Link, share, join, listen ...
Link, share, join, listen ...
Over the last month I have seen a number of articles stating that the death of the Regional Development Agencies is going to be bad for business. I have read that the RDA’s (with huge budgets) have really made the difference and pulling the rug now could prove disastrous – especially in regional areas outside of London that may have a greater reliance on public sector jobs. How will we ever create private sector jobs in deprived areas has been the argument to keep them?
I still think of myself as an entrepreneur (in the smallest way I would like to add). I started a business; I have hired plenty of people and paid our fair share of tax. I have not at any point benefited from a grant or help from a public sector provider. It has never really occurred to me to search out such help, I always thought that you made your own luck – had a plan, worked hard and hoped that the rest will happen.
I can certainly see why grant aid, financial support and advice should be given to small to medium sized businesses. I imagine that advice on foreign markets and new legislation is especially valuable. What business or start up is going to turn down this type of help? However I am not convinced that this support is necessary via an expensive vehicle like a regional development agency.
Perhaps my view is slightly more jaundice. Take my local provider – Yorkshire Forward – soon to be no more. When I started Interim Partners I was in need of all the help I could get. They frequently used interim managers but do you think I could get them to engage with me? When I suggested I was based in Yorkshire and that they were using an interim management provider in London it held no sway – it didn’t get me in the door. I was told the PSL was not due for review for another 2 years.
I was recently at an awards dinner when the out going head of Yorkshire Forward was telling the audience of its achievements. The case study that he offered up was the support they gave for the building of a visitor centre at the Royal Horticultural Centre in Harrogate. Yes, the gardens are excellent, I am a regular and yes they are great for tourism but I don’t believe the RHS is short of a few bob. I don’t recall the Chelsea Flower show is in dire financial straits. Is this where tax payers’ money should be going and do organisations like this need the support of a public sector financed body?
I am sure that many small businesses will have benefited from the RDA’s and maybe swinging the axe is not always the answer. I am interested to see what replaces it. What ever it is, I will expect it to be fully accountable to those in the region and I don’t believe that it should pay someone 250k+ a year to run it.
I would like to hear from interim mangers their views on the RDA’s. Who out of our interim community has worked for the development agencies? What has been your experience? Has anyone benefited from their help? What is the future for businesses that need or rely on advice?
More importantly - what do we need to see in the SME sector that will act as catalysts to job creation?
Did anyone see our article in the FT at the weekend re rates in the SME sector? Click the following link to read:
http://www.interimpartners.com/in-the-news/ft-article-about-interims-in-smes-201110/
Doug Baird is Managing Director of Interim Partners.
It seems that if you earn more than the PM and are in the public sector you need to be thinking about a pay cut. The media seem to have really latched onto this salary benchmark so much so that there has been TV programmes devoted to it. Who saw Panorama on the BBC the other night!? As I was watching it, I had the urge to throw something at the TV as they seemed to be missing the point. Perhaps it was me who had lost the plot - it had been a long day. All the talk was on who earns what and that some of them were useless and completely overpaid. Granted - I suspect some are but where was the talk of value? Where was the argument that if you are one of the best performers in the whole of your sector you should be rewarded with better pay? Do you have to be totally altruistic to want to work in the public sector?
My favourites were a Head Teacher on 150k who runs not one but two schools and took them from being near the bottom to the top; or the Chief Constable of Cleveland who has made the streets far safer. In contrast we have the Head of the BBC earning 800k – is he worth 4 top performing Chief Constables?
The subject of value got me thinking. Should interims base their rate on the value they add? It is not a surprise that market forces – the availability of good interims has a big impact on rate. Also a client has a budget or a view on a rate. Importantly, many interims will say “my day rate is £x pounds per day” and if they are getting the rate that they ask for they are some way along to being satisfied.
I am interested on how we can further the debate on rate and the value that interims can bring to an assignment. I doubt that we as an interim recruitment firm are in a position to request a share of the savings / benefits that a client achieves and for this to be passed to our interims for every one of our assignments. What we should be seeking to do is examine the potential value added for every assignment and this should be the key factor in setting a rate or requesting a bonus - even if it is more than the PM.
Please respond with your ideas - which one of you wants to be the first to confess you earn more than the PM?
Doug Baird is Managing Director of Interim Partners.
We are searching for excellent recruitment consultants to help us to continue to grow Interim Partners. It is not easy to find exceptional recruiters who are passionate about service and want to work hard to support our interim community. Can you help us identify them?
Here’s how. You are probably already networked with good recruiters and have built excellent relationships with them. These are the people we are looking for. Please recommend them to us and tell us what attributes make them stand out from a crowded market.
We are looking for high quality, tenacious and goal orientated people who have an impressive and successful career. They may already be in recruitment - either Interim Management or Executive Search. They could be in Consulting or have experience of selling solutions to C level contacts. They will be great at building relationships, naturally inquisitive and have the ability to influence. They will have the soft skills that clearly recognise we work with talented people and need to manage their hopes and expectations. Importantly, they must understand that we are marketing the skills of our interims and that they are not a “product.” The positions will be based in our London office.
Why Interim Partners?
• Sunday Fast Track 100 in 2008 and 2009. We are outperforming our sector.
• Our business achieved double digit growth in 2009 and we have achieved record revenues in quarters 1 and 2 of 2010.
• We have great relationships with our clients. We are preferred supplier to numerous FTSE 250 companies.
• Exceptional track record of supplying interim managers to some of the UK’s largest change programmes- we have fantastic case studies.
• Supportive culture, close knit team.
• Exceptional Financial rewards.
If we hire someone you recommend we would like to say a big thank you – so tell us what that thank you could be. Tickets to a major sporting event? Tickets for a must see show in the West End? A case of champagne? Of course you would always get our complete focus to help you identify your next assignment!
Please email me your thoughts at [email protected]
Doug Baird is Managing Director of Interim Partners.
The newspapers have been full of stories relating to poor leadership over the past few weeks. We have seen General Stanley McChrystall loose his position due to communicating with the press directly and criticising the Obama administration. John Terry has also been talking directly to the media about his boss but has survived despite making a “big mistake”. My favorite of the current batch though is Tony Hayward embattled CEO of BP who continues to get a roasting from all sides for his handling of the Gulf oil crisis.
Knowing what to do in a crisis is a rare skill. The decisions you make have a habit of following you around for many months or even years after. Good judgment is often hard to quantify immediately – it is often only in hindsight that we can see the real and lasting benefits.
It is important that as we represent our interim managers we focus on where they have added value, what they have achieved in previous assignments and if they have a positive legacy. We want to demonstrate to our clients that their organisation is better off; that our interim manager made a contribution that met their expectations and that they passed on their knowledge so that their efforts made a lasting impact.
We place leaders - perhaps they are not leading the national team or running one of the world’s largest oil companies but they are providing excellent leadership to businesses, departments, projects or teams. We like many, are also searching for the illusive characteristics that make good leaders and therefore good interim managers. I would like our clients and interim managers to get involved in this debate and tell me what they believe makes good leaders and good interim managers.
We will all see greater competition for assignments especially as opportunities for interims in the public sector run dry. We will need to fight against the impulse to make a commodity out of interim management and therefore interim managers. We will need to re-enforce the added value message to our clients - the lasting benefits and importantly that the value and contribution of a good interim manager is always far greater than their cost.
Doug Baird is Managing Director of Interim Partners.
Whilst the interim market within the private equity & restructuring market remains challenging, in recent weeks we have definitely seen much more activity. This is certainly good news and hopefully it will continue once we have got the summer out of the way.
In the last two months we have introduced an Interim CEO to Endless llp to run their latest acquisition British Bookshops & Stationers. We have also been working with the restructuring group of one of the leading banks which has led to the introduction of a Non-Executive Director to the board of a private equity backed manufacturing businesses. Last week, working with the same bank, we introduced a Chief Restructuring Officer to Discover Leisure plc as part of the CVA they recently agreed in conjunction with KPMG.
http://www.kpmg.co.uk/email/06Jun09/146864/MFirmin/220_e-Alert.html
Working with the banks is certainly proving to be a very good and fruitful relationship for Interim Partners and we are now in a position to deliver across a much wider range of projects in addition to the traditional private equity (MBO) mandates we receive. Given our in-depth knowledge across many sectors we are able to introduce industry specific executives with restructuring and stake holder management experience at short notice.
Looking forward we may well see an increase in the types of opportunities outlined here, be it working with distressed debt and turnaround investors or indeed the restructuring teams within the main banks. I expect that the parameters of these roles will continue to be varied in duration, scope, and complexity and will provide a different portfolio of opportunities for our interim network. An increase in corporate M&A and private equity backed buyouts would certainly be well received and complement the current flow of activity we are now seeing.
Doug Baird is Managing Director and Head of the Private Equity Practice of Interim Partners.
I am interested to hear how our clients and interims view swine flu? Is there a genuine threat that will significantly affect business and far worse lead to loss of life or will it be a couple of small sneezes and one day in bed. Like many I have had “man flu” an equally nasty strain but have to be honest I am far more concerned about swine flu as I have a very young family (soon to be 3 under 3) and also work in London so use the tube. I don’t mind getting it but don’t want to pass it to my family!
If you are one of our clients perhaps you may want to comment as to what sort of contingency plans you have in place if a large part of your workforce became ill. I am also interested to hear if it is on the radar of the SME market. With a brutal recession top of the agenda it may not get much of a looking. What of the interim manager? Has anyone turned down an assignment or thought twice about accepting one due to travel in airports or an international location?
At the other end of the spectrum I have heard of swine flu parties (can this really be true!?) a case of get it now, over and done with.
I suspect swine flu may prove to be an unpleasant experience – I hope it doesn’t effect any of us too seriously.
Doug Baird is Managing Director at Interim Partners.
Well it is in our office anyway. We are going to ban the use of the word and ensure that it is not viewed as an excuse but as an opportunity. I hope my title caught your attention and for a mere split second you were hopeful that it was over and that I might have some pearls of wisdom or indeed some hard facts that might suggest the recession is over. Unfortunately, I have neither. All I can say is that our team is increasingly more positive as they are experiencing greater levels of activity in the market.
I am no different to many small business owners and when bombarded with bad news in the press am left feeling that my glass is half full. However, our hard work and commitment are paying off and we are indentifying opportunities for high quality interim managers. Recent assignments have included opportunities across all the sectors that we operate in and whilst we have a strong presence in the UK we have also got current assignments based in continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Within the past two weeks I have also had the opportunity to pitch to a financial services provider who are about to embark on a major change programme so can confidently predict that the pipeline for assignments is looking good.
I recently attended the Yorkshire Business Conference www.yibc.biz. As always the conference was excellent and this year it focused on speakers who had a “can do” approach to business. I can recommend this conference (or those that are similar) to everyone because you come away with a renewed sense of purpose and positivity. What key points did I come away with? A few messages struck a chord. The first is that there is enough business out there for everyone, even today. The second was switch off from the negativity that is out there, turn off the TV or ignore the papers until at least lunchtime as you will start the day better and achieve more. The third message I took was – ignore what your competition are doing, focus on your own business and don’t fret if you hear that they too are successful as there is still enough out there for all of us.
On one last positive note please wish me some luck! I recently presented our business to a panel of experts for the National Business Awards. Always difficult to judge if you hit the right notes but I hope I gave a reasonable account of the business and the excellent team within. Should find out how we did in the next few weeks. Will report our progress and hopefully have more positive news.
Doug Baird is Managing Director of Interim Partners
The landscape for private equity led buyouts is clearly barren. Only five deals have been announced this quarter to date, which is less than 10% of completions during the same period in 2008. The 1st quarter of 2009 didn’t look much better either, with only 13 completed compared to 63 last year.
Obviously the financing of deals in terms of debt remains a stumbling block or at least the price of debt finance makes it prohibitive. Vendor price expectations are still significantly higher than that of buyers. The appetite for backing relatively high risk transitions in this climate remains limited.
However, on the positive side we have seen Lloyds Development Capital complete a number of deals this year and a key client of Interim Partners, Endless llp, recently completed the acquisition of British Bookshops and Stationers plc with the aid of an Interim CEO provided by our Private Equity Practice (announced in Retail Week http://www.retail-week.com/retail-sectors/entertainment/books/ex-whsmith-man-to-run-british-bookshops-and-stationers/5002884.article )
Other bright spots have been a number of opportunities instigated by the Business Support teams within the Banks and recovery practices within the leading advisory and accountancy firms. These roles have mainly being focused around balance sheet restructuring, turnaround advisory, and Non-Executive Directorships. I still feel we are a little way from seeing the real medium to long term turnaround mandates that would create opportunities for Interim Executives across the spectrum, but seeing the banks acting on this tentative basis is still fantastic news.
Also, if we are almost at the point when the worst is over (say it quietly) perhaps these and many other opportunities will start to filter through quicker and that may also provide a catalyst for more M&A activity. Going forward one must expect the environment to become more fertile as there will be many opportunities for investors to commit some of the cash piles that have built up in the last six months. In Britain alone there is circa £90bn waiting in the war chest. There is no question 2009 has been a tough year for the buy out community, banks, and management teams of leveraged buyouts, but hopefully the summer will provide us with some momentum going in to the last quarter of the year.
Please feel free to leave your comments regarding the current M&A and Private Equity market conditions and don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss any of the issues raised here or in previous entries. Indeed I am always keen to hear from Executives operating in this space either directly or indirectly.
The G20 summit in many ways now seems like a distant memory. After a market rally pushed the FTSE 100 above 4000 we are now back to the consistent volatility of recent times. Despite the numerous fiscal stimuli we are still left to wonder what impact, if any, this will have on real businesses and real people in the UK. The big question remains – how and when will all this additional capital filter through to those businesses, particularly SMEs, that desperately need it and when will the banks get back to some kind of normality?
Clearly, times like these highlight the great inequalities that exist in the world, none more so than RBS’ announcement of 9000 more redundancies. In light of Sir Fred’s seven hundred thousand pound yearly pension pot those 9000 people will be feeling mightily aggrieved, and so they should.
Putting Sir Fred and all the other now impotent ‘masters of the universe’ to one side the simple fact remains that we need our banks to function as they should (providing the platform for growth by way of credit, loans, working capital etc) and as quickly as possible. The longer it takes to clean up the banks and get them lending again the longer we will be stuck in the current maelstrom.
As much as it pains many to say it we need banks, we need bankers, we need traders, we need deal makers, we need investors, and we certainly need to start taking a few more risks. Without risk business growth does not exist, without banks businesses do not have the sufficient working capital and funding to grow, acquire businesses, enter new markets, and ultimately employ more people. Executive pay and the reward for failure has and always will be a contentious issue, but I get the feeling at the moment it is providing Gordon Brown and the government with a perfect distraction from there own failings and how badly they have managed the recession since the credit crunch.
Economists, politicians, and central banks continue to look for the financial equivalent of the philosopher’s stone, desperately trying to turn toxic assets back in to the gold they once were and get economies moving again. Ultimately however panaceas only exist in Greek mythology and as much gold dust as Barack Obama clearly has businesses need to start making decisions quickly on how to get through these tough times. Barack Obama can’t solve all the worlds’ problems and there will not be a sudden turnaround in fortunes, no matter how much we want it
Interim managers will have an increasingly important role to play when businesses get through the current decision paralysis and stop waiting for this said panacea. Bringing on board an experienced interim with operational and financial restructuring experience can provide a big shot in the arm and get a lot done in a very short time. They tend to have a different perspective from the ‘conventional wisdom’ that exists within a business and are focussed on solutions and the future rather than past failings. They are also able to draw a line in the sand and get people on board quickly as they are not attached to any of the problems that exist within the business. What the world needs now is experienced Interim Managers! Doug Baird is Managing Director and Head of the Private Equity Practice of Interim Partners.
It is an interesting time for those of us in the interim market place. I hear some of the providers are doing very well in this climate and others who are struggling to pick up new assignments. Due to the efforts of the team at Interim Partners I am pleased to report that we are within the former group and not the latter.
My understanding is that the market for interim managers is not suffering to the same extent as the permanent recruitment market, however, there are certainly more interims in the market and considerably more candidates who are interested in a first move into interim management. We spotted an interesting stat with Google that supports this - the relative number of searches on Google in the UK for the terms such as “interim jobs” has increased from an index of 68 in May 08 to 100 in Jan 09 (an increase of 47%). Could this rise in interest be attributed to the economic downturn?
We focus on placing candidates who have proven track records as interim managers. Equally we are keen to support those that are entering the market through choice and have made a real commitment to develop a track record as an interim manager. Unfortunately there will always be candidates who position themselves as interim managers but really are just looking for work to provide continuity of income before the next permanent position comes up. There is nothing wrong with this in principle because everyone wants to work although the provider community has a responsibility to spot this so it doesn’t put too much downward pressure on rates for genuine interim managers.
Ultimately I hope that the increased flow of candidates into interim management will prove to be good news. We want to attract high quality candidates into it and hope that awareness and the market itself will grow as a consequence.
