There are two areas examined here
At the end of this page, there are a number of examples.
Many organisations specify that you must have had experience of working within their industry. Classic examples of these industries (and where I have experience) include:
When it comes to the operational management of a business, detailed understanding and experience of the industry of that business is very important, however when it comes to financial management, the argument is much less clear because financial skills are particularly transferrable between industries.
My career has a number of examples where I have successfully transferred my skills between different industries; indeed, there are some examples of my concluding successful contracts in the industries that I have listed above.
The problem with these industries is that by only recruiting from their own pool of labour, they are cutting themselves off from general management and financial management experience earned elsewhere. This may result in stagnated “recipe” strategic thinking (even group think?) and out of date systems. In the paper "A psychological approach to culture" it is argued that organisations should promote from within as much as possible and should employ contract staff only when necessary; here the interim fits in where there are disruptions in that policy (no suitable internal candidate, project work, unforeseen absence).
My ability in moving between industries is based on 3 elements:
my MBA. This qualification provides me with the tools to analyse the strategy, structure and culture of an organisation to enable me to understand how and why it works quickly and accurately. In addition, the degree has provided me with a number of change management models to use, and most importantly a range of creative thinking techniques (see creativity below).
since accountants are performance reporters, and performance reporting is based on the strategy identified in the previous point, I can work out which of my financial management skills are most appropriate in a given situation
the openness of the client to outside ideas. My experience of working with different organisations means that I can apply techniques that are applied elsewhere but not in the client organisation.
This is the backdrop of most post-acquisition integration, computer implementation and consolidation assignments.
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Another aspect of this topic is creativity. This is a particularly important personality trait for several reasons, needing different degrees in application:
the client has a very scant or non-existent job description. Very often this is associated with an ad hoc project, that is not particularly discrete, well-defined or structured - some accountants cannot handle fluidity of these situations.
the client has a complex mess that needs fixing. In these circumstances, there is a combination of skills that that the interim needs to bring to bear, such as project management, planning and reporting, computer expertise, change management and managing the organisation’s non-financial managers of other departments
in some circumstances, the “closed” industries listed above are open to importing new ideas, as was the case with both Oxfordshire CC and the Royal Free Hampstead.
In terms of creative thinking techniques, my MBA has provided me with a resource of a number of different creative thinking techniques.
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A key skill for an interim manager is to handle situations that are unfamiliar, often without the help of a mentor and I have demonstrated this capability on several occasions:
based on my ability to take private companies through yearend in different regualtory environments - under US GAAP (Ultralife Batteries), under the Audit and Accountancy Regulations for local government and the related SORP (Oxfordshire County Council), Anchor Trust, whose accounts are covered by a SORP for housing associations and another for charities, under Central Government's Financial Reporting Manual or FReM (the Olympic Delivery Authority). and under the NHS variation of this at Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. Furthermore, I was a key player in the preparation for the (subsequently aborted) conversion of the Royal Free to IFRS.
settling the insurance claims at Ultralife Batteries. Within a short space of time, I had to understand the process of making a significant claim, the basis on which insurers work and to apply this to the situation that I found. This was complicated since there were a series of claims in quick succession, each earlier event impacting on the subsequent events' claims.
understanding different businesses for the first time, such as a local authority, a charity, a publisher, a retailer, a NDPB.
working in a joint venture for the first time, and in the case of Automatic Minibars a joint venture whose relationships were more difficult to handle than most others due to the competitive position of the joint venturers.
working in banking for the first time at Abbey. This assignment required an understanding of the accounting standards and tax regime surrounding an organisation that included a bank in its structure along with companies involved in leasing, property development and management, insurance, Lloyds broking, estate agency and private banking, both in the UK and the Channel Islands.
advising the procurement function of J Sainsbury's IT department about the revenue recognition rules of US-quoted software companies and how these standards dictate their behaviour in negotiating contracts with customers such as Sainsburys (click on the "ad hoc work" link on the Word document).
being a member of the team presenting a business plan to merchant banks at Ultralife - the lead bank (Lehmans) said it was one of the best presentations they had seen from a business of that size. This was repeated with the sale of Biovite to business angels and the re-financing of SMF Displays
my first business integrations at Interconnect and Securicor Telecom, repeated at Bookham Technology plc, Digipos Group, Torex Retail plc and Sainsburys plc
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