Interim management

Interim management is the temporary provision of management resources and skills. Interim management can be seen as the short-term assignment of a proven heavyweight interim executive manager to manage a period of transition, crisis or change within an organization. In this situation, a permanent role may be unnecessary or impossible to find on short notice. Additionally, there may be nobody internally who is suitable for, or available to take up, the position in question. Historical antecedents come from ancient Roman times, with ancient Roman publicans (Latin: publicanus, plural: publicani) or "Roman contractors" being engaged to erect or maintain public buildings, supply armies overseas, or collect certain taxes (such as tithes and customs). This system for letting contracts was well established by the 3rd century BC. The modern practice of interim management started in the mid to late-1970s, when permanent employees in The Netherlands were protected by long notice periods and companies faced large costs for terminating employees. Hiring temporary managers seemed like an ideal solution. Interim Management was introduced for the first time in Europe by the Dutch consulting firm Boer and Croon, as an operational completion and implementation of the recommendations contained in the strategy projects managed by the firm. Facing extreme rigidity in hiring and firing managers and the need for extreme flexibility and speed, the solution of being able to dispose top management skills on short notice and for limited periods of time seemed to be the ideal one. As a consequence of the success of this service in the Netherlands, Boer and Croon signed, in February 1987, a Joint Venture with the Executive Search firm Egon Zehnder International and with the Private Equity fund Euroventures, to start a new business initiative "EIM - Executive Interim Management" which its scope was to spread the Interim Management service around the world thanks to the network international of Egon Zehnder offices.