Interim » Case Studies

Case Study # 3 - BEE Assistance

  • A company in involved in the FMCG space recently lost their Chief Operating Officer due to an unexpected and highly political resignation
  • There are currently 5 Executive Director positions :CEO, CFO, CIO, HRD, COO (vacant)
  • Each Executive Director has a fully staffed operational team to support them
  • It is critical to the businesses’ continued existence that this role be performed on a day-to-day basis
  • The 2IC for the COO is a very accomplished black female who is suited to the role and, after working on a few development areas, will be ready in 9-12 months time.

 

How would we typically resolve this challenge?

  1. Leave the post vacant for the 9-12 months it takes for the current successor to be ready
  2. Promote the current successor into the role immediately
  3. Recruit a permanent COO to fulfil the role going forward

 

What are the implications of our traditional approach

  1. Not having a COO for 9-12 months is likely to have long-lasting impacts on the business and this would create a significant challenge in developing the current successor seeing that there is no senior Operations executive to train and mentor her
  2. The company runs the risk of setting up the successor for failure if they cannot implement an effective training and mentoring programme that will give the necessary support while the current successor “learns the ropes”
  3. Bringing in a permanent COO at this stage will meet the business need in the short term but will damage the organisations BEE strategy and increases the risk that the current successor will leave.

An innovative way to solve this challenge would be to parachute in an experienced and results driven executive to:

  • Care-take the COO position for 9-12 months while the black incumbent is developed for the role.
  • The Interim will be tasked with skills transfer, grooming and handover to the candidate for the new role

 

Benefits

  • Employing somebody with a proven track record of success (not just strategic but mainly operational)
  • Not promoting an existing employee into an “Acting” role and then demoting them once a replacement is found
  • Not expecting current executives to fulfil a part-time COO role along with their normal responsibilities
  • Committing to sustainable transformation and creating opportunities for people
  • Skills transfer and handover to existing or new incumbents


Concerns

  • Would an interim be able to “hit the ground running”
  • Will they understand our culture and ways of working?
  • What if they don’t deliver?
  • Why would somebody want to be an Interim Executive and not have permanent employment?