Interim managers: the tough get going

If you heard that a move into interim management would offer you the prospect of flexibility, variety and a bucket load of money, you might find yourself looking for the catch.

Tracey Abbott, now head of permanent recruiting at interim management specialist MSB International, enjoyed her time as an interim manager at several recruitment consultants in the 1990s. But she admits it's not for the faint hearted.

"[Not] knowing anyone is to your benefit. You're not bogged down with baggage. But for that reason, interim managers need to be that much tougher and more aggressive. You don't need everyone to like you."

Whether it's covering for maternity leave, pushing through a management buyout or filling a gap while a company looks for a permanent employee, interim management has never been more popular.

Jon Curry, a business manager responsible for placing interims, is even more explicit about the sorts of business situations they're are likely to encounter. "Our guys get brought in to knock heads together," he said.

Roger de Kassel, a consultant for recruitment specialist Robert Half International, agreed. "Some of the people I place are there to dismantle companies. The existing management doesn't want to be seen to be the bad guy," he said.

In a survey by Interim Marketing and Management (IMM), 43 per cent of those questioned had made the jump in the last three years. Demand is high - 92 per cent were confident that when their current job finished there was another management role just around the corner.

The right stuff
But not everyone makes the grade. There's no shortcut to the experience you need, said Ken Johnson, general manager of agency Meridian Global, who's always on the lookout for candidates. "It's extremely difficult to get people of the right calibre," he said. "Last week we advertised for candidates, and had hundreds of applications. Only two were up to it."

Because of this need for experience, interim management tends not to be "a young man's game".

"I want to see people who are very senior, have been made redundant or grown out of their jobs, and left with a handsome package," said de Kassel. "They probably have two properties, want a six-month role and then four months off."

Providing you fit the bill, the salaries on offer in this game mean you stand to make the most of that four-month holiday: de Kassel places managers at between £800 and £1200 a day. Other agencies suggest rates ranging from £400 to £1500, depending on experience and the difficulty of the job at hand.

But while most of the candidates are managers in the traditional sense of the term, the jobs they will go to are often anything but run-of-the-mill placements: takeovers, management shakeouts, startups and spin offs all require interim managers. Add the traditional crisis management role, and many of those managers earn their pay.

"You must be a chameleon, handle change quickly and pick things up quickly," said de Kassel. "I have specialists for management buyouts, for dismantling joint ventures, for initial public offers. It's good to be specific."

And young, thrusting, ambitious types needn't lose heart. There's a growing band of so-called 'career interims' - younger managers who work like consultants, picking up experience before perhaps returning to permanent employment at a later date. "If a company wanted advice on its strategy and it went to IBM, then IBM would send in a consultant for £2500 a day," said Johnson. "If they come to us, the same calibre of person costs one third of that."

Flexible lifestyle
Whatever the reason for becoming an interim manager, many are seduced by a lifestyle that offers the flexibility of contracting with the responsibility and seniority of a permanent employee.

IMM's survey showed that 74 per cent of those interviewed saw being an interim manager as a long-term option. Some, like Abbott, enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.

"You might upset people, but you can get an awful lot done by stealth, because while you're getting on with it, people are thinking 'Who's she?'," she joked. "In management, if a project isn't completed, a lot of permanent people are used to that, and think 'So what?'. As an interim, you can't think that."

Some agencies also discourage interims looking for full employment. "By definition, you're a stopgap. For example, if you're going to replace someone who is on maternity leave, it's not a career opportunity for you," said Curry.

"If I place a guy in a role, I want to know he's there for the duration," added de Kassel. "If someone tells me they want a full-time job, I'll look for one- and two-month roles for them in the meantime. But those are hard to find."

If the character of the job is similar to being a contractor, then the expectation often isn't. Because you're expected to make decisions immediately, there's no 'bedding down' process when you join.

"Managers start contributing at senior level from day one," explained Malcolm Browne, a partner at Penna Interim. "Most of my interims spend a lot of time learning about the company they are joining before you ever see their bum on a seat. It's part of the job."

With redundancy or the prospect of a dead-end job acting as a push into interim management, and the new expectations and support services that now surround the self-employed, interim management will be a growth market for the foreseeable future.

Not every manager makes a good interim, but for those with the will and the talent, the rewards can be substantial.

"If you had asked me three years ago whether I wanted to be an interim manager, I'd have said forget it," said Holloway, who is hoping for an extension to his contract with BT. "But the more I think about it, there doesn't seem to be a catch here."

Case study: The interim in a dotcom startup
The high-pressure atmosphere and rapid change synonymous with dotcoms is well-suited for interim managers. If you relish the one, then you might be suited to the other, said Denise Tyler, whose stint as communications advisor for Connextra ended after eight months.

During her stay, Connextra had enlarged its staff from three to 20, and is on the verge of bringing its Sidewize browser add-on to market. In that time, the company has forged alliances with content providers such as ft.com - a task in which Tyler played a hands-on role.

Being an interim in a small, fast-growing operation means getting involved in all parts of the company, she said. "You're not tied down by the structure of the company. You have free reign to get involved in any part of it. That's the exciting part."

Tyler admitted, however, that the exciting nature of the work brings its problems. "If you're a full-time employee at management level, you're going to get all the dirty jobs," she said.

Connextra's work environment would seem to breed confrontation and conflict: its policy is 'extreme programming', which means everyone in the company meets to decide which tasks are most important, and those projects are attempted in a series of three-week bursts. Three weeks later, the process starts again. "Everyone has a say in what gets done. It's very effective, but very intense," said Tyler.

Her involvement with the company came in a similarly unstructured way. As one of a 12-person advisory board for Connextra, she was working as a consultant to the company when it became clear that "more input was needed". Tyler took the decision to jump in with both feet, and her willingness to commit to a risky venture at short notice is an asset in the startup environment.

"I like it because you have an open door to the next opportunity at the end of the job." With a full marketing department being constructed around her, and not wanting a permanent job in the company, her work for Connextra is at an end. The open door for Tyler means that she has walked away from Connextra to become a press officer for the British Olympic team.

Tips for startup interims

• Don't expect a long job or guaranteed employment. Startup fortunes can go down as well as up.
• Be prepared to get involved in all parts of the business, as flat management and rapid growth mean that your job title on paper means little in practice.
• Have the courage to make snap decisions and stand up for them in a startup environment. Where projects last days, not months, there's not always time for a consensus.

Howard Norton wasn't looking to become an interim manager - 10 years working for the Prudential had given him a steady income and specialised skills in handling remuneration problems, pay structures and gradings.

Three years ago that all changed. "In a restructuring, the job I had was carved into pieces. I decided to go. My intention was to look for a corporate job, but I drifted into the independent route."

While Norton admits he would never have had the confidence to tackle the role of interim without being forced into it, he has now handled contracts on similar issues for "eight or nine" large companies.

His specialisation has served him well, keeping him in constant work ever since he left the Pru. He now splits his time between IT consultancy Ovum and National Mutual, but has also set a reward strategy for an online bank, and salaries for an internet startup. At the age of 48, he says his biggest challenge is adjusting his work style to a less forgiving environment.

"You are more in control and not at the mercy of organisational politics," he explained. "But there is no support. In a big company there is always another expert. Now you're out on your own with no-one to look to for help."

And that's not all. Norton is often brought in because he's an outsider, which makes an emotive issue such as pay easier for him to tackle. "You are less involved with the people around you, but you can get your head down and focus very heavily. You don't get day-to-day hassle," he explained.

Unusually for a corporate veteran, Norton said his most useful attribute is a willingness to learn. "It's a much steeper learning curve than at any time in my career," he said. "But I'm not ready to put my feet up."

The cost to his personal life has also been considerable. At a time when many executives are creeping home earlier each day, he is spending entire weeks away from his family. And because many contracts in his specialist area are short, he said that "I subject myself to the stress of starting a new job every few weeks".

Tips for experienced managers who are starting again

• Be flexible and don't expect the level of support you are accustomed to.
• You will be judged on your work, not your job or your history.
• Your specialisation will be valuable, but to use it you may have to travel to where the work is.

Not every interim manager is a seasoned veteran. At 35, Colin Holloway is six months into a period of interim management that he hopes will be an interlude between permanent jobs. His motivation is based less on lifestyle and more on the belief that interim management jobs will give him a breadth of experience that his permanent post at Samsung never could.

Holloway is now marketing manager for BT Retail, based at its offices in Stockley Park, having gained experience in a retail environment and in the telecoms industry. In 18 months, he's hoping to cash in the experience he'll have gained for a better full-time job. For him, interim management has the side benefit that it offers on-the-job training.

"If BT had been recruiting for a full-time manager for this job, it wouldn't have looked at me with my experience," he said. Being accustomed to modern IT companies, adjusting to new working environments hasn't been a problem for Holloway.

He refers to the pressure of starting a new contract as "positive stress" - stress that's good for the career, not bad for it. "The first advantage is that you haven't made any mistakes when you get to the job. So you are starting with a clean sheet of paper. The second is that you tend to come into any role like this with plenty of new ideas, and those ideas tend to get noticed."

Former colleagues have used this to their advantage, bartering approval in a temporary role in one part of an organisation into a permanent managerial post in another part of the same company - not least because while they are there, they know when management posts fall vacant.

The price he's paying for this has been giving up the security of a job that "wasn't going anywhere" at Samsung; but with a family, Holloway won't be using interim management to pay for luxury holidays.

"The nice thing about interim management is that you get money instead of benefits. I'm probably between 15 per cent and 20 per cent better off. So I've worked myself into a position where I can be out of work for six weeks and still be OK."

He's also under no illusions about the lack of job security he would have faced if he had opted for another permanent job. "Every company I've ever worked for has always had the axe of redundancy hanging over it," he said. "Working as an interim manager is less secure than being an employee - but not much."

Tips for interims going back to permanent careers

• Get a breadth of experience. A hole in your CV isn't as important as it would be if you were about to take the job permanently.
• Build up savings as quickly as possible - they allow you to look for the right opportunities, even if you have financial commitments.
• Keep your eyes open. Your future employer can be one with whom you have an interim job.