01 Nov 2008

Interim Management – the solution to your performance issues

Supply chain management has an increasing role to play within corporate organizations with business improvement, demand planning, delivery channels and cost reductions, amongst others, all having large cost implications. Some reports suggest that supply chain costs can account for almost 75% of operating budget. Therefore it is increasingly important that gaps in the supply chain management structure are filled quickly. Typically, permanent recruitment for senior supply chain executives is now taking between 3-4 months. Many companies and organisations now recognise that interim managers can use their experience to step into these roles while a permanent role is being filled as well as using their experience for specific projects.

Traditionally, interim managers have been used by companies to accelerate their projects or strengthen their team for a specific period of time, such as maternity leave. James Bader at MVP Search and Selection provides interim managers to a broad range of companies, from global manufacturing companies to local distribution companies. He has seen many large companies and SMEs increase their use of interim managers and consultants this year with many being placed on specific projects as well as operational roles and as stop-gaps while his clients filled permanent vacancies.

Andrew Bzdek was one such contractor whose project at a major electronics manufacturer encompassed with carrying out a detailed review of processes within the organisation and creating process flow maps along with conducting an analysis of data flows across the businesses systems and databases resulting in suggesting improvements for all their product supply processes. The purpose of the project that Andrew was working on was to create best practice documents which could be used across departments to ensure consistent and repeatable results whilst also allowing department members to understand the complexities of other’s work and constraints facilitating better team working. As Andrew states “The project highlighted numerous ‘quick wins’ as well as medium term improvement opportunities, which once implemented would yield significant hard financial benefits, improved efficiencies and cash flow benefits”

Performance improvement and change management is an important part of an interim manager’s assignment, whether they are specifically dealing with this on projects such as Andrew’s or if they are covering an operational role during a busy period. Companies who employ interim managers are often looking for experienced managers who are often over-qualified for the roles that they are working on. They bring their skills and experience from years working in different companies in varying industries. Graham Blackshaw is an experienced interim manager who feels that “The real key to a successful interim assignment is a close match between the companies aspirations and the skills that the interim manager brings”.

In his latest assignment with a food manufacturer the client was looking for someone to support and develop their sales and operation planning process in the area of demand management. Unable to recruit a suitable permanent candidate for this role was putting the roll out of this project at risk, therefore this company decided to engage Graham Blackshaw on an interim basis to interpret the company’s requirements into robust processes and procedures. This ensured that they now have a well-developed S&OP Demand Planning process.

Graham feels that this has almost been the perfect assignment since he has been given “the opportunity to apply almost all of the skills I have acquired from relationship management through to the application of statistical techniques. These skills have been incredibly well respected within the company”. This project has since been extended and Graham is now heavily involved with the implementation of software to aid them in the demand planning function.

The essence of both Graham’s and Andrew’s roles was to improve performance. Many interim managers are experienced in performance management and expect that this is part of the role that they are required to perform. James Bader places candidates in roles as diverse as warehouse managers, production planners, strategic planners, supply chain managers, supply chain improvement consultants, and logistics managers across logistics, distribution and manufacturing industries. He feels that interim managers are getting younger: “You can see a definite trend of professionals who have worked extremely hard early in their careers are now looking to move into interim management as a way to maximise their earnings, have a good work-life balance and use their skills and experience with different companies.” James went onto say that many of the “newer” interims will have been exposed to a number of different businesses in a short period of time and at an early age, and are able to assess problems and decide on solutions quickly. However there is still a place for the more experienced interims as many of them will have been in senior management positions during the early 1990s recession and in this period of economic downturn many clients will still be looking for their experience.

Interim Managers provide significant benefits to companies willing to use their experience, especially so in the current financial climate. Experienced interim managers and new interims with excellent backgrounds provide their different clients with skills gained across a variety of industries in performance improvement, change management and project management while also being able to cover roles without a long handover period. This is why, in the difficult months going forward, they will be invaluable to a number of companies in the UK and abroad.

If you would like further information on interim managers and how they can help your business please contact James Bader at MVP Search and Selection on 01905 773370 or jamesb@mvp-search.com