What are the expectations of Interim Managers?

A decade ago, Servitalent was founded to provide Interim Management services. Since then, the company has been working to position and promote this activity among businesses in Spain.

At Servitalent, we believe that Interim Management is a strategic tool for providing suitable executive experts to the cyclical needs of companies.

The company has used various tools to achieve its goal, one of which is the Report on the state of Interim Management in Spain. This report has been very successful and has become a reference in the sector. The results of the report are included in the Interim Management Hiring Guide, which we directly develop in our company.

One of Servitalent's objectives is to continue promoting this activity in Spain and worldwide, supporting the market's development and providing approximate figures to help professionals working in this field and companies considering using this service. With our report and guide, we hope to support and improve the Interim Management industry.

Environmental variables and factors that will affect Interim Management activity in 2023.

In recent years we have been reading expressions to define the situation we are living in such as "we are in a change of era rather than an era of change", "we are facing VUCA environments (the speed with which things change, the lack of certainty and clarity, and the complexity of the environment) or BANI (fragility, anxiety, unpredictability and the difficulty of understanding the environment)", etc.

What is clear to all of us is that uncertainty has become a constant or a key variable to be considered in any kind of strategic decision on where to direct the paths of our companies. Five-year plans are almost a leap in the dark and, regardless of whether they "set the course", they are either subject to permanent revision or are adjusted to shorter time frames. Many of these factors, moreover, are unpredictable and the movements they generate are more radical, so that we move from one extreme to the other with relative ease. But this is what we have to live with and manage, which means that we have to combine medium and long-term direction with more operational short-term actions that give us flexibility and the ability to react.

Environments where flexibility and responsiveness are a "must" are where Interim Managers are at their best.

I always use the example that when you start something or want to change something, you put a blank piece of paper and someone always has to be the first to start writing. The one who likes it and has the capacity to do it, is the one who has the profile of an Interim Manager. The different managerial experiences they have had throughout their professional career give them the necessary skills to know which is the best path to choose, as they know which are the main variables to take into account and the main levers to touch for this change. It is not that they are the smartest, but rather that they have learned from the successes and mistakes of their experiences, which give them the serenity, flexibility and commitment necessary to lead these processes.

All the factors that have been affecting us in recent years and are affecting us now (rate rises, inflation, rising prices of raw materials and food, the war in Ukraine, foreign investment, etc.) are circumstances that affect the Interims Managers' view of the activity and we have also asked them about them in our study.

When asked how the arrival of foreign investment in Spain will affect them in the next 12 months, a large majority (70%) consider that it will have a positive impact. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why Interim Management is used, mainly for two reasons. The first is that many of the multinationals that come to invest have experience of having used this type of service in other countries or in their own country of origin, where it is usually more developed. The second is that when foreign companies land in Spain, they need to have flexible teams to set up businesses from scratch or manage a change management process with all that this entails (creation and management of teams, design and implementation of strategies and procedures, business development, etc.) and, by carrying this out with Interim Managers, they can do so with greater speed and guarantees of success.

On the other hand, related to their own activity and how they see it developing, 74% indicate that they will continue to provide their services as Interim Managers in the next 12 months, which is an increase from 66% last year. This increase is due to the fact that the market is growing and more and more opportunities are being generated, which, on the one hand, is attracting more professionals to this activity and, on the other hand, that those who are already working in this field continue to commit to it, as the greatest concern they usually have is the continuity with another assignment once the one they are currently working on has ended. In recent years, a market has been created that is growing at a fast pace, which allows them to make a living from it, and the professionals who are committed to this activity want to continue working in it and do not consider returning to a structural position.

Finally, with regard to how they see the Interim Management market evolving over the next 12 months, 65% believe that business will increase and 30% that it will remain the same, which confirms that the outlook is very positive despite the difficulties we are experiencing and the pessimistic views on the economy in the short and medium term, especially for the first half of the year. It is true that the percentage of those who see an increase has fallen slightly compared to last year (68%), but it is still very high compared to other economic visions of the situation. We believe that this type of environment continues to favour the development of the Interim Management market and that it will continue to emerge stronger than other approaches such as labour contracting.

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