Situation
Our client is a leading car importer and distributor in Hungary, with 6 sites, in family ownership, managed by the founder since 1990. Unexpectedly he lost confidence in his CFO, who had been working in the company for over 10 years, in an anyway financially challenging market situation.
The owner asked for an immediate help in a desperate Friday afternoon call to provide an interim CFO by Monday morning if possible. He gave convincing, but highly confidential details.
Challenges
- Enable the owner to remove the CFO immediately without the risk of labour disputes
- Seamless and fast takeover of the CFO responsibilities (10 FTE) and financial activities
- Identify the root cause issues leading to the immediate removal of the CFO
- Establish an atmosphere of confidence with the shocked staff in hours to cooperate in the investigation and get support in the daily work
- Advise the owner to solve financial and organizational problems and avoid future difficulties
- Advise the owner in the selection of a new permanent CFO
- Smooth onboarding of the new permanent CFO
Action
With a little bit of luck, the perfect interim manager (already a several times successful in joint projects) could be contacted and convinced over the weekend, while she was on holiday. Also over the weekend a draft contract has been prepared and submitted together with the interim’s cv. An interview has been arranged for Monday afternoon. Based on a full agreement on the scope, the terms and conditions of our service, the contracts have been signed on Tuesday in full confidence. For practical reasons the meeting with and to the unexpected surprise of the acting CFO, in the presence of the company’s HR manager and lawyer was held on Friday morning, with the introduction of the interim CFO at the end of the meeting, and the full takeover of the data and tools later on Friday.
Results
The Interim Manager worked 8 months full time before leaving with the congratulations of the owner and staff. She was offered the permanent position several times, but she wanted to remain interim manager, but helped the new permanent CFO to take over the challenging position.
