Temporary managers in Italia, the growth of a flexible model for SMEs and large companies

Needs related to speed of action and organisational flexibility are certainly among the main factors of choice. Interim management allows a manager to be placed within the organisation in 5-10 days, whereas an executive search process may take 4-6 months. Its other advantages: it does not entail any search and selection costs, it does not present the risk of 'getting a placement wrong', it does not bind the structure in the long term, and it allows the company to incur a certain cost linked to a specific and temporary need.

Moreover, he or she is immediately integrated into the context, is immediately operational and effective without the classic learning curve of a 'permanent' figure, and brings an added value that derives from his or her seniority and experience. All in all, the choice of an interim manager is particularly effective and rational in all situations that require immediacy of intervention, high-level skills and professionalism, and the need not to 'encumber' a structure.

In Italia, the use of this figure is often linked to extraordinary transactions or even liquidity crises: is the relationship between ownership and management changing?

Certainly, the vision of the interim manager is evolving from an 'emergency' tool, driven by necessity rather than opportunity, to an organic tool functional to the company's growth and development. Today, the entrepreneur is realising the need to be supported in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical and economic context by professionals capable of analysing and intervening in the decision-making process. In this context, management, which in the past was too often perceived as almost competing with or almost outnumbering the role of the entrepreneur, is today acquiring a supporting role and a strategic ally that brings added value.

Can the Interim therefore be read as a strengthening of governance, especially in family SMEs?

The interim manager is a highly valuable element in the governance balances of small and medium-sized enterprises. As a third party, not emotionally involved, he or she acts outside family dynamics and opposing interests, in the superior interest of the company and not of one party: he or she brings rationality and solidity and supports the SME in critical moments, often helping to eliminate the sense of loneliness that afflicts the entrepreneur in times of difficulty or change. This figure can also provide crucial support in the delicate phase of the generational handover, an increasingly hot topic in Italian business dynamics, by consciously accompanying the children in the transition or accompanying the company towards the capital market when succession is not possible or unfeasible.

How important is the need for specialised skills (in AI, for example) and how does the 'time-based' executive become an enabling lever to accelerate changes that management struggles to drive?

Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, when multiplied together, give rise to chaos, in a scenario that cannot be avoided but must be managed. Only sound governance and consolidated decision-making processes based on solid data allow that level of control over chaos that prevents the company from being dragged into it. Specialised skills underpin the ability to choose and use technological tools, such as artificial intelligence, but we must not forget that we are talking about tools. How to use them, and how to exploit the information that these tools allow one to acquire and process in times that were unthinkable until yesterday, remains the heritage of the manager. The interim figure normally has skills that are oversized with respect to the role to be filled and comes from contexts other than that of the company. Moreover, he is not bound by the dangerous concept of 'we have always done it this way' but aims to guide the internal team towards new methods and ambitious goals, without competing with or conflicting with the existing structure, but guiding internal resources on a path of growth that consolidates before his departure.

We talk about 'impatient active owners' and an increasing pressure on results: is the temporary manager therefore a response to a more performance-oriented corporate culture?

It is clear that all companies today measure results and are 'performance driven'. The vision associated with a strong and immediate ability to execute distinguishes the interim manager, it is part of his culture and differentiates him clearly from the classic consultant. He is not a mere executor but also brings planning skills to the company, he knows how to define objectives and he knows how to develop the strategy by translating it into concrete actions that must be measured to be validated or immediately corrected.

A final question: what indicators are typically used to evaluate the success of an interim assignment?

They can be different depending on the type of intervention and the business area involved; beyond those of the sector, surely the main performance indicator is the improvement of Ebitda and the ability to generate cash. This must be the real goal: organisational improvement, efficiency ratios, productivity, the financial cycle, and the sizing of working capital are all parameters that must converge towards an increase in profitability and the creation of 'enterprise value'.