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Interim executives – changing Government from the inside out
This article is a summary of the recent presentation by Stuart Cain to a gathering of senior public officials at the CBI in London
Streamlining Government is a hot topic at the moment. A little over a year ago we had the Gershon Review and the Lyons Review – and now we have the James Review from the Opposition. There is little that is radical in their conclusions, however the 3 Reviews combined have certainly given fresh impetus to the efficiency programmes that have been running for a number of years. Interim Executives have been quietly at work at a very senior level in Government leading change management programmes.
Because of the sensitivity of these ‘assignments’ they have attracted little publicity, nonetheless, the impact of these ‘change agents’ has been dramatic.
In distilled bullet-point format, Sir Peter Gershon’s recommendations are that organisations must:
- Appoint ‘agents of change’
- Appoint professional Finance Directors
- Purchase more effectively
- Apply best practice
- Improve the efficiency of ‘back-office’ and support functions
- And so….redirect resources to the front line
Gershon also says:
“The Efficiency Team will bring in outside expertise as appropriate to support and challenge Departments, including senior figures from the private and public sectors”.
It is gratifying finally to secure some public recognition for all the work that has been undertaken by Interim Executives and the Interim Providers over the last fifteen years! BIE for example, which started life as the Interim Management arm of PA Consulting Group in 1990, has undertaken many thousands of assignments, about 25% of which are in the Public Sector – Central Government, Government Agencies, Local Government and Not-for-Profit. The common theme of all these assignments has been managing change and transition. BIE now operates a pool of 1000 professional interim executives and runs hundreds of assignments each year.
So who are these ‘Interim Executives’? Generally they are ex-private sector corporate executives who have learned about change management through hands-on experience. They are not job seekers preferring to move from assignment to assignment every 6 to 12 months. They will be experts in their particular functional area – Finance, HR, IT, Procurement for example – but leading and motivating people is their real skill and passion. And to be successful as an Interim Executive you must be passionate. It is not a job for the faint-hearted. Every 6 to 12 months, the Interim starts again with a new situation, a new boss and a new team. The assignment may well mean staying away from home, up at 5 on Monday, back at 9 on Friday. Are they highly paid for this work? Well no, not really. Senior Interim Executives cost in the range £600 to £1600 per day worked – arguably less than the fully loaded cost of employing someone with the add-on costs of NICs, holidays, non-executive work, CPD training, pensions and so on.
What of the Interim Provider? What do they do and how do they add value? Well put it this way: get the right Interim Executive to lead your programme of change and transition you can be sure not only of successful delivery but to get further faster and with reduced risk. Unfortunately, the converse is also true. The purpose of the Interim Provider, working as the advisor to you, the Client, is to find exactly the right person to bring about this transformation. The right person must be heavyweight for the role and have a certain combination of technical skills, situational experience and personal ‘chemistry’. A specialist Provider should be able to work with you to scope the project, specify the ideal Interim, identify and brief the candidate(s), set up the introductions and advise on suitable contracts. There are many agencies purporting to offer Interim Services, very few however add much value to the process. The Client is often left to make the selection entirely unassisted just when they are facing a new and difficult situation and have little or no experience of hiring Interim Executives.
In conclusion – in what circumstances should Interim Executives be used? Well, clearly only when there is no suitable internal resource available. Often Interims are used where a special set of skills are required for a ‘one-off’ project that will never be repeated – Privatisation for example or setting up Shared Service Centres. An Interim should be used to implement an agreed strategy rather than to advise on alternative courses of action. The Interim will devise the implementation plan, secure Board-level agreement and then to deliver the planned changes. But most of all, an Interim will bring to any organisation a fresh and totally objective perspective to challenge the status quo. Are you ready for it?
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To discuss your interim management requirements with BIE call +44(0)20 7222 1010