Interim management up 55 per cent

The interim management sector has grown significantly in the past year, with UK companies increasingly turning to interim support to spearhead business change, the latest Ipsos MORI annual survey for the Interim Management Association reveals.

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The speed at which business now operates is one reason behind the transformation in how companies are using interim management. The industry is recognised as the fastest growing strategic resource for UK businesses.

Analysis is based on 1,613 interim assignments undertaken during 2007, up 24 per cent on the previous year and together generating a turnover of 158 million - 55 per cent more than in 2006.

Paul Botting, new chair of the IMA, said: ìThese latest figures show that much of the focus is now on change management. It means interim executives are going into major private and public sector organisations, often in leadership roles, to introduce and lead business-critical changes and improvements.î

The survey shows that 39 per cent of assignments were for programme or project management, while change management and business improvement each accounted for one in five postings.

Highest demand was for support with special projects, accounting for 29 per cent of assignments, compared with only 15 per cent last year. One in six assignments was for gap management.

The private sector continues to dominate, accounting for two thirds of assignments.

But there is evidence that the public sector is increasingly turning to interim support ñ with almost 554 assignments over the past year, compared with 492 in 2006. More than a third of this demand came from local government, with the NHS second at 14 per cent and Central Government third at 13 per cent.

The average length of each assignment was six months.

With IMA membership now standing at a record high of 35, other key findings are:

Special projects was the most common job function (29 per cent of assignments), followed by HR (19 per cent), then finance (14 per cent) and marketing (8 per cent).
In the private sector, banking and finance was the top industry sector at 39 per cent; followed by manufacturing at 11 per cent and IT/Telecoms at nine per cent.
Last yearís top sector ñ chemical/pharmaceutical and biotech ñ accounted for just six per cent this year.
Three quarters of interim executives are male.

The survey was conducted electronically over the four quarters of 2007, covering all assignments completed by each member in each quarter.