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June 2005
Professor Adrian Furnham on Interim
Management: Filling the gap… in his logic
On May 1st, in the Sunday Times newspaper,
Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College
London, wrote a scathing article claiming that many interim
managers are “sojourning executives” and questioning
the value of interim appointees to a company.
 Here,
Malcolm Alexander, Managing Director of Interregna, puts the
opposing view.
We must begin with some factual comments, derived
from our own experience. Furnham’s article claims “Aren’t
many of these managers little more than prematurely “let
go” middle-ranking executives”. Absolutely not.
Interregna’s roster of talent is hand-picked, and includes
many individuals with a lifetime’s experience in their
sectors. That’s precisely what clients want- expertise
and the ability to fit into a scenario and solve problems
quickly.
Furnham also says “The most obvious advantage
of being a peripatetic temporary person is that one moves
on”. A great number of interims placed by Interregna
receive contracts extended beyond their initial period. This
is not merely because they are good at their jobs, but because
modern business is project-based, and projects don’t
always fit neatly into six month chunks! Interims aren’t
disconnected agents, offering an opinion and disappearing
into the night. They have offices and often board-level responsibilities.
Sure, they have the benefit of an outsider’s opinion
at the outset, but they take immediate responsibility for
their remit and have an acute sense of “belonging”
to their client. The client’s challenges are their challenges.
Incidentally, the definition of “peripatetic”
is “relating to the teaching methods of Aristotle, who
conducted discussions whilst walking about in the Lyceum of
ancient Athens” If it was good enough for Aristotle
to impart his wisdom on the move, I can think of no higher
aspiration for the interim manager.
I wonder if Furnham’s comments are directed
at interim management only accidentally, when in fact he is
either mourning the era of “jobs for life” or
critiquing the rise of the management guru and its associated
jargon. True, there is plenty of trendy jargon in the boardroom,
as in any working environment. Yet interim managers, who have
neither the security of a salary nor the ability to hide any
inefficiencies, are the least likely candidates to use spurious
management gobbledegook to get by.
Perhaps the most telling statement is this:
“Individual executives [i.e. interim managers], it is
presumed, only plan a sojourn with any organisation.”
This is indeed a presumption of astonishing audacity. In my
experience, no interim manager has ever met a prospective
client and opened with “Now then, I can give you four
months- whatever we can’t sort out by then is your own
problem”. If they did, I suspect Interregna’s
business would not be in the rude health it is today.
Read the original article here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-538-1590232,00.html
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