When to Use an Interim

An interim finance director, manager, or CFO is the ideal strategic decision in a number of business situations:

• Rapid Expansion
• Mergers/Acquisitions
• MBOs/MBIs/IPOs
• Joint Ventures
• Business Turnaround
• Corporate Crisis
• Critical Skills Gap
• Business Improvement
• Due Diligence

Rapid Expansion
A period of rapid growth can create many new financial demands, many of which are short term. Finance injections, restructuring, financial re-engineering or fresh reporting systems may be required. These often require financial skills that the day-to-day finance team lack. And even for teams that do have these skills, they simply don't have the time to take on additional workload.

Interim financial management is the perfect resourcing solution. It delivers:

• An experienced interim finance manager
• Handpicked for each situation
• Added resource without adding to your permanent head count
• A solution which can flexed up and down as and when required

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Mergers/Acquisitions
A merger or acquisition places a lot of pressure on existing finance staff. It distracts them from the day-to-day, creates uncertainty, and can demand skills or experience which they lack. Interim finance managers can be employed in two different ways to address the situation.

If this is your management team's first M&A situation, a highly experienced interim finance director can provide senior, specialist, hands-on support for all the functions you need:

• Target identification
• Due diligence
• Negotiating the terms
• Negotiating the deal
• Ratifying the accounts
• Securing the finance
• Merging the businesses

On the other hand, if your management team is already skilled in M&A, you can instead engage interim finance managers to handle your routine finance functions whilst the senior team focus on the deal.

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MBOs/MBIs/IPOs
Your finance team may not have the breadth of knowledge, experience, or contacts to see your company through a buy-out or buy-in. Yet the strength and rigour of your financial team could make or break the deal.

Such situations are perfect for brining in an interim finance manager, handpicked to deliver your restructuring. They can:

• Identify and manage the relationship with finance providers
• Negotiate the terms of the deal
• Select a shortlist of financial partners to approach
• Structure the deal
• Prepare and present the business case
• Mentor the team

They will also help the Board in other ways:

• Acting as a sounding board
• Relieving them of some of the inevitable workload
• Helping with the corporate restructure following the deal

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Joint Ventures
With the partner companies behind a joint venture each having their own representative on the Board, a joint venture can get mired down in inter-company politics and vested interests.

An interim finance manager or finance director has the gravitas to deal with both companies at the highest level.

• They have the independence to say what is in the best interest of the venture itself.
• They can make the financial decisions which work for the venture.
• As a result, the joint venture achieves its full potential, and all the partners benefit.

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Business Turnaround
In a turnaround situation tough decisions must be taken fast.

• Everything is up for debate
• Nothing can be ruled in or out
• A new strategy is needed fast
• Investors need to be convinced and reassured the turnaround will work

Interim finance managers who are turnaround specialists are the obvious solution. Uninhibited by company politics and disassociated from the company's poor-performing past, they will quickly:

• Look at the key financials
• See where strategy is failing
• Bring their massive experience and impartiality to bear
• See where savings can be made
• Identify how to quickly get more out of existing working capital
• Renegotiate finance deals
• Reassure the bank and investors

They cut through the historical clutter to see exactly what needs to be done and then help the management team do it.

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Corporate Crisis
The crises a company can face are unpredictable, demand a unique set of skills and put management under enormous pressure. Crises could be:

• A new competitor has entered the market
• Finances are under threat
• The critical IT system is way over due and off budget
• A huge hole has been found in the accounts
• The Chief Executive has left and joined a rival
• You are facing a hostile takeover

A well-chosen senior interim finance manager will have been through exactly the same situation before. They will:

• Know what action needs to be taken
• Support and mentor the management team throughout the crisis

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Critical Skills Gap
10% of companies are likely to face their year end without their finance director in place.

No-one can predict that this will happen. But companies can protect themselves against it. By having a relationship with an interim management agency they can have ready access to interim finance professionals – to plug the short-term, business critical gap, while a permanent replacement is found.

The manager can be more than a stop-gap measure – they can help drive through initiatives and proactively pick up the reigns while the recruitment process is going on.

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Business Improvement
Far from simply being someone who measures the financials, a good finance director can play a fundamental role in shaping a company’s future.

• A corporate tax-efficient relocation strategy
• A minimum customs duty strategy for importers
• Consolidated reporting focusing on business critical areas
• Clearer profitability analysis
• More timely, relevant financial information
• Streamlined credit and collections functions
• Renegotiated finance terms
• Successful SAP introduction

In a few months an experienced interim finance director can deliver these and many other business critical improvements.

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Due Diligence
The need to perform or oversee due diligence can swamp an existing finance team – or it can be outside the team’s competencies. Such situations are excellent opportunities to employ a team of interim finance directors.

Executives Online can rapidly assemble a team to fit your exact needs, be they for:

• Industry and functional experts who can provide cover for your own team while they tackle due diligence
• Due diligence experts who can accurately size up an acquisition while leaving your team focused on their core deliverables
• Or a combination of the two.

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