How do I quickly develop specialized skills the business needs to drive digital transformation?

How do I build new mindset and lead behavior change to face new challenges?

How do I build strong succession planning in the organization and reduce dependence on international expats?

Most of these questions gravitate towards talents but considering the often short period of time they have to lead and turnaround functions, time, costs and availability of talents become an issue to consider when hiring new leaders.

For companies requiring industry or functional experts with diverse leadership and management skills, as a stop-gap measure or as a strategy to bring in cognitive diversity of thoughts and experience, hiring Interim Managers can be the solution.

Interim Managers are most often senior leaders who have opted out of the corporate world, to pursue different careers or reached the maximum retirement age. Their new life objective is to inspire and help individuals or companies grow. What they bring is extensive experience in a specific field, often with global or regional exposure bringing the ability to work at all levels, cultural sensitivity and operational expertise.

As they do not have long-term career aspirations, they are motivated by outcomes and results, Interim Managers excitedly bring in wisdom, best practices and coaching skills into the organization. They are also very independent and bring unbiased views and thoughts as they do not have the interest to be in full-time employment or to be in the good books of someone.

Coaching an Emerging Leader – it is becoming more and more challenging to attract external talents. At the same time, the person next in line is not ready to be promoted as she lacks leadership skills such as strategic thinking, stakeholder management, communication and collaboration and to some extent, functional depths. Hiring an expert as a coach for a period of 3-6 months will not only prepare the candidate for the role but also inspires her and builds loyalty. A good interim manager will have an initial discussion to understand skill gaps and draw out actions with desired outcomes and milestones.

Stop-Gap Management – as roles evolve with times, organizations take time to recalibrate job expectations and requirements. But oftentimes, they don’t know what they don’t know. Hiring an expert as a short-gap solution helps them stabilize the ship and also draw on his experience to understand trends in skills and expectations.

Bringing in Specialized Skills – with a scarcity of certain expertise in the market, creating a war for talent, hiring an interim manager is the solution. For example, one of the skills that is becoming more critical now is project management, and ability to manage resources, costs and timelines to achieve business objectives. Hiring an Interim Manager with expertise in project management for a 6-months period helps the company to bring in new skills to the existing management team.

Almost anything. We have provided a listed energy company with an Interim Communications Manager to help them develop their annual report, and at the same time build the skills in the current team. As their Communications Director resigned, they weren’t a dire need to hire someone at such a senior level, considering the poor market sentiments and reduced workload.

You may be running a fin-tech business and require an expert to have an outside-in look around risks and governance, but do not have the bandwidth and budget to hire someone permanently. A former Country Risk Manager of an international bank might be keen to work alongside with you to help you build the framework for risk management and train your team on the governance.

You may be building a new milk production facility but your Engineering team lacks the experience in leading large plant construction and commissioning. Draw on the experience of former managers of international consumer goods companies who have project managed locally or regionally, to come on board to help your team.

We use our 7-step search methodology to hire an Interim Manager by identifying the gaps in your business and the necessary leadership and management traits needed. We draw on the network of interim managers, expats and locals in Malaysia who are always eager to help organizations grow with their expertise.

Interim Management can be the best short-term solution for a long-term business need.