There are few certainties today, and an experienced interim executive is one of them.
Much is said of what interim management is, but this much is true: it is the management of change, uncertainty, crisis or leadership transition by a suitably overqualified, proven executive working at senior level on an assignment basis.
When it is difficult to know what the markets and competition will bring forth in the next twelve months businesses are holding off permanent recruitment. And who can blame them when a job description written today becomes fiction tomorrow. This leaves a capability gap just when businesses must keep evolving and moving forwards with purpose.
PwC’s Annual UK CEO Survey ¹ underlines the need for change leadership expertise. According to the survey, 98% of UK CEOs ‘expect to make material changes to their business or operating model this year’. 66% ‘are developing new business capabilities or operating models in pursuit of growth’ and 65% are ‘developing new business capabilities…to create new offerings or address new markets’. This survey makes the clear case for bringing in temporary change leadership talent today.
A properly profiled interim, one that is overqualified can have a lot thrown them, which is particularly useful in an unpredictable world. Someone who just matches today’s job description will not have the breadth of experience to manage tomorrow’s uncertainties. CEO’s should also consider hiring an interim first, before rushing into a permanent recruitment process.
Arguably, the sign of a good interim is that you can put them in front of any change issue, and they will know from substantial past experience how to start dealing with it. Experience only gets better and stronger every day enabling those who operate as professional interims to constantly evolve their decision making. That they have worked in multiple businesses and industries means that they bring with them unmatched and applied learning.
Interim executives must be overqualified to do what they do.
Nick Diprose is Founding Partner of Holdsway, one of the UK’s top-rated interim management firms for over a decade.
#Change #Leadership #InterimManagement #InterimExecutive
¹ PricewaterhouseCoopers (2025). PwC UK CEO Survey 2025: Precipice or launch pad? Growth ambitions put CEOs on the verge of generational change - PwC UK. [online] PwC. Available at: https://www.pwc.co.uk/ceo-survey.html [Accessed 23 Jan. 2025].
