5 Types of Interim Managers Who Can Save Your Business
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the term 'interim manager'? Well, most people think that an interim manager's only job is to fill in the gap until a permanent full-time employee comes on board.
However, this is simply not true. Even though interim manager and executives usually join an organization for a temporary period. They can make a lot of a difference and offer a lot of value.
In this article, we will discuss five types of interim executives who have the potential to take your company to the next level in a short period of time.
1. Interim Chief Restructuring Officer
The pandemic has made many businesses engage in the dreaded restructuring process. Let’s face it, restructuring is not fun for anyone—whether it’s the company or the employees. Restructuring is a very complicated process. Moreover, if you are inexperienced, you could end up making mistakes. And if that happens, lawsuits and angry reviews on Glassdoor may follow. That is when your company needs an interim chief restructuring officer. You can hire a restructuring expert in an interim position until your business is stable enough to handle it.
Not only this, but an interim chief restructuring officer can also be a great help during the post-merger stage of your company. When new investors and stakeholders are involved, successful integration is required. It requires creating a high-functioning workplace environment where all the employees work together to achieve business goals. This is easier said than done, so it’s better to leave it to an expert, which in this case is a CRO.
2. Interim Chief Marketing Officer
Is your market presence fading away slowly? Are new competitors making it difficult for you to retain customers? Is your product outdated and you don’t know what to launch next? If you’re struggling with any of these issues, you may need to hire an experienced marketing professional. However, finding highly talented marketing experts who can actually make a difference (like “start an Instagram page to reach millennials”) may be a challenge in itself.
That’s when you need an interim chief marketing officer (CMO). He is a highly experienced, senior-level professional who can get your company back on track. He needs to save you from a complete marketing disaster. It’s likely that you already have entry-level or intermediate marketing professionals working for you. With so many students opting to study marketing in this day and age, there’s no shortage of marketing professionals who are available for hire on a permanent basis.
However, hiring a CMO in an interim position is the best option when you need a highly senior and experienced individual to oversee a very critical marketing project. Ideally, someone who has worked with Fortune 500 or blue-chip companies before, someone who can train your current marketing team, and someone whose temporary presence can make a permanent difference.
Find Interim CMOs here..
3. Interim Talent Acquisition Managers
As a business, your workforce is your biggest asset. Hiring the right staff can help you boost revenue, improve brand image, and satisfy customers. However, sometimes, running a business can make you so busy that you won’t have the time or energy to have a talent acquisition strategy. You may not even need one if you run a very small business that hires a couple of new people every year. But if you’re a small to medium-sized business that hires new staff frequently, then you should definitely hire an interim talent acquisition manager.
Unlike recruitment, which mostly involves finding a candidate and introducing them to the business, talent acquisition is more strategic. An interim manager who is an expert in talent acquisition can overview your organization's talent demand. He can help you plan your recruitment efforts, prepare you for busy periods, offer recommendations for performance improvements, and may also help your existing recruitment team create recruitment strategies.
4. Interim Chief Sales Officers (CSO)
When sales start going down, any business owner will start worrying. A decrease in sales is an emergency situation. And in such a condition, going through the usual recruitment process—that is, reading a hundred CVs, interviewing ten candidates, and choosing one to work with you full-time—is not viable. At times like these, you need a senior sales expert to join your organization as quickly as possible for a short period.
This is when interim chief sales officers come into play. They are charismatic and skilled sales professionals who have years of experience in sales. They can come on board on a temporary basis and examine your current sales strategy. Moreover, they optimize close rate, teach sales secrets to your sales team, and create a robust sales process that will help keep the revenue up.
Find Interim Chief Sales Officers (CSO) here.
5. Interim Chief Financial Officers (CFO)
Working as a chief financial officer is no walk in the park. It’s a job that requires a competent, experienced, and responsible individual who can lead the finance side of an organization. However, if a CFO leaves, the company can still save itself from financial mismanagement by hiring an interim chief financial officer.
Just like you can hire interim managers for other aspects of business, you can also hire an interim executive who specializes in finance. Even if they join a company for six to twelve months. It gives the company enough time to find a full-time CFO, or maybe, hire the interim CFO permanently. CFOs can help you with cash-flow management, financial risk mitigation, and debt and equity financing. Besides this, they can also give you updates regarding your company’s financial performance so you can take relevant actions before it’s too late.
Interim CFOs can do everything a permanent CFO can do if you find the right one. And to find the right one, you should reach out to a reputable online consulting platform (such as Consultport) and state your requirements.
