What if Interim Management were an answer before the crisis? 5 signals a company should not ignore
What if the right time to call on Interim Management was not when the situation becomes critical, but a few weeks or a few months earlier?
In our conversations with business leaders, one sentence keeps coming back: “We tried to handle it internally… but we ended up losing time.”
Interim Management is still often associated with crisis. Yet in practice, companies turn to it in a much wider range of situations.
A sudden departure. A role that has become essential. A transformation that can no longer wait. An integration to steer. An organisation that needs to scale up.
In all of these situations, the common thread is often the same: the company needs to act now, while it does not yet have the right management capacity in place.
This is precisely where Interim Management comes into its own.
At Actiss Africa, we step in to provide operational management capacity quickly, with a clear objective: take charge of a situation, move matters forward and leave behind a stronger organisation than the one we found.
Here are five signals that may indicate it is time to consider this solution.
1. A key position is vacant… and the organisation is starting to adapt to its absence
A Managing Director leaves, a CFO moves on, an HR Director is no longer in post.
The first reaction is often a logical one: “We’ll launch a recruitment process.”
The problem is that recruitment takes time.
In the meantime, teams share out the responsibilities. Some decisions are postponed. Others are made without any real leadership. The CEO sometimes ends up absorbing part of the vacant role.
This is exactly what we have supported on several assignments: providing operational management continuity at a time when the company could no longer afford to wait.
It is not simply about “filling the seat”. It is about taking ownership of the scope, bringing momentum back into the organisation and preparing what comes next.
That is exactly what we did for a major group based in Abidjan. Growing fast, the group approached us while its Group Sales Director role, which had become essential, was still vacant, forcing the CEO to take back part of the operational work. For six months, Actiss Africa deployed an Interim Manager to structure the function, put the necessary tools and organisation in place, and run it in full.
2. A strategic project is moving forward… but not fast enough
The project matters. Everyone is convinced of it.
But the weeks go by. Meetings multiply, decisions are delayed, teams are already busy with their day-to-day responsibilities, and the project ends up progressing in fits and starts.
We have seen this in particular in contexts of transformation, business development or the roll-out of new organisations.
The problem is not always a lack of skills. Sometimes, what is missing is simply someone whose main job is to move the project forward.
In this case, Interim Management brings temporary leadership, delivery capacity and experience that can be applied directly to the project.
In 2021, the CFAO Technology and Energy Division, now CFAO Green Infra, was facing a particularly structuring project in Togo: the development of a Data Center business.
The project had fallen behind schedule and required dedicated resources to meet its deadlines. Actiss Africa stepped in with an Interim Management assignment to steer the project and enable the Data Center to be deployed and delivered on time.
3. The company is going through a pivotal period
There are times when a company changes scale.
A new business is launched. An acquisition needs to be integrated. A market needs to be developed. An organisation needs to be restructured. New governance needs to be put in place.
These are often exciting periods. But they can also put the organisation under strain.
On several of our assignments, the need was not to “fix” a company in difficulty. It was to help it through an important stage in its development, with experienced management capacity able to take hold of the matter quickly.
This is another side of Interim Management: temporarily providing the management capacity a company needs at a specific moment, without necessarily intending to make it a permanent part of its organisation.
4. Indicators are deteriorating… but everyone still hopes things will sort themselves out
This is probably the hardest signal to deal with.
Because at first, nothing seems truly alarming.
Falling revenue. Shrinking margins. Lengthening lead times. Slowing sales activity. Cash flow pressure.
Then one quarter goes by. Then a second. And the company keeps running, until the point where it becomes much harder to act.
In some recovery, turnaround or business takeover situations, Actiss Africa’s role is precisely to step in with a clear mandate: quickly assess the situation, take the necessary decisions, bring the organisation back under control and build an action plan.
At that point, the challenge is no longer (only) to diagnose. Action is required.
But it is also possible to act upstream.
One of our regular clients, the head of a US$100 million revenue company under an LBO, identifies the weakest link in his organisation every year and includes an Interim Management line in his budget to strengthen it.
By working this way, year after year, on his points of weakness, he has gradually built a stronger, more responsive organisation, capable of outperforming its targets.
5. Teams are doing their best… but they are compensating too much
This may be the most discreet signal.
Nobody says the organisation is struggling. On the contrary, the teams are holding up.
But they are holding up because some employees are taking on two responsibilities instead of one. Because the CEO is getting involved in operational matters that should no longer be his or her concern. Because managers are putting certain projects on hold to deal with day-to-day emergencies.
For a few weeks, this works. For a few months, much less so.
When the organisation starts to run mainly on the individual efforts of a few people, it may be time to ask whether it still has the management resources it needs.
An Interim Management assignment can then relieve the pressure on the organisation, take charge of a clearly defined scope and get teams moving forward again.
So, should you wait for the crisis?
Not necessarily.
Interim Management is not meant to systematically replace a recruitment, an internal promotion or a reorganisation.
But when time becomes critical, when responsibility has to be taken quickly or when an important project can no longer wait, it is an option worth considering.
And often, the question is not: “Do we need an Interim Manager?”
But rather: “What will we lose if we wait another three or six months?”
At Actiss Africa, we step in at those moments when a company must keep moving forward despite a new, complex or temporary situation.
We step in to manage urgency, structure transformation, optimise performance and de-risk investments.