"Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse".
Winston S Churchill
Being able to manage different and unfamiliar situations is a key skill for an interim manager. Partly this is done by bringing the experience earned with other organisations but also a completely different approach to the finance function of an organisation may be needed.
At the outset of the contract, the client needs to be aware that an interim manager is a particularly skilled and experienced individual. It is almost certainly the case that the interim will spot other issues that need to be addressed by the client. It may be that the client is unaware of the issue or its possible that there has been a lack of resource to deal with it of there may be other internal reasons for a lack of action. By employing and interim, the client has the opportunity to deal with issues that may not be necessarily linked to the project at hand. Important examples of this include my experiences at Bookham Technology and Sainsburys.
On a number of occasions I have been asked to manage an unfamiliar situation without reference to my own experience nor the experiences of others. These situations have included working with different accounting frameworks, such as with Oxfordshire County Council or the Olympic Delivery Authority or in working with exceptional business conditions, such as managing the period during which Ultralife Batteries when settling its fire claims. With Sainsburys, although I was working with a familar business model (IT services provision), I was responsible for managing IT's asset management activity, something that I had not done before. Furthermore, Sainsburys were expecting me to bring my skills and experience from other organisations and suggest ways of working and reporting, so with asset management I had to use this experience creatively to satisfy this requirement. Finally with Sainsburys, I was asked to advise on US accounting standards with regards to software companies' revenue recognition rules as this was driving the behaviour of those companies when negotiating contracts with Sainsburys.
Naturally, a key part of this is being able to work with a different group of people very quickly (much of this is considered as part of management style), being able to establish networks, both internal and external to the business, and being able to understand the business of the client, its structure and its culture.
Finally on this point, a number of creative techniques can be used to identify problems and their solution. As a trained manager, these can be introduced where appropriate.
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