The Interim Management

Interim management consists of detaching very quickly for a period of a few months, a senior executive or manager in a company, to take charge of an operational mission.  

What types of transition mission?

Most often the Manager on assignment will be in charge of the operational implementation of a new project or a transformation project. It involves setting up a new organization, building a factory, operating a new IT tool, modifying or improving the management of a business plan when the company does not have the expert for this know-how or the resource internally. The interim manager can also take an operational position to deal with a transitional crisis situation: turn around an activity in difficulty, reorganize a structure, solve technical problems. It’s all about crisis management. The interim manager can also replace an absent manager who is sick, has left very quickly awaiting replacement or on maternity leave, for example. We then speak of gap management.  

For which sectors of activity?

These missions concern all sectors of activity, mainly industrial, service and distribution companies. They can also be deployed in public or semi-public service companies… The missions entrusted to NIM Europe takes place in mainland France, but also in the overseas departments and territories or internationally. The interim manager sometimes intervenes after the recommendations of a consulting firm that will have defined a roadmap without having the resources to implement it. The professions concerned are most often those of Managing Director, Human Resources Director, Financial Director and industrial management (factory, production, project). Experts in the supply chain, communication, IT and digital or marketing are also valuable in interim management. There are about fifteen transition management companies in France. The most recognized are members of the “France Transition” federation. The association guarantees the ethical rules and operation of this activity. The practices of the members are audited to confirm the maintenance within the bosom of the FNMT attached to the quality of the practices of the members of the federation.  

What is the benefit for a company of using interim management?

The interest for a company consists, without increasing its permanent staff, in having an operational manager, who has key skills, who knows his problem well and who has been confronted with a similar situation. This leader uses the skills acquired during his experience to manage and motivate teams, without the rest of his career in the company becoming a political issue. The company will welcome this manager in a few days, the response times of the Interim Management being much shorter than those of the recruitment firms. Specialized companies have pools and networks of qualified Interim Managers whose qualities, experience, availability, mobility and salary they validate. These professionals have bases of several hundreds, even thousands of profiles. With NIM Europe (which does not use wage portage), the intervention of the interim manager is carried out under the status of temporary work. Its role for the organization is clear and delimited in time. Its scope of action and the mission entrusted to it are also very precise. The Manager on assignment can work under the authority of a member of the management committee, or even of the shareholder. He can supervise teams (his status allows him to do so legally and whatever the situation).  

Who are the Transition Managers?

They are executives or operational managers, having implemented solutions themselves without contenting themselves with outsourcing them to others. They have good credentials under their belt and a solid track record. The majority of Interim Managers are experienced workers who appreciate this activity because it brings them more satisfaction than practicing a long-term, hierarchical function. Everyone appreciates having a clear roadmap at the start of a mission, which allows them to fully exercise their talent. More and more young leaders are finding an opportunity to change sectors for a mission they are passionate about, while putting their professional skills into practice in specific areas. Often for personal reasons, they do not want to make a long-term commitment. The time of the mission is theirs.  

What are the qualities of the Transition Manager?

He is operational, efficient, flexible, open, quick, curious and an excellent manager. He resists stress and exercises the charisma that allows him to impose himself in the company that is sometimes in difficulty, made up of doubting employees. He knows how to work in project mode and his independence from the company allows him to dare solutions that employees or managers would have hesitated to propose. It is therefore a win-win solution for the company as well as for the manager.  

How does a Transition Management mission work?

  1. The company facing a problem contacts one of the professionals in the sector.
  2. The NIM Partner will define with precision and with the company, the nature of his need, the stakes, the expected results, the environment of the position, the possible difficulties and especially the key elements which must be known to the Manager:
  • information system,
  • technology,
  • legal environment,
  • LANGUAGES,
  • crops,
  • countries concerned…

3. The Partner reformulates this need in a brief serving as a basis for the search for the appropriate Transition Manager. The client agrees to the launch of the search.

4. Within the agreed deadlines, the Partner proposes one or more possible profiles to the client, whose references he will have validated and to whom he will have tested. At NIM Europe, when the company has chosen the one it considers to best meet the defined criteria, a provision contract is signed by both parties. The Manager is then recruited and monitored by NIM Europe for the duration and missions in accordance with those precisely defined in the contract with the company.

5. The Partner accompanies the Manager throughout the mission to ensure that the expectations of the company are met but also to provide assistance if necessary for his integration into the company. Under no circumstances does the Partner replace the Manager in the way he conducts the mission. At the end of the mission, the Manager on mission and the user company draw up a summary of the achievement of the objectives or the unresolved points. The Manager draws up a roadmap available to his successor.

In more than 30% of cases, managers seconded by NIM Europe to its clients are recruited for key positions. Even if this is not the initial objective, for us it is a guarantee of satisfaction.  

Some recent examples of interim management assignments