An interim manager is a temporary manager hired by an organization to manage a department or complete a specific project for a set period of time. Interim management requires experience in both technical skills and people/change management. Interim managers are independent consultants focused on furthering the client's interests through durable change and a successful project handover. Their independence and experience managing change makes interim managers well-suited for situations requiring reorganization, recovery from past issues, or expertise in special projects.

1. Interim Management
July 2014
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2. What is interim management?
• An interim manager is a temporary manager in an organization
– Such people are hired for a certain period to manage a certain
department or organization
– This external person is hired on a temporary basis to complete a specific
mission
• Interim management is a profession, that is clearly distinct from a
‘freelancer’ or a more generic ‘consultant’.
– An interim manager is an experienced independent consultant, who has
chosen to repeatedly lead a change project on a temporary basis.
– Next to the technical knowledge, an interim manager needs to have a clear
experience in people management and change management, in order to
be able to successfully exercise this profession.
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3. What is interim management?
• An interim manager is independent and only defends the client’s interest.
– It is inherent to a good interim manager to strive for dureable change.
– The company needs to be able to continue without the interim manager. At
the end of the temporary assignment, a handover is done of the result.
– An interim manager strives for the successful completion of the
assignment; a freelancer wants to have as long a mission as possible
(regardless of the job content).
• Many people in the market call themselves ‘interim manager’, but are not.
You need to have a proven track record in order to succesfully exercise this
profession.
• Also, managers who got fired (or outplaced) from their companies, try to start
an activity as interim manager. This ‘career move’ is hardly ever successful.
This (short) interim management period only serves to get to the next
employee job.
• A good interim manager has deliberately chosen for this profession and has
been doing this for many years.
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4. Why interim management?
There are several reasons to hire an interim manager.
• Continuity
– One replaces the current or previous manager for a specific reason.
– E.g.:
– After the departure of the permanent employee (manager), the company
has still not found a suitable replacement
– The current manager is on longer term sick leave
– The current manager is on pregnancy leave
– The current manager has been terminated due to a disagreement
– The current manager needs to fulfill a specific assignment
– In most cases the company needs to bridge a period when there is a
vacuum in the management layer.
– This is a temporary situation until a fixed employee is found, or until the
return of the manager concerned.
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5. Why interim management?
• Reorganisation or recovery
– In this context there are some major changes in the company.
– There is some degree of disorganization and/or problems in the
organization. These problems are caused by mismanagement in the past.
– An interim manager is wanted to execute the restructuring effort.
– The domain needs to be stabilized first, before returning it to a new internal
responsible.
• Special Projects or Busy Periods
– Any organization is regularly confronted with a context of strategic projects
that need to run in parallel with the day-to-day business.
– This represents an additional and temporary workload, with an important
impact on the company.
– Additionally, one typically also is looking for specific expertise for these
projects. Not all necessary expertise is present within the company.
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6. Advantages and Disadvantages?
• Interim managers have the advantage that they are less connected with (the
history) of the department or company. They can be fully independent in
their judgement, and take a neutral position.
• Interim managers also communicate very well. That’s the reason why an
interim manager can easily diagnose a problem situation and take some
difficult decisions.
• In addition, they have an extensive experience in a certain domain and can
show the necessary references from the past to handle these projects.
• A potential disadvantage is that an interim manager needs an induction
period.
– In the beginning, he is less aware of the specific details of a department, or
the things from the past. Such induction period needs to be as short as
possible.
– An experienced interim manager needs to be able to grasp the specifics of
an organisation after a few weeks.
– In this way, a good interim manager can show an immediate return for the
client organisation.
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7. Advantages and Disadvantages?
• A good interim manager needs to find the right balance between the short
term goals (operational/tactical) and the longer term objectives (strategic).
– This is an important differentiating factor of an interim manager, versus a
generic ‘consultant’ or ‘freelancer’, who only take short term goals into
account.
• Considering the expertise level and experience of the interim manager, and
the strategic importance of te missions they are confronted with, it is obvious
that good interim managers are rather scarce resources.
– This is the reason why our interim managers are typically costing
somewhat more than a freelancer (which is a commodity profile).
– The interim management fee for services is comparable to (or lower) that of
a good management consultant.
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8. Hiring of interim managers?
• The interim manager is an independent consultant (with his own
management company). The only employee (the interim manager) is sent on
assignment to clients.
• In most cases, the interim managers work directly with their client base they
have built over the years.
• There are only a few companies specialized in the supply of interim
management services. Only those companies that only do this can be
credible in this niche.
• Devenyn & Partners only provides interim management in selected domains.
We are the experts!
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9. Contact
Edward Pynaertkaai 106 9000
Gent
T +32 9 231 28 53
info@devenyn.be
www.devenyn.be
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