Having on average more than 14 years experience in the Executive Interim marketplace, SMW Partners provide a high level of leadership who are used to dealing with a diverse range of scenarios.

Interim executives are called on to help improve a variety of issues. As a result, you’d get a different answer from different providers. Executives from different countries differ on what the number one use of an interim executive is. At Senior Management Worldwide (SMW), organizations going through change is one of the biggest reasons interim managers are requested. Leading through change.

At SMW, 20-25% of their executives are placed in businesses where a Director, VP or C-level executive has left and there is a need to fill the hole. Other assignments largely consist of change and large-scale projects moving the organization in a different direction. With this in mind, an interim manager leverages their experience and skills. For this reason, organizations are able to take their operations and growth to the next level.

Creating new roles for interim managers

Sometimes a role is created for an interim to help the business become more efficient. Often these roles didn’t exist before the interim arrived, but after became permanent positions. As a result, they are created when an organization is growing in a different direction. In these cases, new activities and operations need to be managed.

Interim executives set a precedent on how the roles they are filling should be performed. As a result, companies rely on interims to have expertise within these new responsibilities. The interim manager establishes what the platform should look like and help transition the charge to a permanent hire.

Using someone with more experience helps shape what the role will look like. At SMW, they have encountered this situation many times. The interim filling in the role helps both the organization and SMW by understanding and defining the type of individual who can deal with the responsibilities of the role and what it takes to make it successful on a permanent basis.

Interim managers help succession planning

A great way for organizations to test the waters on whether or not they need certain roles is by hiring an interim manager. By coming in and assessing the responsibilities of the role, they can help the organization decide whether the role needs to be filled.  Furthermore, it will help them decide whether to hire internally or from the outside.

For this reason, an interim manager is a less riskier option for the organization either way. They will be able to tell whether the role is better suited from the inside or externally. By walking the company through the steps needed to assess the individuals, they are mitigating the risk of succession planning by bringing in the right person.