Interim Management Author(s): Romain Brossault Tutor: Prof. Dr. Philippe Daudi Rémi Jaussoin Subject: Business Administration Leadership and Management in International Context Level and semester: Master's thesis, Spring 2010 Acknowledgements We wish to thank first and foremost our professor Dr. Philippe Daudi, he has guided our research at the right time by sharing his suggestions. He has been always available for intensive and rational discussions. For his confidence and his support during the process of the thesis, we are deeply grateful to him. Secondly, we would like to express our great gratefulness to the help of Thomas Starkloff, Consultant and Interim Manager, who has provided us a lot of information. We also want to express our gratitude to Murielle Veuriot, Olivier Martineau and Laurent Juery, that we interviewed for this study. They gave us their valuable time and we have advanced thanks to their contribution to knowledge and experiences on the ground. These interviews of professionals would not have been possible without the grant; therefore we want to thank Linnaeus University as well as our tutor the professor Dr. Philippe Daudi for this financial support. Then, we want to say thanks to Damien Brossault for his comments since the prior drafts of this manuscript. Last but not least, we are thankful for Francine Pépin who helped us to improve our English in our Thesis. II Abstract The economic context changes, companies adapt and recruitment evolves. As future managers and leaders, or simply new actors in the working environment, this is our duty to be aware of the demand of the market. The economic situation has a huge impact on the recruitment and this more so in a crisis period (Aswegen, 2009). In order to respond of the need of flexibility, facing crisis situation or simply facing the need of change, Interim Management seems to correspond to this request or is at least one of the tools that companies can take into consideration. During the previous phase of our thesis, we realized that only a few people were aware of this promising concept of management. It became a challenge for us, we wanted to know more about this topic and to write a paper in order to share the knowledge that we would gather through the process of depicting this emerging phenomenon called „Interim Management‟ while remaining objective. During our research and interviews, we met recruitment consultants, Interim Managers, and corporate human resources‟ directors; all of these meetings helped us to understand companies‟ needs and what they expect when hiring Interim Managers. Our thesis aims at explaining and depicting the emerging concept of Interim Management in order to give our vision of the reality. III Table of content Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................II Abstract .............................................................................................................................................III 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background ...............................................................................................................................2 1.2 Problem Analysis .......................................................................................................................3 1.3 Aim of the thesis .......................................................................................................................3 1.4 The research question ...............................................................................................................4 1.5 Structure of the thesis ...............................................................................................................4 2 Methodology....................................................................................................................................5 2.1 Overview of the Analytical approach .........................................................................................6 2.2 Collecting data and Analyzing data ............................................................................................6 2.3 Case study research...................................................................................................................7 3 Leadership Skills ...............................................................................................................................8 3.1 The need of certain power and ability to influence ....................................................................8 3.2 The need of creating trust .........................................................................................................9 3.3 The importance of communication .......................................................................................... 10 3.4 Decision-making ...................................................................................................................... 11 3.5 The capacity of adaptability/flexibility ..................................................................................... 11 3.6 The importance of the technical Skills ..................................................................................... 12 4 Interim Management phenomenon ................................................................................................. 13 4.1 Context ................................................................................................................................... 13 a) Interim Management‟ age .................................................................................................. 14 b) Line of business (Sector) ................................................................................................... 15 c) Domain of intervention of Managers .................................................................................. 15 d) Positions of Interim Managers ........................................................................................... 17 e) Duration/ frequency of the mission .................................................................................... 18 IV f) Threats .............................................................................................................................. 19 g) Future of the Interim Management ..................................................................................... 20 4.2 Interim Manager’s profile ........................................................................................................ 22 a) Interim Manager .................................................................................................................... 22 b) Recruitment comparison........................................................................................................ 26 4.3 Interim Management strenghts ............................................................................................... 27 a) Interim Managers advantages - Why work as an interim manager? ....................................... 28 b) The necessity of using Interim Management .......................................................................... 28 c) Clients advantages ................................................................................................................. 29 d) Surplus value of Interim Managers ........................................................................................ 30 e) Surplus value of the Interim Managers Services Providers ..................................................... 32 4.4 Contractual aspect .................................................................................................................. 35 4.4.1 Contractual relation between the Interim Manager and the „Provider‟ ............................... 35 4.4.2 Other contractual commitments between the Interim Manager and the „Provider‟.............. 37 4.4.3 Relation between the Interim Manager Services Provider and the Client ........................... 38 4.4.4 Fees charged and income .................................................................................................. 38 4.4.5 Research of missions ........................................................................................................ 40 4.5 Steps / Phases / Mission development .................................................................................... 40 4.6 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 42 5 Case study ..................................................................................................................................... 43 5.1 Case description ...................................................................................................................... 43 5.2 Three actors ............................................................................................................................ 44 5.3 Why Interim Management?..................................................................................................... 44 5.4 Chronological briefing of the situation ..................................................................................... 45 5.5 Analysis of the case ................................................................................................................