tag:agim-ece.com,2005:/en/feed_blogAGIM Blog (EN)2019-06-14T00:00:00+02:00tag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/1042019-06-14T00:00:00+02:002019-06-04T11:18:43+02:00What if you ask an Interim manager to stay as an employee?<div class="richtext"><p>Interim managers are hired to complete a project for a limited time period, usually counted in months.</p>
<p>They are usually overqualified for the job they are asked to do.</p>
<p>They accept to commute longer distance on a daily or weekly basis.</p>
<p>Interim Managers cost the company more than they would if employed.</p>
<p>Therefore, we are always challenging a Client hesitating between an Interim and an employee.</p>
<p>And we put quite severe non-solicitation clauses into our business conditions and contracts.</p>
<p>However, we hear very often from our clients: if he/she is really good, we will try to offer him/her a job.
How do we deal with it?</p>
<p>As providers, we should mediate and facilitate understanding and respecting the motivation of all involved.</p>
<p>From our clients point of view:</p>
<p>IM assignments often go hand in hand with transition or transformation projects. When organisations evolve, different people with different competencies are needed. And organisations are made out of people. The IM seems to be the closest resource at hand to make a new setup sustainable, especially if the “human chemistry” works.</p>
<p>So, if the Client is interested, they may always ask IM and his provider, being prepared for both a YES or a NO.
This should no way impact the cooperation on the mandate as an Interim mandate is not a “Try and hire” arrangement.</p>
<p>From the Interim Managers perspective</p>
<p>Of corse, it’s seducing being offered by the client to stay. They ask you because of what you are bringing to the company and usually, you may negotiate better conditions as if you would ask for a job yourself. And follow up on the project with the people you already know.</p>
<p>On the other hand, consider how becoming an employee will impact the relationship with the client, their management and other involved employees. And consider the impact on the tasks and completion of the project you have been hired for. Do you enjoy your independence more than you fear not finding your next mandate?</p>
<p>An Interim manager is not worse when considering to enter into an employment again.
Choosing to work as an Interim many managers will not deny their corporate past: it is one of the key conditions to succeed as an Transition or Transformation leader.
On their first, second or maybe the tenth assignment they may realise their motivation to join a company as an employee again.</p>
<p>As for us, providers:</p>
<p>We shall insist on our non-solicitation clauses to avoid a “try and hire” approach by Clients and managers “in between jobs”.
At the same time, we shall be open and flexible when are Interim managers listen to offers made by Clients, as long as we are informed.</p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/992019-05-29T00:00:00+02:002019-05-29T14:20:01+02:00Interim managers need references!<div class="richtext"><p>The selection and appointment of an Interim manager take often only a few days.</p>
<p>Before making up their mind, our Clients usually ask: do you know the Interim manager in person? Have you worked with him before?</p>
<p>Fortunately, we know most of the Czech Interims from their previous career as corporate managers and our experience as Executive Search Consultants.</p>
<p>But is this enough to judge them as Interim managers? I doubt about it.</p>
<p>As Interim or transformation managers, they rely on their corporate experience but need to develop a different approach and quality.
They also meet different challenges in each assignment and complete or alter their profile within a few years.</p>
<p>For sure, many challenges in Interim assignments are specified on the go and some of them do not end well. The reasons for failure are not always with the transition/transformation manager or at least they are shared.</p>
<p>Some Interim managers also believe they have to describe even failing missions/mandates as a success and are reluctant providing references they judge as unfair.</p>
<p>Here comes our responsibility as Interim provider: we have to ensure references no matter if they are favorable to the Interim manager or not. In the latter case, they will profit any future client and finally as well the Interim manager.</p>
<p>So we encourage interim managers to ask our client for references at the end of each mandate and clients to take the time to provide and ask for them. And trust us as providers to leverage and objectivize them for the profit of all involved sides.</p>
<p>It is one of the easiest ways to improve the quality of Interim management and increase Client satisfaction.</p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/612018-02-15T00:00:00+01:002018-08-15T16:59:29+02:00AGIM has become an official member of Globalise<div class="richtext"><p>We are proud and happy to announce that AGIM is today an official partner of GLOBALISE the Global Interim Management Group, representing market leaders such VALTUS in France, ATREUS in Germany, Patina in the USA NORDIC INTERIM across the Nordic Countries and Accord in Belgium.</p>
<p>Interim Management is becoming an internationally a respected tool for Change Management. As partner of <a href="http://globalise.com">Globalise</a> we are able to offer our clients most appropriate expertise and offer our Interim Managers most interesting opportunities.</p>
<p>For the past decade, AGIM has been providing Interim Management Solutions to clients across the Czech and Slovak market. The firm co-founded CAIM the first Czech publicly represented Group of Interim Managers.</p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/452015-08-15T00:00:00+02:002015-09-16T08:58:46+02:00Case study: Program manager<div class="richtext"><p>A production plant of an automotive supplier acquired a project for the the new platform.
Completely new products to be manufactured. The project required co-ordination of R&D, technology, production, suppliers/purchasing and logistics.</p>
<p>The Program manager was responsible for all activities necessary in order to launch a product from
customer nomination until launch and running smoothly in production. He was required to manage
more than one program simultaneously over a number of locations.</p>
<p>The holder was accountable for:</p>
<ul>
<li>Planning, organization and target setting:</li>
<li>Set up / maintains program structure (timing, team, budget), plans required resource</li>
<li>Cascades agreed program targets to team members</li>
<li>Generates program timing / planning according to customer milestones and internal</li>
<li>Controlling / Managing / Problem Solving</li>
<li>Systematically manages program risks</li>
<li>Empowered to take any decision required for the program (within defined limits)</li>
<li>Solves conflicts at his level and within the team</li>
<li>Escalates issues to management that cannot be solved within team</li>
<li>Task Execution</li>
<li>Integrates lessons learned from previous programs</li>
<li>Prototype order processing for programs</li>
<li>Communication and Reporting</li>
<li>Communicates to customer (timing, program status, change management)</li>
</ul>
<p>Length: 6 months (prolonged)<br />
Capacity: full</p>
<p>The role was handed over with a proper training to a Project manager just in a SOP time.</p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/432015-07-20T00:00:00+02:002015-08-20T14:02:26+02:00Case study: Interim Project Buyer<div class="richtext"><p>Time and task defined project, acting within project launch team.</p>
<p>The global company with sites and R&D centres spread accross the worlds. The new suppliers were to be introduced and gradually grew in importance.</p>
<p>Lenghth: 12 months
Capacity: 60%</p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/422015-05-10T00:00:00+02:002015-03-30T14:39:13+02:00Case study: SSC & interim HRM<div class="richtext"><p>The world’s leading international healthcare, medical assistance, and security services company located in Prague, has developed global shared service (GSS) activities for other company offices around the western world, and has increased its staff to 90 Headcount.</p>
<p>GSS was the core activity in the Czech Republic, delivering finance, sales & HR centralized services to the whole EMEA and Americas regions. HR manager supporting the organization with a team of 3 colleagues, was going to leave. The official job holder is supposed to be on maternity leave 6 - 8 months.</p>
<p>Company decided to assign an experienced interim HR manager, who should for 8 months take-over the position of a regular HR manager with main tasks:
Recruitment, development plan & training of existing staff (talent management), internal transfers
HR admin agenda: attendance, reports on headcounts
Management of the whole HR agenda, including direct reports and group HR objectives</p>
<p>The realized project objectives by our AGIM Interim HRM:</p>
<ul>
<li>HR daily operation</li>
<li>Ensured HR projects according to agreed priorities for agreed period incl. a training matrix</li>
<li>Revision of Talent management documents</li>
<li>Recruitment according to the approved plan and budget</li>
<li>Advisory on HR processes and activities of an existing HR department or management team (ad hoc) – as needed</li>
</ul>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/362015-04-20T00:00:00+02:002015-03-30T14:38:43+02:00Case study: Interim Finance Manager in Automotive Industry<div class="richtext"><p>Pavel took over the position of Finance Manager of the manufacturing plant of Schneider Electric Pisek in July 2009, and his temporary mission ended in November 2009.</p>
<p>He came into difficult situation regarding the Finance department, as there was missing Finance Manager for some months, and he joined the team just before the period of 2010 Business Plan preparation.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, Pavel is a senior management executive with a substantial level of relevant experience from various company functions. His most valuable contribution is the ability to share this experience with his clients and willingness to help them to capitalize such ideas and the capability to create new solutions of difficult things.</p>
<p>He brought to our company an external view of a standalone entity management, showing quick adaptation and understanding to the Business Model used in such complex company.</p>
<p>He redesigned procedure for currency operations to be more efficient, this was done by changing a workflow and by putting into action the respective SAP procedure upgrade. This change brought us a remarkable currency transactions cost reduction.</p>
<p>Pavel also facilitated a refinancing of company debt by a new type of credit, much more adjusted to the business needs, which also led to dramatic annual interest expense savings.</p>
<p>Apart from these major issues, we also substantially decreased annual audit fee, as a result of price negotiation.</p>
<p>In summary, Pavel brought to our company, in a very limited period of time, annual savings in the value of 1,42 % of 2010 sales. During his months with our company, apart from day to day Finance Department management, we did also a cross functional CAPEX process redesign as a consequence of headcount reduction in Finance Department, forced by external economic conditions and led by Pavel, and prepared a persistent provisioning policy to make company results more transparents.</p>
<p>As Pavel seems to be more strategy and “helicopter view” oriented, in order to increase his efficiency for his future projects, I would recommend him to work together with a team of detail focused persons to action and visions.</p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/222015-03-11T00:00:00+01:002015-03-25T11:20:25+01:00Where do interim managers come from?<div class="richtext"><p><strong>Where do interim managers come from?</strong></p>
<p>For many years interim management (IM) has been considered as something still around the corner in the evolving Central European markets. Companies considered their managers and specialists as their most important assets, and highly qualified employees were enjoying upcoming new challenges with their current employer or the next better offer from the market.</p>
<p>However, even in an economy driven by growth and foreign investment, there have been opportunities for project-driven managers: privatization, mergers and acquisitions, and expansions to new internal and external markets.</p>
<p>Many of these projects have been completed by Czech (mostly employed) managers, who gained experience in different organizations. Each project moved them further, to bigger challenges and new markets.</p>
<p>Since late 2008, two things happened in the contracting market. The number of managerial positions decreased across all industries and organizations, and the nature of managerial challenges changed from “growth, expansion, stabilization” to “limiting damage and adapting to the new context.”</p>
<p>These new circumstances are favorable to the development of interim management as a service and as well to the differentiation of self-employed interim managers from employed managerial staff.</p>
<p><strong>Internal or external?</strong></p>
<p>Enterprises facing change projects will have to ask themselves, whether they have the internal resources and changes agents to implement change and/or to push the organization in a new direction. If the company does not have the resources, it will have to decide if it would make sense to employ a manager for the change project and take the responsibility for his professional career after the completion of the project, or if it shall engage an independent interim manager, who would work on a limited-time project basis.</p>
<p>Senior managers and specialists will have to decide for their sake, if they would like to search for their next job, providing them with the relative security and protection provided by a labor contract even if the managerial jobs available on the Czech market are smaller and competition is growing. In many cases they will compete with younger and less experienced, but more hungry Czech managers and face employers, who prefer to recruit talent rather than experience.</p>
<p>There are, however, some individuals with a proven record of corporate management experience who decide not to move back to jobs they have left behind. In this case, they have two choices: to create their own enterprises or to work as interim managers for companies in need of their specific experience on a project basis.</p>
<p><strong>Who is an interim manager?</strong></p>
<p>Interim managers are not necessarily supermen/women and – in most cases – they do not need experience from the U.S., Russian or other international markets. Interim managers are often born in the time of economic downturn, in the Benelux countries and the UK in the 1980s, in Germany starting in 2000 and now in the Czech Republic and the CEE region.</p>
<p>The link between IM and crisis often leads to the conclusion that interim managers are corporate managers unable to find a new employment. This perception or prejudgment does not take into account that the job of an interim manager necessitates in many aspects more energy, preparation, decisiveness and adaptability than a usual corporate management job.</p>
<p>So, interim managers are people with a corporate past who have chosen to work on a project basis for any number of reasons.</p>
<p><strong>Personality is the most important</strong></p>
<p>When we started looking at interim management and interim managers, we first invited those who are already working as managers on projects for company owners or their representatives. We invited them to round tables and assessment centers in order to learn how they differ from corporate managers. After a few sessions with different groups of people we realized it was more about personality than about skills and experience, which are needed anyway and can be checked from references.</p>
<p>Interim managers distinguished themselves by a high level of autonomy and confidence paired with determination and a high commitment to the task and project they have been entrusted with. This commitment is more important to them than the need to make themselves irreplaceable in the organization they are working for. Staying for a limited time, they are often working on projects and positions, for which they would be considered overqualified with regard to their past experience.</p>
<p>Seven of ten managers, who approach us for interim manager positions, where actually not made for this job and we have to sort it out with them. Even among interim managers, there are people made for different interim management jobs. There are change managers, who can move mountains, but always have to move at the right moment not to destroy their own accomplishments; there are skill- and method-driven project managers (for example for Lean or Six Sigma projects), who can teach organizations during a limited time; and there are experienced professionals motivated by stepping temporarily into the shoes of a manager absent for a couple of months.</p>
<p><strong>Demand vs. offer</strong></p>
<p>Recently, we have learned in the media about the lack of appropriate interim managers in the Czech market. Our experience does not confirm this statement: whenever asked by a client, we were able to find within a few weeks complementary individuals interested and qualified for the task. More often, we are struggling with potential clients who have a too opportunistic approach and do not really differentiate an interim manager from a manager in a “try and hire” working mode.</p>
<p>A mature interim manager would not accept a “try and hire” offer, but he/she can often add more value to the company facing change than a person striving to get long-term employment. But a company might access a much more senior and experienced resource to solve the situation it faces if it decides to opt for an interim manager.</p>
<p><em>Jana Martinová is managing partner for the Czech Republic and Slovakia at AGIM</em></p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/372015-03-05T00:00:00+01:002015-03-25T14:56:52+01:00Case study: Global FMCG producer acquired a local plant<div class="richtext"><p><strong>Project description:</strong>
Our client was a global FMCG producer. The company acquired a local plant in Nothern Bohemia and was looking for an <strong>Interim Operation Manager</strong> able to integrate local structure to global functions and stabilize the Operation Management.</p>
<p><strong>Detailed description:</strong>
The international management was in place for some time, but lacking strong local Operational Manager as support. Operations Manager reported to local GM, regional managers as well co-operated with global sales structure.</p>
<p><strong>Tasks of Interim Manager:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Lead, coordinate and supervise the operations of production</li>
<li>Full P&L responsibility of the plant</li>
<li>Ensure on time delivery and quality standards are met</li>
<li>Lead and motivate the Plant supervisory team</li>
<li>Report to (and manage relationships with) superiors</li>
<li>Planning and budgeting,</li>
<li>Implement new technologies, procedures and systems where appropriate,</li>
<li>Ensure that cost control targets are met,</li>
<li>Liaise with clients</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Length of the assignement:</strong> 6 months, finally prolonged to 14 months!</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion:</strong></p>
<p>The role of an Interim Operations Manager was introduced to company,
Interim Operations Manager was successfully co-operating and fulfilling his agreed tasks with structures for 14 months. The company decided to hire the Operations Manager as Director of the Site.</p>
</div>AGIMtag:agim-ece.com,2005:Post/302010-06-17T00:00:00+02:002015-01-26T14:07:27+01:00Flying Managers (Hospodářské noviny)<div class="richtext"><p><a href="http://hn.ihned.cz/c1-44242240-letajici-manazeri">Benefits and risks of Interim Management</a> in the Czech Republic, its origins and comparison with consultancy. Comments by Miloš Medřický nad Jana Martinová in the Czech language.</p>
</div>AGIM