Executive Search Services: Why Interim Executives Are Right for Fast-Growing Companies

Interim executives — experienced C-suite leaders who take on short-term roles — traditionally are found in turnaround situations, coming in to save companies on the brink. Or they are brought in to keep a company moving forward while a new permanent hire is identified and onboarded.

But there’s another leadership role that is tailor-made for an interim leader: Using their skills, experience and executive talent to guide fast-growing companies.

An experienced interim executive is the right leader for companies facing big points of change or growth. Interim and fractional executives often step in to address growing pains many organizations feel when they lack the systems and processes to scale. On the other hand, interim executives jump in as a key part of the diligence or post-acquisition integration strategy for companies and private equity firms leveraging an M&A strategy to expand.

It Started in the Tech Sector

We first saw interim executive recruiting take off in the tech community. Startups and fast-growing disruptors are focused on the task at hand. They may not have the human resources to grow their own leaders or the time to waste on a traditional executive search firm to find a permanent hire to fill the necessary executive roles.

Especially in the sector, when a fast moving company is working toward an exit or big payday, the idea of a long-term job with stability doesn’t always line up. It’s about getting the right experienced leadership who will produce results, now.

That’s when an interim solution makes the most sense. It allows companies to bring in rock-star executive leadership and have that person or team onsite fast.

Yahoo was an early adopter of this strategy. In Yahoo’s earliest days, even before the company had been incorporated, an interim Chief Executive Officer, Phil Monego, took the helm. He was responsible for taking Yahoo’s founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, out of their trailer on the campus of Stanford University, hiring the initial management team, taking in venture capital funding from Sequoia, serving as chairman of the board during Yahoo’s IPO, and hiring the first permanent CEO, Tim Koogle.

Yahoo was at the vanguard of a career shift worldwide that would redefine how company owners, boards, and investors would think about interim talent.

While permanent executives are well positioned to execute long-term plans and keep the train on the tracks, an on-demand exec— CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, CSO, CTO, or CIO — can be called on individually or as a team to have maximum impact setting up a company for success.

The Power of Interim Leadership at Fast-Growing Companies

Cleve Adams was CEO of Websense when the cybersecurity company grew from zero to 20,000 enterprise customers in its first three years.

Having grown Websense from pre-revenue to a $1 Billion IPO, Adams realized he could take the skills he’d acquired in rapidly growing teams, channel development, distribution, and partnerships and use them to grow other companies. He became a serial interim CEO, creating high-growth situations in his next five engagements.

Dedicated interim executives – those top executives who specialize in interim management – have similar stories of launching companies, spinning off divisions of larger corporations, or applying Fortune 500 training to smaller companies that all aspire to greater success. Companies get the benefit of bringing in a leader who has seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and who can come in with a toolkit to ensure best practices are being applied from day one.

Why Interim Leadership Excels

How do interim executives produce above-market and above-average returns? It comes from both an attitude, skill set, and track record that accepts higher risk.

Many permanent executives won’t make waves and rather often get caught up in the corporate politics as they lobby for a long-term job. That means they fail to create breakthrough products or revolutionary strategies, and results tend to stay within the pack.

For fast-growth companies, those kinds of me-too strategies are company killers.

The interim executive search process at InterimExecs involves identifying qualified candidates who excel at speaking truth to power. They start the job by listening to everyone from the leadership team to the frontline workers. But once the strategic initiatives are in place, they are in go-forward mode. Nothing can stop the train.

After screening 7,000+ executives to form InterimExecs RED Team, our team hand-selected top executives across specialties including CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CTO, CMO, and CSO who span industries from healthcare to manufacturing, consumer goods to technology.

Interim and fractional executives are choosy about projects because they want to make an impact. And let’s face it – there are no long term contracts, no benefits, no severance. No job stability in this line of work. That means if you don’t perform, you’re shown the door and you probably don’t have much of a future career in interim management. Ultimately, for an executive it’s about the scope of the assignment and the challenge that determines if they engage.

For fast-growing companies, that sense of purpose, excitement, and potential, combined with years of experience is gasoline poured on a fire when a success-seeking interim executive arrives on the job.

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Is your company in need of new leadership adept at fast growth? Contact us for a confidential conversation about how a RED Team Interim executive can meet your needs. Prefer to call us directly? We can be reached by phone or text at +1-847-849-2800.