“临时高管”蔚然成风

    他们风风火火来到一家公司，关掉了一个部门或管理了一桩收购，然后风风火火地走了。他们就是临时高管。不过千万不要说他们是“打短工的”。

    业内人士指出，所谓的“临时高管”是一批专业的解决问题的专家，用负责EIM公司北美业务的合伙人罗伯特•库恩的话说，临时高管都是 “能做成某些事”的人。

    库恩表示：“我们提供（给一家公司）的都是高管级人物，职务非常高。比如曾经干过财务总监、研发主管、人力主管或法务主管的人，以及有着长期和很深的经验的人。”所以当他们着手处理一桩任务的时候，“他们不需要任何学习的过程。”

    库恩表示，提供临时高管服务的公司（比如他自己的公司）“并不是给倒闭的企业收尸的。”介绍临时工的企业只是按日子算工资，但是临时高管服务公司提供的人才却可以“满足客户的非常需求。这种需求往往带有某种紧迫性。我们能够解决问题，起救火队的作用，解决危机。”

    临时高管们通常都不是自由职业者，而是以合伙人、雇员或承包人的身份，为EIM这样的公司工作。

    临时高管协会（The Interim Association）是一个为临时管理行业提供支持的组织，该组织的常务董事克里斯•拉科拉塔表示，临时高管也并非简单的咨询顾问，不过现在倒是有越来越来的咨询公司在他们的业务中增加了临时高管的内容。

    拉科拉塔指出，多年以来，许多公司都对传统的咨询模式表示不满，因为咨询顾问们会先研究一个问题，然后就会“踢皮球”。

    库恩也同意这种看法。他表示：“我们不会像麦肯锡（McKinsey）一样做长达6个月的研究。我们假定客户知道他们需要什么。你已经做了你的决策，我们只是来实施它。”

    Cerius临时管理解决方案公司（Cerius Interim Executive Solutions）的首席执行官帕梅拉•韦斯利指出，如果一个公司有了一名好的临时高管，“那么公司里的某些人总是能从临时高管身上学到知识。”

何时雇佣临时高管最合适

    如果某家公司失去了一名重要的高管，并且在找到适当的永久替代人之前，急需有人暂时维持一个部门或某一职能的运作的话，那么这家公司就可以试试临时高管的法子。

    韦斯利指出，有些时候，一家公司可能不必要雇佣一位全职高管，但可以“以兼职的模式引入一名高管，以完成一个特定目标。比如如果你遇上过（员工）官司问题，你就可以引入（一位负责人力资源的高管），来建立更好的政策流程和更好的培训。”

    韦斯利表示，临时高管可以为永久继任者打好基础，方便公司里的某个人以后接手这个位子。“你需要的可能不是一个高管，而是一个经理来维持这个部门或职能。”

    此外，临时高管拥有一些特定的经验可能是公司内部人士所不具备的，例如扭转局面、并购、扩展国际市场等。将公司放到市场上出售是件尤其困难的事。韦斯利指出：“大多数公司所有者不知道如何将他们的公司销售出去。你必须要想办法让自己的公司卖得出手。”

    拉科拉塔指出，临时高管在欧洲早已成了常例，但直到21世纪的头几年，它才开始在美国受到欢迎。

    韦斯利指出，在经济危机之前，雇佣临时高管的企业主要集中在医疗保健业、制造业和科技部门，不过随着其他行业的企业也纷纷寻找替代性的招聘战略，临时高管领域也得到了扩展，其部分原因是由于“这些企业不敢提前计划得太长远。”他们之所以依赖临时高管，是由于“他们知道临时高管迟早是要走人的。”

    拉科拉塔指出，私募股权交易对临时管理行业的增长起了十分重要的作用。“临时高管正好适合私募股权交易的模式。私募股权公司买进的公司可能正是临时高管正在改组的公司。”

临时高管需要哪些条件？

    要成为一名临时高管，必须具备哪些素质？当然，经验是不可或缺的，但经验并没有人们想象的那么重要。

    韦斯利表示，人们往往觉得临时高管都是接近退休年纪的人，但事实上，大多数临时高管往往还不到50岁。有些临时高管还要更年轻，有的40不到，有的在45岁左右。“他们一般都是有过好几次买入或销售企业的经验的企业家。有些公司希望将自己销售出去，而这些临时高管在这些企业里做出了很大的贡献。”

    韦斯利表示，在长期看来，雇佣临时高管可能是个更经济实惠的选择，因为你无需支付招聘费、福利费和遣散费等等。不过她也指出：“不过我也不能说临时高管很便宜，你的确需要支付额外的费用。”

    她表示，临时高管的薪水基本上在每天1000到2000美元之间，因为你需要的是迅速见效。“如果你雇佣的是全职的高管，可能需要90天才能上手。不过临时高管只需要三天就能上手90%了。”

    管理顾问协会（Institute of Management Consultants）的董事长兼首席执行官德拉姆•麦克诺顿则对临时高管能否如此迅速地上手表示怀疑。

    “他们可能非常擅长某些事，比如扭转局面等。但要说一个人在三天里就能很好地运作一家公司，这几乎是不可能的。如果真让某人做领导者，那么以临时的模式去领导一个企业是非常困难的。”

    麦克诺顿表示，将公司内部的某个人提升到一个过渡岗位上，可能是一种更好的方式。不过他也承认这种模式存在缺点，假如这个人最终没有被聘任为这个岗位的全职人选的话。

不是菜鸟待的地儿

    临时高管查尔斯•邓洛普是高管服务机构Tatum公司的合伙人，他已经在Tatum公司干了四年了，而且现在正在第五任财务总监的任上。这次他所在的公司是由一家私募股权公司出资，从一家国际性银行中剥离出来的。

    邓洛普表示：“我现在的这家公司是一家分拆出来的公司，它的财务总监突然离职了。”

    邓洛普进入公司，完成了剥离的收关阶段，然后“提出了一项行动方案。现在新财务总监已经就任了，我现在正在一个项目、一个项目地帮助他，”使新财务总监适应他的新职位。

    邓洛普表示，第一次当高管的人不适合担任临时高管。“我们有过坎坷、困境和伤痛。我们所有人都曾在困境中奋战过。”

    邓洛普补充道，在比如重组等某些紧张的形势下，雇佣临时高管可能特别有帮助。

    “企业可以雇佣我们作为一个保留融资结构的媒介，我们也可以应付棘手的谈判，也可以负责重组。所以等我们功成身退，企业中的一些负面感觉也会烟消云散。”

    对于临时高管来说，拥有正确的技术背景是个十分重要的条件。不过企业雇佣临时高管的时候，往往是企业的压力达到顶点的时候，因此对于临时高管来说，软性技能也是同样重要的。

    “你是在企业的过渡期里被扔到一个环境中的。你必须泰然自若。你必须能够向前进，做出艰难的决策。”

    译者：朴成奎

    They ride into town, close down a division or oversee an acquisition, then move on. Just don't call them temps.

    Interim executives, according to those in the field, are professional problem solvers who "make something happen," says Robert M. Kuhn, partner in charge of North American Operations for EIM.

    "The people we bring [to a company] are C-suite people. Very senior. People who have been chief finance officer, head of R&D, HR, legal. People who have long and deep experience. There's no learning curve" when they take on an assignment, Kuhn says.

    Interim management firms such as his "are not houses that deal in bodies," Kuhn says. Temp firms fill slots for a daily rate, while interim management firms have individuals who can respond to a client's need "over and above the day-to-day situation. It's driven by some type of urgency. We fix a problem, come in, put out a fire, resolve a crisis."

    Interim executives usually are not freelancers. They work for firms like EIM as partners, employees or contractors.

    Interim executives are not simply consultants either, although a growing number of consulting firms are adding interim executive components to their practices, according to Chris LaCorata, executive director of The Interim Association, an organization that supports the interim management industry.

    Over the years, companies have become unhappy with the traditional consultant model, LaCorata says, because consultants study a problem, then "hand it off."

    Kuhn agrees. "We don't do a six-month McKinsey study. We assume [clients] know what they want. You've made the decision, we implement it."

    With a good interim executive, says Pamela Wasley, CEO of Cerius Interim Executive Solutions, an interim executive placement firm, "there's always a transition of knowledge to someone in the company."

When hiring an interim executive makes sense

    A company may take the interim executive route when it has lost a key executive and needs someone to keep a division or function running until it finds exactly the right person to fill the position permanently.

    Sometimes a corporation can't justify hiring a full-time executive, Wasley says, but can "put somebody in on a part-time basis to achieve a specific goal. Say you've had problem with [employee] lawsuits. You could put [an HR executive] in place to establish better policy procedures and better training."

    That interim executive can lay the groundwork for someone within the company to take over later, Wasley says. "You may not need an executive, you may need a manager to maintain it."

    And interim executives may have specific experience that's not available within the company, such as turnarounds, acquisitions and expanding into international markets. Positioning a company for new ownership is especially difficult: "Most owners don't know how to sell their company. You have to make yourself saleable," Wasley says.

    While it's an accepted practice in Europe, interim management only started to gain traction in the United States in the beginning of last decade, says LaCorata.

    Before the economic downturn, Wasley says that interim executives were hired mainly in the health care, manufacturing and technology sectors, but the field has expanded as companies from other industries look for alternative hiring strategies, partly because "they are fearful to plan too far in advance." They turn to interim executives because "at the end of the day they know they can get rid of them," she says.

    Private equity deals have been essential to the growth of interim management, according to LaCorata. "The interim executive is perfect for their model. They're buying companies they might be restructuring."

What are interim execs made of?

    What does it take to become an interim executive? Experience, yes, but not necessarily as much as people tend to think.

    Wasley says people often assume interim executives are nearing retirement age, but more often they are in their late 40s. Some are even younger -- in their late 30s to mid 40s -- "typically entrepreneurs who have bought and sold companies several times. They really do a good job in companies that are looking to sell."

    It can be more economical in the long run to hire an interim executive because you are not paying hiring fees, benefits or severance, Wasley says. "But I can't say it's cheap. You do pay a premium."

    Interim executives generally earn from $1,000 to $2,000 a day, she says, because you are paying for quick results. "If you hire someone full-time, it takes 90 days to ramp up. When an interim executive has been on the job three days [the person is] 90%" effective.

    Drumm McNaughton, chairman and CEO of the Institute of Management Consultants, has doubts about an interim executive's ability to get up-to-speed so quickly.

    "They can be very good in something like a turnaround," McNaughton says, but "there's almost no way someone can be ready to run a company in three days. If someone is really going to be a leader, it's very difficult to do it on an interim basis."

    It might be better to move someone from inside the company into an interim position, McNaughton says, acknowledging the disadvantage of that model if that person is not eventually hired to fill the position full time.

Not a field for rookies

    Charles Dunlap is in his fourth year as a partner with executive services firm Tatum and is on his fifth major CFO assignment, this time with a private equity-financed carve-out of an international bank.

    "The company I'm with now is a spin off. The CFO left suddenly," Dunlap says.

    He came in to complete the closing and "put in an action plan. Now the new CFO is on board and I'm working with him on a project basis," while he gets oriented to the new position.

    It's not a field for first-time executives, Dunlap says. "We've had bumps, scrapes and sores. All of us have been in battle."

    Having interim executives can be especially helpful during tense situations such as restructurings, Dunlap adds.

    "We can be brought in as an intermediary who allows the financing structure to remain. We handle the tough negotiations. We engineer [the restructuring], so when we go away, some of that negative feeling goes away."

    Having the right technical background is an essential qualification for an interim executive, but these managers often walk into a new office just as tensions are at their highest, so soft skills are critical as well.

    "You're dropped into a situation that is in transition. You have to be comfortable. You have to be able to move forward, to make the tough decision."