Securing results-driven executive managers with specific skills, experience and demonstrable performance required by a business for a fixed, or foreseeable, period of time and who are required to deliver on an agreed upon mandate, without the complications of becoming a permanent employee, and who do not need to learn on the job and who are able to "hit the ground running".
"Interim Executives are there to service an immediate need, task or function for a specific time period. By nature, they have extensive experience in the role they will be fulfilling and the true Interim Executive will work themselves out of a job"
What Interim Executives Solutions is not...
Classic contract work or pure 'temping'
Simply body-shopping an individual for a position
Junior or inexperienced resources branded as Interim Executives
Labour broking
Our products
Mindcor has developed a number of products that have been designed to meet the varied needs of our clients. Discussions with our clients and potential clients have indicated that a generic approach is not likely to meet South Africa's complex skills (and labour) needs.
In its current form, interim management started in the Netherlands in the late 70s in response to extremely restrictive labour regulations that gave employees the right to long notice periods and significant costs when companies wanted to change people in senior positions.
From there, it spread to the UK in the late 1980s. The spread into the UK was done without much pomp and ceremony or media hype. Interim Management expanded consistently over the years and now the UK is considered the centre of excellence for Interim Management worldwide with an industry estimated to be worth well over £1 billion.
Interim Management then started moving to other parts of the world where it gaining a strong foothold e.g. USA, France, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Australia and the expansion from there is expected to be swift and pervasive.
The writing is clearly on the wall: Restrictive labour legislation, employment equity, black economic empowerment, skills shortages and the recessionary environment have created a perfect storm for Interim Management in South Africa. Mindcor is well positioned to take Interim Management forward in South Africa and, indeed, the whole of Africa.
Observations:
In South Africa, temping has been limited to unskilled, semi-skilled or technical specialist roles. SA Temping Companies are continually looking for ways to move higher up the curve. Temping is seen as a high volume, "bums-in-seats" model in SA.
Interim Executives do not fit the traditional mould of temps in SA as they are senior, experienced executives with a proven track record but they bring all of the benefits of temping along with them.
The worldwide trend has been for Executives to start temping once they have developed extensive experience in a particular role
In South Africa, most companies are still focussed on holding onto their Executives at all costs and have not started seeing the value of bringing in new Interim Executives
There is a trend towards using interim managers on projects in South Africa but this is still in an infancy
So you can hit the ground running then? Naturally as an experienced Interim Executive the answers roll off the tongue. Expert, adaptable, integrate well with teams, fixer, excellent communicator, the more in trouble an organisation the better, work well in any industry and across disciplines, can make and carry out strategic decisions...
So what happens when you begin an assignment? How long does it actually take to hit the ground running and win the respect and cooperation of peers, team members and executive management?
Iain Hamilton, who is currently on assignment at the University of Pretoria, has written a paper on Interim Management. He has very kindly given us the go ahead to share it with you. We are publishing an abridged version:
Interim Management and Consultancy - A Comparison
Historically, specialist consultancies and consulting units attached to company auditors have provided assistance to organisations undergoing change. Their role was mainly advisory, and directed towards the client accepting their recommendations. Implementation was ...
In South Africa, temping has been limited to unskilled, semi-skilled or technical specialist roles. SA Temping Companies are continually looking for ways to move higher up the curve. Temping is seen as a high volume, "bums-in-seats" model in SA.