“International Project Management”

Interim international project management has become an essential executive service for the growth of companies, particularly with regard to their international expansion.

13 October 2022

Companies can meet the need to engage the services of a project management specialist in various ways. For years, the most common approach has been to appoint a project manager as a permanent member of staff. However, interim management is proving to be a more competitive approach, as it does not place an excessive burden on organisations’ permanent structure, amongst other reasons. This shift in approach to project management is turning interim management companies into the preferred service providers for strategic projects.

There are significant differences between hiring a project manager, an interim manager and an interim management company, and these are not merely financial. The first is a professional who joins an organisation’s structure to carry out projects. The second joins a company’s structure temporarily for the duration of a specific project. Finally, interim management companies offer executive management services with the utmost flexibility and a range of guarantees and value-added factors that cannot be provided by independent professionals.

International project management requires more than just multinational experience, which is what an interim manager or freelance interim manager might provide. Companies seek a comprehensive range of services, as well as a support structure that guarantees the achievement of objectives. To this end, the leading organisations specialising in flexible management services (another term used for this specialism) are part of international networks comprising the leading companies in each of their respective countries. This is the case with EPUNTO Interim Management and Valtus Alliance, which operates in 13 countries with more than 60,000 senior interim managers, all of whom are leaders in their fields of specialisation. According to a study recently published by the Interim Management Business Institute on 45 companies specialising in interim management across 50 countries, those who engage this service particularly value the fact that these providers belong to international networks or groups specialising in interim management, particularly the business owners surveyed in Europe and Oceania.

Although this is a rather uncommon situation, another benefit of engaging specialist firms is the guarantee of an immediate replacement interim manager should the original candidate prove unsuitable for achieving the specific objectives due to certain circumstances. A company engaging this type of service not only avoids overburdening its workforce, but also benefits from the talent, knowledge and experience offered by these professionals. These are people who are accustomed to successfully navigating extraordinary and often delicate situations typically associated with change management. Having to replace a key executive within a company is one of the most well-known scenarios for the use of interim management services. However, there is another, more common scenario: having to rescue or restructure a company, known as a ‘turnaround’. These are cases where the management comprising the permanent structure has been unable to manage the company adequately; this is why the intervention of specialists provided by interim management firms is so crucial, as they have already navigated such critical circumstances in one or more sectors and, often, in several different countries.

In order of priority, the most common reasons for engaging interim management are:

1. Change management and general management, or management of specific roles.
2. Business or business division restructuring or rescue, supply chain management and procurement.
3. The temporary replacement of an executive to manage special projects.
4. Cost reviews and reductions.
5. The launch or strengthening of new products and services.

(Source: “1st International Study on Interim Management” 31 March 2022)