Interim
managers are playing a key role in turning around distressed manufacturing
companies and guiding financial services through major turbulence in the
marketplace.
They
are also spearheading a government drive to modernise the public sector at
central and local level.
These
are among key findings of a survey undertaken by Praxis Interim Management of
more than 1,400 UK interim managers.
Manufacturing
was the single largest sector using interims (16 per cent) with more than a
quarter of assignments in 2002 at the highest executive level (27 per
cent). Some 15 per cent of these
assignments were at rates of £1,000 a day and higher.
The
public sector, with 14 per cent of total assignments, moved from fifth place in
2001 to joint second with financial services in 2002, which was the largest
sector move and revealed the boom area for interim managers.
The
main areas of employment here were finance and IT (16 per cent and 15 per
cent), which involved organisational change and project management assignments.
Telecoms
(8 per cent), energy (6 per cent) and food and drink (5 per cent) were the
sectors that showed the lowest use of interim managers in 2002, and despite
being distressed areas, the low demand was thought to reflect the fact these
sectors were at different stages of the economic cycle.
The
survey also showed there was an increasing number of people on
performance-related bonuses, particularly those in managing director turnaround
roles with clearly-definable end results.
Patrique
Habboo, managing director of Praxis Interim Management, said: “The manufacturing
sector has been in a prolonged period of turbulence and subsequently has been
importing experts in the form of interim executives to introduce new management
techniques and effect changes critical for survival.
“Similarly,
financial services have been going through a difficult period. Nearly a quarter
of the 237 assignments were in change and project management. Companies in this
sector are responding to the challenges by changing their business models and
engaging external interim executives to help manage and drive through these
change projects.”
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