Women get ahead in interim management

10/01/2008 10:27:00

The number of female interim management executives is rising. This is one of the most notable trends discernible from our recent six-monthly survey of Impact Executives interim managers. The proportion of our interim managers who are women has risen steadily over the past few years, to 17%. But across the membership of the Interim Management Association (IMA), which comprises 31 providers of interim management services, including Impact Executives, the proportion of women is even higher – over 25%, according to the IMA’s most recent quarterly survey conducted by Ipsos MORI.

Our survey found that turnaround management and business restructuring continue to account for most interim assignments. But the IMA survey found that while ‘business improvement’ is the second most common reason for hiring interims, programme and project management account for 39% of all assignments.

The number of interim assignments lasting between four and 12 months is steadily rising, with the typical length of assignment being four to six months among Impact Executives candidates. Similarly, the IMA found that the average length of assignments is 130 billable days – considerably higher than last year.

Respondents to the Impact Executives survey believe that the public sector, followed by banking, insurance and financial services, are the areas where the use of interim managers will increase the most over the next twelve months.

Anticipated growth in public sector work augurs well for the fees interim managers can expect to earn while on assignment. While our own survey indicates that daily rates are nudging gently upwards, the IMA survey found that fees tend to be higher in the public sector – around £700 a day in non-departmental government bodies and central government for example, compared to around £600 in banking and finance and £550 in manufacturing and business services.

www.impactexecutives.com
www.impactexecutives.com/journal/clivesexton/

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