When Ciaran Crean needed a part for his business, MicksGarage, he sought a temporary fix rather than a permanent solution. It helped to move the company up a gear.
The online car parts business, which was founded in 2003, employs 50 people in distribution centres in Ireland, the UK and Poland.
Four years ago Crean thought the firm needed more oomph. “We felt the business would benefit from the financial oversight of a chief financial officer, but we didn’t have the work in place to pay the six-figure salary that goes with that,” he said. “So we looked around for alternative options.”
A business acquaintance introduced Crean to a former executive who works with companies on a temporary, part-time basis. “We agreed he would do a day and a half a week with us and it worked great. We got the financial oversight we needed but on a piecemeal basis,” Crean said.
The interim manager also assisted Crean in raising money. “He helped us assess a range of solutions, from vendor debt to invoice finance, and in the end we went with equity,” said Crean, whose business has 35% year-on-year growth.
Advertisement
“When I was out pitching for finance, my role as chief executive was to pitch the vision of the business. Having a chief financial officer beside me for those conversations was great. He was a great resource.”
For owners of small businesses who are looking for a temporary management solution, Chartered Accountants Interim Management (CAIM) is a good first port of call. Set up in 2011, the network has more than 50 members, all of them senior chartered accountants.
“No one in the group works in practice — most are executives,” said spokesman John Eager of Winabu, a business consultancy. Eager is a former chief executive of Snap printing in Ireland and was group accountant and head of IT at the Adare printing group. He joined CAIM in 2014 and has since worked as an interim manager on various projects.
“A huge part of what a CAIM interim manager offers is outside perspective,” Eager said. Rates are typically €700-€1,200 a day — “depending on the seniority of the person and the importance of the work to be done”.
While not cheap, employing an interim manager can be of great value to start-ups and high-growth companies.
Advertisement
“For start-ups and build-ups, where it’s all hands on deck, it’s a great way of getting access to an extra resource, as a building block to deciding whether your need is permanent,” Eager said.
“It allows you to defer full-time hiring decisions until you know more. And just because a business is small, it doesn’t mean it hasn’t a need for high-level expertise. Our belief is you’re better off paying for that expertise in bite-sized chunks rather than not at all.”
An interim manager should be used only where there is an identifiable, temporary need. “If you have a permanent need, hire a permanent member of staff,” Eager advised.
The hire may be short term but it can still be applied to address long-term issues, such as strategy. And a good interim manager will slot into a new workplace with minimum disruption.
“They tend not to get dragged into office politics,” Eager said, adding that they can be useful when hard decisions need to be made or implemented.
Advertisement
He gave the example of the film Up in the Air, in which George Clooney’s character flies around the world making people redundant.
“If something bad has to be done, an interim manager can be hired to be the change agent.” Most CAIM member projects relate to growth, according to Eager. “Managing fast growth can be a vulnerable time for any business,” he said.
The level of skill and talent available on an interim basis has increased, said Sandra Lawler of Alternatives, which provides interim marketing managers.
“Whether you call it the gig or the flex economy, this kind of work suits a mix of people — from the over-fifties who have done the corporate role and are looking for a portfolio way of working, to millennials who like the choice it offers,” she said.
Hiring someone on an interim basis for, say, maternity cover should be looked on as an opportunity.
Advertisement
“Don’t try to replace Mary with Mary; this is a trap people fall into. Use it as an opportunity to look at what the business needs at this point,” Lawler said.
“Where people are being recruited full-time, employers can be quite conservative. Where they are taking on a flexible, interim person, it’s an opportunity to take on someone with a slightly different skill set, and that can bring something really interesting to the business.”
Use your money creatively, Lawler advises. “It could be that you hire two specialists in different areas, or a more experienced person than the one you are replacing but who is working only four days a week.”
Turlough Kinane is managing director of Thermodial, a heat and air-conditioning company. When the business needed to overhaul its IT systems, he used an interim manager found through CAIM.
“We were looking at introducing a new field service management system and it was going to be a significant investment, about €250,000,” he said. “I was financial controller and there were no bank loans available at the time, so it was coming from the business’s own resources. I felt we needed a high-level person from outside to come in and make sure we were on the right path.”
Advertisement
When the project was finished, Kinane retained the interim manager to help with a management buyout in 2016. The business has since grown, with staff levels increasing from 40 to 50.
Last year, Kinane found help through the Institute of Directors when his company needed to do work on risk.
“There are lots of professional bodies that can help you if you need expertise in the short term. LinkedIn can be a good source of talent too,” he said.
“When you’re running a business you can get very focused internally. It’s good to have someone come in from outside who can challenge your thinking.”