Increasingly in demand, the interim manager profession has established itself as a managerial solution available to companies of all sizes and in all sectors of activity to deal with new challenges or accelerate their transformation.
An interim manager is an experienced executive to whom a company temporarily entrusts the management of a department, a business unit, a company or a major project. The interim manager's assignment is to manage change and improve the performance of the activity or project for which he/she is operationally responsible.
Emerging around the 1970s in Europe, the profession has now substantially evolved and transformed around the following axes:
- A strong diversification of the intervention contexts, which now go far beyond crisis management situations and also include transformation, business development, hypergrowth management, project management, relay management, mobilization of specialized expertise...
- A broadening of the profiles sought, which no longer concern only top management positions (executive committee level) but also middle management positions (“intermediate management”)
- A widening of the positions involved, which now go beyond General Management, Finance, Human Resources, Industrial Operations, Supply Chain & Purchasing, but also include positions such as Sales, Marketing, Legal, Payroll, Communication, R&D, Quality, Health, Safety and Environment...
- A younger generation of interim managers, especially for middle management assignments, even if a solid level of experience is still required to practice the profession
The interim management profession is experiencing a rapid growth in a context where linear careers are being questioned and the search for meaning prevails.
Interim management is an interesting career opportunity for managers with a wide range of experiences who wish to take on new challenges in a different way, by focusing on their business expertise and by valuing and transferring their know-how.