April 26, 2017
James B Treleaven

Seven Signs an Interim Executive Can Help Your Company

James B Treleaven | Interim CEO, Turnaround

Interim executives, or interims, have recently become an important tool that organizations can use to effectively address a variety of pressing needs. Having said that, many companies are either unaware that interims are even available or appropriate for their current situation. The most common understanding of the role of an interim is to fill an immediate need in the executive team caused by a sudden voluntary or involuntary departure. In this case, a seasoned executive can step right in and allow the company to progress unabated. While much of what an interim does is similar to consulting, successful execution is critical and unique to the role of interims. This blog presents seven case studies to help companies better understand other instances where interims can help. There are certainly more examples, but these are representative. While seven represents everything from the apocalypse to luck in gambling, we’ll stick with seven.

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March 3, 2017

We Fix. We Optimize. We Grow. We Lead.

Interim Execs works with companies, board members, and investors to match them with C-level talent wherever needed. And it’s not just about title – our Rapid Deployment Program looks at where you are at, and where you want to go.

Maybe there is a leadership gap, or maybe you are trying to get the business to the next level – expanding overseas, acquiring and integrating other businesses, transforming technology and operational processes. Maybe you see trouble on the horizon if you don’t make changes fast.

Interim executives specialize in quickly assessing your business, creating a strategy moving forward, and actually executing on it. Yes, that means doing the work. This is not consulting. We don’t deliver long reports that you can’t act on. We fix. We optimize. We grow. We lead.

February 22, 2017
William Mince

An Interim Executive’s Approach to Realize the Full Value of a Company’s Investments

William Mince | Interim CEO, COO, Turnaround

Interim executives deliver real results, in real time, real quick. An interim is unique in the depth and breadth of experience they bring to bear. This allows an interim to see hidden value in existing products/processes/systems, implement actionable strategies and gain true alignment necessary to optimize the business. The interim will review the investments the company has made into processes, organizational structure and systems. This will lead to a focus on the areas which can be easily measured and might yield the quickest return on investment such as profits, systems and process efficiency.

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February 8, 2017

Companies Watch Out for These 5 Fake Interims

Faker
Most executives who approach InterimExecs are not initially qualified for membership on the RED Team. We take a long time – usually years – to get to know great interims as they build their track records of successful engagements and happy clients, teams, customers and investors.

Occasionally someone shows up with zero experience as an interim, convinced they have the same mindset as a battle-tested interim who’s successfully killed it five or ten times before in project, interim or fractional roles. We turn away these executives, along with around 98% of applicants that approach us. Why? Because even accomplished executives can easily trip up if they haven’t been held accountable for high-impact work before, where failure would be at the company owner’s expense.

We often hear of companies bringing in executives disguising themselves as interims, which usually does not have a happy ending.

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November 9, 2016
Richard Lindenmuth

Good CEOs Focus on Active Listening

Richard Lindenmuth | Interim CEO

When an interim CEO or CFO parachutes into a company they have first-hand experience of what measurements and benchmarks (analytics) are useful and how to use and prioritize them. There is also solid recognition that data and numbers can eliminate a great deal of negativity and get people focused on solutions. Taking action is key, and that often begins with active listening to quickly figure out the exact condition of the company.

An interim must get the facts by asking people what they see and where their main areas of concern are. It is rare during this initial listening process that someone does not say something like “if we had better lighting in this area quality control would improve!”

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October 20, 2016
Olivia Wolak

Executive Search May Be Long, But Interim Execs Deploy in 48 Hours

Olivia Wolak | President, Association of Interim Executives

There is no question that the executive search process is long. When a C-level executive bolts or an organization is going through a transformation – acquisition, product launch, market expansion, etc. – the right leadership needs to be in place, and needs to be in place now.

Vision Share, a consortium of eye banks, experienced this firsthand. Their mission, ensuring corneas be sent worldwide for transplant by eye surgeons, was hampered by organizational problems. The board of directors knew a new CEO was needed, but “the permanent search was estimated to be 6-9 months and came with a guarantee of a year’s employment,” Cindy Reed, Board Member at Vision Share said. “We really felt like we needed more than that.”

The board went to the Association of Interim Executives’ Rapid Executive Deployment Program to bring in Gregg Steinberg as Interim CEO to stabilize the organization, achieve immediate growth goals, and prepare them to hire the permanent CEO.

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May 26, 2016
Richard Lindenmuth

When Business Improvement and Transformation Is Needed, Look to Interims

Richard Lindenmuth | Interim CEO, COO, CMO, Turnaround

Today companies operate in a complex global economy which is more diverse, connected by the Internet, and not very predictable. Many companies still pursue classic business approaches (inside-the-box thinking) with a focus on short-term results. Failure to focus on business improvement and adapting to the new business environment can cause many issues and eventually lead to delisting from a stock exchange, bankruptcy, or liquidation. How many of 1960’s “Fortune 500” companies still exist today?

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May 11, 2016
Lyle Banks

Why Industry Doesn’t Matter in the World of Interim

Lyle Banks | Interim CEO

What do Bill George (Medtronic), Meg Whitman (eBay), Bob Wright (NBC), Lou Gerstner (IBM), Larry Bossidy (Allied Signal), Ted Turner (CNN) and Howard Schultz (Starbucks) have in common?

They were all outstanding leaders who revolutionized their companies by applying outside experiences and viewing through different lenses.  Unshackled by past memories or limited perspectives, their successes were a product of “what can be?” versus “what has happened?”

Does that mean industry experience is overrated?  Not necessarily, but I believe a talented leader with an outside perspective, fresh eyes and an open mind will usually outperform an industry veteran when important change is needed.  Why?

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March 4, 2016

NPR Discusses the Rise of Interim CEOs

npr-logoIn a recent NPR story about the rising demand for interim executives, Association of Interim Executives CEO, Robert Jordan shares that a temporary CEO is not a babysitter, but rather a specialized surgeon. “It creates a bias in favor of action and against playing politics,” Robert said, then commenting that Interim CEOs are “trying to solve a problem and work themselves out of the job.”

Association RED Team Member and Interim CEO, Richard Lindenmuth, is also interviewed sharing about his turnaround of Styrotek, an agricultural packaging company in California that contacted the Association in the midst of a 3-month drought and big financial losses. Dick was able to parachute in as Interim CEO and get the company quickly back to profitability. He says “you really have to listen – the solutions are generally within the company.”

Listen to the Story: http://www.npr.org/2016/03/04/469149268/interim-ceos-passive-placeholders-or-rented-fixers