Interim Management

When I explain to people that I am an ‘interim manager’, I often get glazed eyes as a response. Either that or “Oh, yeah! I’m thinking of doing that”!  I thought I’d explain some of the advantages and disadvantages from my own experience.

As an interim, I am self employed through my own Limited Company and contract for ’services’ (work) either through an interim provider (an agency) or direct with a client. It operates rather like freelancing – I get paid a ‘day rate’ for the work I do. I am also registered to pay VAT. Setting up a Limited Company was pretty straightforward, quick and not expensive either. The most difficult part was thinking of a name for the company. (I didnt have that much imagination and went for my middle and last names: Mackintosh Oliver Ltd). I was also recommended a good accountant: David Lyon at Calders.

There are many interim providers to register with. I’d recommend checking out those with the Interim Management Association.

Some specialise in sectors – for example Veredus focus on the public sector whereas BIE and Impact tend to have more of a private sector predominance. Others specialise in HR, finance, IT and communications (e.g. VMA).

Like so many jobs, it can be frustrating to get into interim management as most providers want soemone with a track record. Getting the first assignment can therfore be a bit tricky! Providers most certainly dont want someone who is interested in “doing a bit of interim between jobs” as they do not want someone to leave their client in the lurch half way through a contract. The providers want ‘happy clients’ who will keep coming back to them for more interims. The providers can charge around 30% on top of the day rate - it varies. 

I have enjoyed working across so many sectors. I’ve worked at a County Council, a couple of regulators, membership organisations, B2B, central government and Non-Departmental Public Bodies responsible for the built environment and museums and libraries. Great experience.

I’ve brought my portfolio of corporate communications experience and ‘transferable skills’ and developed tham to meet the needs of the different organisations. Every role has a different communications focus – media relations, public affiars, managing teams, internal comms etc.

To be in work pretty continuously, I find that I have to be pretty flexible. I take part-time contracts occasionally (although I prefer working full-time) and will work away from home. As I have just finished a contract, I am about to find out how much the Credit Crunch has affected rates!

The assumption from the client is that you will be able to ‘hit the ground running’. It can mean working a couple of levels ‘beneath’ the role that you may have had in a permanent environment. Some people can find that difficult – especially if you are used to a large support team and suddenly find that the buck stops with you!

Hope this short ‘taster’ helps. Happy to take questions!

CIPR CPD

Has anyone registered for the CIPR CPD scheme? I’ve had the brochure on my desk (somewhere…..) for months. It sounds like a ’sensible’ thing to do, but I havent been suitably motivated yet to complete the form.

Any thoughts?

Right Brain 2.0

I was at a new art class (no, really!) on Saturday courtesy of Central St Martins. As an exercise to energise the right-side of the brain, the teacher had us draw contours of a figure looking at him and not at the paper. A bit like touch-typing, I imagine! (My results were, shall we say, indescribable)!  The process did get me thinking (so it must have worked) as I wondered whether perhaps the Web2.0 approach could be described as a ‘right-brain’ activity, whereas the previous approach was more ‘left-brain’.

Left-brain thinking being more logical, linear, maths & science. Right-side thinking being more creative, artistic, empathic. The ‘techies’ who set up websites and mastered HTML and other clever stuff may have come from the Left. Once the access to creating new media opened up, the Right folk have taken over.

I havent read Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” but read his interview with Oprah!. He argues that traditional white-collar jobs will be outsourced to less expensive overseas workers, particularly in Asia. He thinks that the transformational abilities such as empathy and creativity cant be outsourced. In his book he lists six Right brain skills and how we can develop and use them. He says in the interview “…if we encourage people to tap the right side of their brains, we have the potential to transform our world – to make ourselves not just better off but just plain better”. There arent any comments from the ‘less expensive overseas workers’ who may be ‘left’ doing the Left brain stuff!

President-Elect and Wispa

I was reminded of the apocryphal story about Christmas presents when I read The New York Times article about Obama campaign. You know the tale: The Washington Post rings around ambassadors to ask what present they would want for Christmas. The British ambassador has just received the usual knuckle-rapping edict from the FCO to all staff about the need to send back any extravagant gifts. So, when he gets the call from the journalist, he answers appropriately. The newspaper prints the selection of presents chosen by ambassadors: “Peace on Earth” (France), “Feed the World” (UN), “Cure for Cancer” etc etc…..and a small jar of crystallised ginger for Great Britain!

My reasoning being that America used what Al Gore referred to as an “amalgamation of people, ideas and the social technology that connected them” to elect the first African American President. Britain used the same technology to bring back a chocolate bar!

 

Wispa Campaign

Al Gore was speaking at the Web2.0 summit in San Fransisco and commented that the election “would not have been possible without the additional empowerment of individuals to use knowledge as a source of power that has come with the internet.”

Al Gore at Web2.0 Summit

Brian Solis has a Post on his blog about the summit. He supports the view that it was the people and the ideas that provided the inspiration and the social technology provided the platform to make it all happen.

The New York Times also talks about social media being the force for ‘democratization’. David Carr writes about the “possessive entitlement” that the campaign has brought. Individuals, groups and ‘tribes’, have entered into a conversation with President-Elect Obama and will expect it to continue.

Mark Ambinder  writes about the ‘MyBO’ site and lists three important characteristics:

“1. Enthusiasm — Democratic enthusiasm, enthusiasm for the Obama campaign was there, but it had to be stroked and perpetuated;

2. Technology — text messaging, web 2.0 social networking, geocoding and tagging, etc

3. Approach –  what an Obama aide called “accountable empowerment” –  it allowed volunteers to keep track of what they were doing, allowed their friends to see who was on top, gave them rewards, and more.”

Lots for us to learn. I’ll leave the last words to the Master on the Transitional Government website:

“The story of this campaign is your story. It is about the great things we can do when we come together around a common purpose”.

Change TM

Does the world seem different to you?

Barack Obama and his team have shown us all how to execute a communications plan. Simple message, simple vision, stick to it, repeat it, use simple language, target your audiences (or tribes), use channels to reach and engage your audience. Also to stay calm, to stay upbeat and positive and ‘fresh’. The positive aspect of the campaign was captured in the tag-line which became a chant “Yes we can”.

And wow, does it help if you have someone charismatic to deliver the message.

And the message is one word: “change”. And the Obama camp seem to have trade marked the word. The new website for the transition government is change.gov. The home page talks about what the American people can do when they come together around a ‘common purpose’. The website supports the apparent transparency of the campaign and also seeks to continue the involvement of the electorate – even signposting job opportunities. It also asks people to ’share your stories’ and to ’share your vision’.

It is surprising in some ways that the campaign was able to move at all, with all the ‘hangers on’ watching and learning from the experience! PR Week  talked about a 20-strong delegation from Insight Public Affairs being ‘embedded’ in the campaign in Florida. According to the CIPR, 77% of UK PROs supported Obama (without going to America, I assume)!

Some of the headline figures quoted in PR Week are pretty mind-boggling: $600million donations (50% approx from individual small donations through the website); $190million media spend up to the end of October, almost twice as many (700) Democratic election offices compared to 370 for the Republican Party.

So…standy for copycat campaigns from Labour and Conservative parties. I had a quick look at the internet TV set up by Labour supporters: CampaignTV and got turned off by the ‘tinny’ music and rapidly changing images. A quick ‘Google’ for political party internet almost got me onto BNPTV – but I managed to avoid the link! The LibDems even had a fringe event for bloggers at their Party Conference.

In the UK, our parties seem to be grappling with the difficulty of ‘controlling’ the new media rather than embracing its almost anarchic nature. In addition to the ‘official’ party sites (dull), there are also supporters and bloggers sites (hmm, still dull)! So the challenge is going to be harnessing the fast-moving, engaging/participatory opportunities to reach the new digital electorate.

Could be fun!

Profit or Prophet?

BBC News 24 was playing in the background as I was working and I looked up when I heard the comment about Shell’s prophet. I thought that that was an unusual word to use for a company spokesperson or oil company pundit! 

I then heard the criticism from the trade union Unite that the ‘prophets’ were “obscene” – which certainly got my attention!!

More informed listeners/readers will have already picked up the ‘O’ word as it was the headline used in The Daily Mail.  I had a look at the Shell website and found this statement from their Chief Prophet:”This is another set of competitive earnings for Shell shareholders. Good operating performance, combined with increased oil and gas prices, offset the impact of weaker downstream conditions in the second quarter 2008. Shell is making substantial, targeted investments to grow the company for shareholders and help ensure that energy markets remain well supplied. Spending is increasing on new acreage and selective acquisitions as we refresh the portfolio with new options for future growth. Our strategy is on track.”

The focus on keeping shareholders happy is totally understandable – but there doesnt seem to be much focus on the consumer or positioning the profits/prophets(?) against the background of what is happening to the economy at large. The comms team at Shell seem to have responded to the criticism by pointing out that the profits come from extracting the oil – not from forecourt sales.  There seems like some scope to present their story better to the consumer perhaps??? Or do you think the truth is out there but that criticising oil companies is an easy target?

Anyone know the background or able to proselytize?