A company lives and breathes, it constantly changes its structure. Often, management capacities are overstretched: a new field of business, a new team, a new market, a new channel of distribution, a merger. Managers who can see such processes through can be hired.
What it is
Interim – or temporary – managers handle processes of change in their clients’ companies, such as
- identifying growth potential
- distribution support
- first aid for and incubator services to start-ups, or support
in times of a crisis
- positioning the company
- opening up new fields of business or new (international) markets
- launching new products and solutions
- mergers
- setting up new teams and their temporary management
- replacing an executive unexpectedly unavailable
- maternity leave replacements
- hand-over from a CEO to their successor
Interim managers are often hired by large companies (subsidiaries or companies with branch offices), or small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), either to tackle necessary change, to help with new projects, or to fill temporary gaps in resources.
apricot marketing consulting regards the interim manager as a complement to the traditional management consultant. Where consultants leave off, interim managers take over. Occasionally, the input provided by the consultants cannot be fully realized – due to a lack of know-how, or of capacity. At this point, people are needed who are adept at idea transfer and concept implementation.
What it can do
Interim managers come equipped with expertise in their remit, practical industry experience, as well as the ability to identify a company’s problems quickly and to act accordingly. If interim managers are to achieve sustainable and lasting success for a company, they require their clients’ support as well as a strong mandate.
Naturally, leadership skills are a given: often employees do not sufficiently trust their own strengths and simply focus on their weaknesses. A good interim manager encourages the staff’s confidence in their own abilities while signalling willingness to blend in with the company culture. High-flyers fixated on one-size-fits-all concepts need not even start. Actions are what counts, and they boost a team’s belief in itself.
Apart from technical expertise, soft skills are especially important: The team is brought on board and coached in such a way as to furnish it with the momentum needed for moving forward. After all, the term ‘interim manager’ implies temporary activity. After the structures have been laid down and the ideal environment for their implementation within the company has been created, the interim manager will, gradually, either hand over control to the team, or - if asked - establish a successor. In either case, the interim manager becomes dispensable, so that the company can reassert complete and independent control.
Sensitivity as regards the mood within the company is one of the most important tools for the manager from “outside”. Generally, lack of soft skills is a major problem, also among managers. Employees want to be won over! Very often they are afraid that an interim manager might only be acting as a messenger or spy for subsequent cuts. This anxiety has to be dispelled through one-on-one conversations and through consistent actions.
What it achieves
apricot marketing consulting envisages three main areas for interim managers:
- complementing the capacities of SMEs
This way companies can obtain capacities they either cannot afford or are unwilling to invest in, or in areas with too small a workload for a full-time employee. Very often it is enough for such a manager to turn up once a week and implement the necessary actions.
- strategic approaches
* business development (developing new markets), or
* creating and developing a product or a complete product line,
* identifying growth potentials
- Organisational and operational improvements
* setting up/reorganisation of one or more departments
* project management with management experience, or
* creating marketing tools such as, e.g., definition of target groups, marketing plans, introduction of new sales-leads generating systems, such as opportunity management systems and customer retention programmes, or target group communication instruments such as, for example, content management systems, digital asset management (important for companies with branch offices), client and sales databases, data mining, segmentation, etc.
* enhancing the traditional channels of communication - print, television, radio and online – via web 2.0 modules and measures
Interim managers can be employed in a multiplicity of fields. There is one aspect, however, they all have in common:
Companies can plan and calculate interim management costs. So there will be no unpleasant surprises in the P/L statement. This also applies to HR costs, as only services are purchased which are really necessary.
In short
The interim manager will walk the walk with you, from the initial idea or crisis to the successful solution and implementation.
Interested?
We would love to support you!
Do contact us: sonja.dirr@apricot.at
You can find our portfolio of services here: interim management offering
www.apricot.at
