International Conference for Research into Interim Management

10 September 2008

17 April 2008 - CASS Business School, City Of London The first International Conference for Research into Interim Management, admirably hosted by Ian Daniell of forim, was held on 17 April 2008. The conference brought together delegates from both the theory and the practice – academic institutions interested in the field, Interim Providers, and distinguished Interims from across Europe. The latter group included the only two British interims with doctorates in subjects related to Interim management, Dr Ian Daniell and Dr Martin Dorchester. Notably however, there were no client users attending.

The research presented by the speakers looked at looked at a wide spectrum of issues – the definition of Interim management, the size and nature of the industry in the UK, and the personal characteristics common to Interim managers that enable them to compress the “100 day” induction into a week, and to deliver quickly and successfully. A European perspective was provided by Prof Jaques Reijniers (Nyenrode Business University, Holland) and Fr Dr Vera Bloemer, who gave overviews of the state of the industry in Holland and Germany respectively. And as might be expected from an Interim audience, the presentations were accompanied by lively debate.

Despite the ongoing success of Interim management and the often quoted statistic that the Interim adds value to the client of some 10 to 20 times what it costs to use him/her on an assignment, the product is still not a clearly identified or defined commodity. Clients tend to buy from those Interims that they know, like and trust and with whom they share a similar approach and business style – understandable in the context of business risk management.

Charles Russam (Russam GMS) set the scene, with estimates of the sector ‘dimensions’ contrasting the position now with the situation in 1990 when he had first tried to guestimate statistics for the size of the market. Encouragingly, the average age of Interims is falling, female Interims now make up more than 20% of the total, and daily rates are rising in real terms.

Anton Fisher (Alium Partners) reported on his research into how Interims make the transition into new roles. The research project initially had had nothing to do with Interim managers – its objective was to understand why a substantial number of senior ‘permanent’ appointments disappoint their organisations, with some failing dramatically, despite the clichéd 100 day honeymoon period. The results would then be used to reduce the numbers of ‘walking wounded and stretcher cases’ amongst recently appointed senior executives. For Fisher the ‘light bulb’ moment came when by chance he met an Interim manager who explained the structured process she undertook in the first days of a new assignment so that she could make an immediate impact within days rather than months. The focus of the research then shifted to understand this process, and validate it across a representative sample of senior Interims.

Dr Martin Dorchester (MD Interims, and an IIM member) is currently researching the ‘emotional intelligence’ of Interim managers. Whilst he has only completed about a third of the planned interviews so far, a pattern is already emerging that successful Interims have very specific personal characteristics: they are status neutral, successful, courageous, trustworthy, decisive, empathetic, bright but not super bright and with a clear level of self regulation and control – and in particular, react badly to not being dealt with truthfully. In addition, the traits shown by senior permanent executives are not necessarily reflected in successful Interim managers, which may have implications for recruiters and training. Reijniers also articulated similar competencies compared across a wider group of individuals that included Interims, consultants, specialists, line and project managers as well as executive managers.

Simon Berry’s (INTERIM ASSIGNMENT) presentation entitled ‘Another fine mess you have got me into’ looked at the data he had gathered over the past year from those attending the IMA-sponsored induction workshops His research had focused on the first assignment obtained by those who had attended the workshops, and suggested that Interims starting out on their career achieved higher rates through an Interim provider than those who got their first assignment through personal networking. His data also showed that the private sector leads on rates when compared to the public sector, and that 93% of Interims felt their first assignment met or exceeded their expectations.

The last set of data, gathered from clients, was presented by Jaap Shaveling (Nyenrode Business University, Holland) and painted quite a different picture. He illustrated the difference between the client’s perspective of target delivery and that of the Interim. He went on to state that at the start of an assignment Interim providers tend to play an active role that justifies their fee, but that during the ongoing assignment their active involvement becomes less and less.

Shaveling indicated that, whilst 79% of clients said targets had been achieved and 77% said that hiring an Interim was a good solution given the situation, only 30% reported that the Interim’s involvement had resulted in a clear change in strategy. He also suggested that Interim managers have a high need for autonomy within their assignments and as professionals. So the question remains – will Interim management ever become a commodity or will it continue to evolve, as it has done to date, on the basis of established personal relationships?

A long and full day closed with general agreement that research into Interim management has thus far only scratched the surface, and that it remains a fertile area for further investigation. Ian Daniell intends to forim to become a ‘central library’ in the UK for research studies, and welcomes all input to this. He can be contacted at ian.daniell@forim.co.uk