2 min read
Interim management: what it is, and when a mid-sized company needs it
A term borrowed from large corporates, increasingly recommended by accountants, private equity funds, court-appointed administrators, prevention-network practitioners and other leadership networks for mid-sized companies. What it covers, and how it differs from a standard advisory engagement.
Interim management means an outside leader taking full operational charge of a business or subsidiary, for as long as it takes to stabilise the situation, drive a change, or see it through a pivotal moment, before handing back. It is not an audit, and it is not advisory work: it comes with full responsibility, including for the P&L. It can run from a few months to more than a year.
Few owner-managers reach for the term themselves; they think in terms of “cover” or a “stand-in”. Their advisers, lawyers and accountants, know it well from larger deals and suggest it naturally whenever a situation calls for it.
What it covers
Interim management means a leader taking charge of a business for a defined period, with the same authority and responsibility as a leader in post, not the role of an observer or an adviser.
- A struggling subsidiary, with no leader in place able to turn it around from within.
- A post-acquisition situation, while things are integrated and stabilised.
- The sudden departure of a leader, while a permanent successor is found and installed.
- Governance to be held together through a pivotal period: a sale, a shareholder reorganisation, an acute cash crisis.
How it differs from advisory work
- Responsibility for the result, not just the recommendation: the P&L carries the interim manager's name, not an outside firm's.
- A continuous presence, not occasional engagements: the interim manager is in the business, day to day.
- A mandate with a defined end, typically six to eighteen months, set from the outset rather than extended as it goes.
- A built-in handover: the mandate includes choosing and training whoever takes over next.
When to consider it
Advisers familiar with the term reach for it as soon as a business finds itself without someone at the helm at the wrong moment: a leader who leaves with no successor ready, a shareholder taking over a business they cannot run alone, or a subsidiary head office can no longer oversee from a distance. In every case, the question is not “do we need another consultant”, but “who is actually running this while the situation gets resolved”.
“Leading on an interim basis does not mean leading by half. It means taking full responsibility for a result and for the teams delivering it, for as long as it takes for the business no longer to need you.”
Christophe Babut, founder of Novexys
I ran companies before I advised them.
The founder
