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It’s always interesting to look back and review the year to date, and the effects of Government initiatives. The much trumpeted Credit Insurance scheme that I felt could potentially provide the catalyst to enable companies to continue trading through the credit crunch didn’t materialise – an interesting comment from an interim runs thus: ‘… we finally got ourselves through to the department responsible who then told us that they had no idea what they were meant to do or how they would do it.’ Sound familiar?
That being said, the economic news is positive, and those who scoffed at Alastair Darling’s forecasts for the economy look to have been wrong footed. The huge sums of money ‘thrown’ at the banks to release credit lines to the market, and the Bank of England’s policy of quantitative easing appear to have had the effect of reversing the steep decline we experienced far more rapidly than anyone expected – GDP increasing by 0.1% in May following a similar increase in April. Tentative, but broadly in line with data elsewhere from the housing market to the Purchasing Managers Index and, more importantly, with consumer confidence – perhaps this the summer we were hoping for, after green shoots were somewhat prematurely spotted by those in high office back in January!
It’s certainly more positive from where I’m sitting and despite trading conditions for many of my clients remaining challenging, there has been a marked increase in enquiries from clients. This is also true of the experiences of our interim managers, for whom in the manufacturing sector, has been a tough Q1 and Q2, but who are now seeing more potential assignments in the offing.
This quarter has seen requirements for Operations, Supply Chain and Finance interims – I’m delighted to have placed a top level Operations Director in Germany and fully expect to have a Supply Chain/ Ops Director and a Financial Controller (in India) placed by the month end. Fierce competition for assignments makes it a buyer’s market, not so much in terms of day rate, but in terms of experience and candidate profiles exactly matching briefs – not a long term trend and in my view a current ‘luxury’ for clients as demand catches up, but still frustrating for interims who come close, but just not quite.
Surprisingly, demand for Turnaround Specialists remains ‘cool’ although more encouraging feedback suggests that banks faced with the unexpected, and largely unwanted ownership of PE backed businesses now under water, are investing resource in turning these businesses around. Certainly there seems to be more interest from the banks, and my expectation is that there will be a subsequent increase in demand for turnaround specialists – albeit with specific industry experience, and an exact match for the client’s candidate/ job brief…
Tom Legard is a Senior Consultant in the Manufacturing Practice of Interim Partners.
