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Why choose BIE?
What's New?The evolution of Interim Management
The changing business landscape
A number of factors suggest that those in the boardroom will be increasingly receptive to the message. The first, and most obvious, is that companies are now getting to grips with significant changes in the business environment. In particular, two significant trends are converging.
The first is the unprecedented pace of change. Markets that might once have remained relatively stable for long periods of time are now subject to continuous upheaval. The impact of globalisation, new technologies and other disruptive forces means that companies can no longer remain static.
Discontinuity is now the norm. The notion of corporate agility has come to the fore. It recognises that speed of response to market opportunities and threats is what distinguishes successful companies from their lumbering rivals. Companies have to orchestrate radical redesign of everything from their internal processes to their business model on an ongoing basis. Thus companies are becoming more fluid, constantly reconfiguring themselves to changing market conditions. This is also shifting the nature of senior management – with senior executives in many companies moving to more project-based roles.
This coincides with the second major trend: a decline in the conventional executive talent pool. This is supported by research indicating that executive talent shortages are likely to be a major obstacle to growth for many companies in the future.
A 1998 report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, for example, concluded that many US companies were suffering from a shortage of talent, a problem that was likely to be intensified by broad demographic trends. An update of that report in 2001 found that, despite the economic slowdown, the situation had, if anything, worsened. Some 89 per cent of those surveyed thought it was more difficult to attract talented people than it was three years ago, and 90 per cent thought it was more difficult to retain them.
The convergence of these two trends would seem to fit the interim management concept like a glove. Given these new facts of corporate life, the next question is, what has prevented the use of more interims in senior roles? The answer seems to lie in part at least with the failure of those in the industry to make the business case for interims in senior positions.
Quite simply, until recently, interim providers haven’t got the message across. In the UK, the Sambrook Report, published in September 2000, appears to support this. On the one hand, it found encouraging signs that companies and managers may be catching on to the benefits of interim management. On the other, it also uncovered some negative perceptions.
To discuss your interim management requirements with BIE call +44(0)20 7222 1010