Interim Management in the Automotive Industry: The Leadership Decision Nobody Wants to Make
For two decades, growth was the default script in automotive leadership: more models, more variants, more production lines. In Germany, one of the industry’s most established markets, that script is now reversing. Adding a new product to the range used to be, relatively speaking, the easier decision. The harder one, the one leadership avoided, was […]
Diagnosis is advice. Execution is interim management
Bring in an outside expert and they will usually see things the team inside has stopped noticing. An inefficient process. An expense nobody has questioned. A bottleneck everyone works around instead of fixing. That part is often the easier one. The harder question is what happens next. Why the obvious stops being obvious When you […]
Interim management isn’t recruitment. It’s diagnosis
When I advise people starting out in this profession, I tell them the same thing every time: before you try to find a solution, you need to fully understand what the client actually needs. I don’t say this because it sounds right. I say it because it is the part of the job that determines […]
The freedom clause: why the best interim contracts give away control
Most companies that bring in an interim manager make the same mistake in the first few weeks. They start giving instructions. I’ve watched this happen for over two decades. I started as a client myself, back in 1998, when I was HR Director Europe at Honeywell Automotive and we needed a CFO for our production […]
The best interims know their value lives in the rear-view mirror
Nobody hires an interim executive for their potential. They hire them for what they have already done. That distinction sits at the heart of interim work, and it is one that many executives moving from permanent roles into interim assignments take time to fully absorb. A client engaging in an interim wants proof, not promise. […]
Transformation is won in execution, not diagnosis
Most organisational problems are like icebergs. Leaders usually see the tip first. When organisations realise they need to change, the first instinct is often to look for solutions. A new technology. A restructuring programme. A new organisational model. Or even external leadership to accelerate transformation. But in my experience, organisations rarely fail because they misunderstand […]
Why transformation doesn’t happen only in the boardroom
Leadership teams define ambitious growth plans, transformation programmes and new business priorities. Yet many of these initiatives never achieve the expected results. Not because the strategy was wrong. But because leadership did not plan the implementation until the end. In my experience, leadership is not only about creating change. It is also about helping organisations […]
The leadership quality that matters most isn’t on a CV
When organisations appoint senior leaders, the conversation usually begins with experience. Has this person led a business of similar size? Do they understand our industry? Have they managed similar challenges before? These are all important questions. But they are rarely the questions that determine whether a leader will truly succeed. Throughout my career, first as […]
Your strategy isn’t failing. Your organisation simply doesn’t have the capacity to deliver it.
Every leadership team talks about transformation. Entering new markets. Launching new products. Integrating artificial intelligence. Improving operational efficiency. These initiatives are discussed in board meetings every day. Yet one of the most important questions is often overlooked. Who is actually going to deliver all of this? In my experience, transformation rarely fails because organisations lack […]
The shortest path to failure is changing direction every two years
Every leadership conference seems to deliver the same message. Be more agile. Move faster. Adapt continuously. None of that is wrong. Organisations must evolve to remain competitive. Markets change. Technologies advance. Customer expectations shift. Leaders cannot stand still. But after more than 35 years in operational leadership and supporting organisations through interim management assignments, I […]