity can be valuable to an organisation given the need to stay ahead of the game and give us a competitive edge. Not only technically but also managerially. Particularly in scoping either a new role or a new development where some uncertainty exists about long term viability. Less personal upheaval may result as well as less business instability. Certainly an idea that needs to be developed."
Part of the solution – Veredus case study
A medium size unitary county council had recently appointed a highly able Director of Children’s Services. The new director had previously turned round a failing social services and was now expected to do the same for the education (schools) in the newly combined service. The authority agreed to bring in an interim manager – on a project basis – to work on poorly performing service blocks. The interim manager was previously a successful director of education. From the beginning role boundaries were made clear. The newly appointed chief officer would have complete responsibility for the management of the service but would use the interim as a mentor in getting to grips with the schools agenda, and as a resource in quickly drawing up action plans for ‘fragile’ parts of the education function. An example of interim management as a coaching resource and providing capacity to move forward quickly in getting the whole service up to speed.

In a nutshell, people who provide you with immediate access to high quality talent, who come with good track records, represent low risk and maintenance and can offer you more instantly by seeing things through a fresh pair of eyes. It’s interesting to speculate - coming back to the question of using interims as part of the solution - what came first. Did organisations identify a need or were they reacting opportunistically to a more talented and flexible pool of talent. My feeling is that it was a bit of both. Either way, we need to use interims in a more creative way and develop a clearer understanding of what interim management is.
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