An interim manager or a consultant for your company?
There are numerous situations in which external support is necessary in a company: operational vacancies in the event of illness, accident or maternity leave, company takeovers or mergers, a priority project, insufficient resources or know-how in start-ups, etc. What supports your company is in such situations efficiently are specific know-how and a wealth of experience of a proven expert in the required specialist area. He / she brings many years of experience from other projects, companies and cultures as well as an external, objective perspective to your company.
But what kind of external support do you bring into your company?
Management consultants primarily focus on improving organizational performance by analysing existing challenges and developing plans to improve them - but they are not responsible for implementing them. In the case of the leading service organizations in particular, the costs for management consultants are sometimes considerably high.
An Interim Manager, on the other hand, is a manager with high qualifications and extensive professional experience from high-level management positions. He / she can be hired within a short period of time for a defined period of time in order to tackle existing challenges, implement defined improvement plans or lead the company through a transformation. An Interim Manager works on site in your company, like an internal staffing - with the advantage of concrete, predictable costs. This kind of “internal temporary staffing”, instead of an external consultant, creates advantageous proximity to employees and complex projects and the Interim Manager assumes full responsibility for a task or project.
In contrast to external consultants, Interim Managers weight arguments differently. They put the company's resources into the balance with the aim of realizing a project efficiently. The focus is not on their own consultant fee. A proven approach is thereby the definition of measurable goals in order to make and implement the right decisions focused on projects with high priority.
Since an interim manager is engaged for clearly defined tasks or projects, there are fewer "idle runs" than with other models. There are no “sidelights”, which often result from long-term engagement in a project and often lead to a loss of efficiency.
Also, when it comes to cover a department or position for a period of time which is needed to find the right permanent manager, an interim manager can be the right choice to bridge the gap in your company.