In the past 10 or 15 years, Interim Management has internationally emerged to become an industry in its own right, one that provides a wide range of services to businesses. The concept has still not forayed into the Indian industry. This brief is aimed at providing an insight into the Interim Management model and key aspects and insights into its benefit and usage structure.

What is Interim Management?

Interim Management is a service that enables an organization to:

Hire a manager who will fulfill line management responsibilities, offering a functional/domain expertise, to work on site within the organization, within a time bound assignment.

The distinctive nature of Interim Management is defined by three interlocking characteristics:

		The vintage of the temporary role being filled
		The quality of the briefing, selection and screening processes used to find suitable candidates
		The support service provided from placement to completion of the assignment

Interim Management is not the same as consultancy. Consultants can provide particular expertise for a limited time, but they remain outside the organization rather than within. Usually, their business objectives are primarily those of the consultancy for whom they work. In some cases this might be to your detriment because fulfilling the financial aims of the consultancy organization might involve maximizing your expenditure. Neither is Interim Management the same as recruiting a manager. If the recruitment is on the payroll of the organization they become a permanent member of staff. The Interim Management service is usually provided by an individual to an organization, and often arranged by an intermediary or agent.

Why use Interim Management rather than consultants?

Whatever the reason, interim managers offer major benefits:

		Speed - they are available with the minimum of recruitment or termination formalities
		Experience - interim managers are highly skilled and experienced for the work offered
		Results – their track record and prior deliverables will talk for their quality and skills
		Knowledge transfer - they will transfer a huge amount of skill, contacts and experience to your team which will remain long after they have left
		Objectivity - while sensitive to the company's ethos, they will not be constrained by company politics, personalities or protocols
		Focused - they can be assigned a critical task and their performance measured against it
		Delivery – they will lend hands on strategy support

Innate Consultant Characteristics		Unique pointers of an Interim Manager
	The latest thinking		Implementers as well as being strategists, analysts and planners
	Short-term access to top management talent		Loyal to your business objectives - not their consultancy's objectives
	Strategic capability		Flexible to do what you need - not restricted to doing things the way their consultancy prescribes
	An independent eye		Focused on your profitability - not their consultancy's profitability. They are not incentivised to sell in additional services you don't need
	The ability to fast-track a critical project		More cost-effective

Why Interim Management?

Organizations typically choose interim managers either to fill roles that are temporary or to fill critical staffing gaps when a permanent employee cannot be found fast enough. Although they are frequently called 'consultants', interim managers differ from consultants because they serve in a more hands-on capacity. Organizations quickly realize many benefits as interim managers start in days with minimum recruitment and termination formalities who can be given a critical task on which to focus. They deliver consistently and quickly and welcome results-linked remuneration. In fact they help keep down permanent head count and are highly cost effective.

When should Interim Management be used?

Interim Management is most relevant when there is a short-term need for a particular type of expertise. Examples might include:

		A period of change or transition
		Opening up a new market
		Acquiring a new subsidiary company
		Managing a one-off project
		Filling a gap between a manager's departure and recruiting a replacement

It is best remembered that interim management is not really suitable for assessing potential recruits or for filling a permanent role on a long-term basis.

Assessing important differences between Temps, Consultant and Interims

Is it an interim manager or an executive temp or a consultant that your organization needs or do you have the talent already in-house? Such a question can be answered by best defining the vital differences between them. While a temp will hold all strings together to maintain the status quo, management consultants would point out to well known crisis situations of the organizations and walk away without a solution. On the other hand, interims are, appointed to implement and should combine technical knowledge and qualifications with soft skills such as managing, leading and being cognisant of company values. So, if the situation requires a task-focused implementer with excellent soft skills, it is likely that the need is for an interim. Interims can also bring a fresh perspective into an organisation.

Dealing with staff issues about interim appointees

It is highly likely some staff may feel threatened by the new appointment. They may see it as a vote of no confidence or believe that the interim is there to do the management's dirty work. Often the role of the interim is to diagnose a situation and implement a recovery plan, which is not always popular. However, leaving staff to get on with it can lead to overt or tacit resistance to the interim's objectives. It is not enough to rely on the political skills of the best-fit interim when introducing them. There must best be a discussion and gaining a buy-in from colleagues, and communicate why interim management is being considered and the benefits that will be achieved. Suggestions are that executives responsible for the operational delivery should be involved in the recruitment process to increase buy-in, as well as gain a wider perspective on the right candidate. Induction is also important. The most senior sponsor would be apt to do the rounds of introduction of the interim to the key players in the first couple of days of the assignment

Why would recruiting a Woman interim be beneficial to the organization?

Industries are moving towards a work-force plug-and-play concept. All organizations prefer experienced professionals, as compared to investing in Training and Development. Its here that women at the workplace make a huge difference – they are more loyal, less mercenary, more consistent, better at multi-tasking, make better negotiators and come out on tops in EQ. All of which lead to a strange question as to why they do not figure into the industry picture.
The answer is that, most women the world over, are still the primary stakeholders of home responsibility. Thus, they decide at a certain point of time in their lives, to place a full-time career at a lower priority in the over-all scheme of things.

Companies are forever in need of talent, which sometimes is found in the most unexpected of places. One such place is the home, where, you find the professionally qualified woman, with several years of work experience, who has taken a break in her career, in response to child-care, elder care or transition. This particular talent segment need not be trained, is focused, has expertise - both functional and managerial, but is constrained by Time.


Conclusions

AVTAR’s I-WIN is a concept that seeks to marry best of both these ideas – that of a Woman professional who has rich experience and whose time constraint can be effectively managed by using her in an Interim Managerial position.

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