Troubleshooter promotes the just-in-time manager: Companies can get interim expert help to deal with change, writes Neasa MacErlean

TEMPORARY managers can act as a crucial catalyst against a background of growing competition and an increasing need for improvement in management effectiveness, according to Sir John Harvey-Jones.

The businessman turned management guru gave a ringing endorsement of the trend for companies to use interim managers when speaking at a conference on 'The Portfolio Executive' held in London last week.

'It is absolutely vital that people recognise there is such a service,' he said. 'One would like to get to the situation where people were aware early enough to get in this sort of help before trouble hits. I think we're a million miles away from that.'

Interim managers - or portfolio executives - are increasingly being used in Britain. They are usually employed for several months and cover a wide range of functions, from company turn-around work to preparing businesses for sale, or focusing on strategic objectives such as entering new markets.

The conference was told that the current size of the market is estimated at pounds 50m. 'That's a tiny proportion of its potential,' said Sir John.

His thesis is that while larger companies cannot introduce change quickly enough, the future for UK business lies mainly with smaller and medium-sized enterprises. These companies, however, are too small to be able to pay for and stimulate permanent management heavyweights. Interim managers, he believes, should be used regularly - not just to fight fires but also to bring in new ideas.

Businesses which do not keep up with the flow of new ideas will ultimately be forced into wholesale change. 'Most large organisations have to have a total revolution about every 10 or 15 years,' he said. 'A hell of a lot of people get hurt in the process. If you're able to have a whole series of mini-revolutions, you can avoid the pain and manage the situation better.'

The PA Consulting Group has on its books about 400 interim managers, most of whom are in their forties and fifties, are financially secure and have had successful practical business careers.

'These guys are one and a half to two times as big as the job,' said Martin Wood, director of interim management at PA.

An interim manager who used to earn pounds 100,000 a year would be placed with companies which could afford to pay only about pounds 50,000 to employ someone in such a position full- time.

In a survey of 300 large British companies, PA found that about 12 per cent had used interim managers. More than 90 per cent of these companies said they would use the service again. But most of those surveyed said they had no idea about the availability of interim managers.

Interim management in the UK has only become popular in the past five years. Its seeds are on the Continent, particularly in the Netherlands, where tougher employment laws encourage companies to have looser ties with their managers. Per capita, the Netherlands has six times as many of these 'head-renters' as Britain.

PA believes that the British use of interim management has substantial growth potential. It predicts that companies will try to keep themselves leaner and fitter even when recession gives way to boom.

The consultancy firm sees interim management as the human resources parallel to out-sourcing, the buying-in of specialist services from outside.

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