Link, share, join, listen ...
Link, share, join, listen ...
I’m sitting here on the train at 6.00am trying to warm up by writing my blog. Why? Well it’s certainly not a New Year’s resolution that I’m going to be far more efficient with my time. I have to put it down to the fact that the start to the year has been a little bit frenetic.
Just before Christmas I was reading articles from a series of economists who were trying induce an Ebenezer Scrooge-style festive period with their talk of “double dip” and Armageddon. But since then I’ve been buoyed by the fact that my meetings are about deals that are back on the table and more interestingly, commercial growth strategy! I was also lucky enough to have a piece published in the FT last week that has received some interesting feedback regarding the involvement of the lender community in appointing senior level interims. All in all I believe we have an interesting year ahead!!
Maybe we’re trying to talk ourselves out of the issues that surround us or possibly we’re trying get our business done for the year nice and early so we have the summer free to enjoy the splendour of the greatest show on earth coming to London in July. I have noticed a spring in the step of a number of the clients that I’m meeting right now and long may the positive attitude continue. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and dare I say predictions are for the year. Do you get out of the blocks quickly if you’re running a marathon?
Simon Gough is Director of Private Equity & Advisory at Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
There has been lots of talk this month about the perilous state of the economy and its outlook for next year, a similar tale really from the rest of this year. I was interested by the comments of a couple of businessmen for differing reasons this last week. Firstly from a leading retailer who said that flat is the new growth and holding position over the next couple of years will compare to the high growth model of old that had the investment community buzzing. Then from one of the best known PE house owners who comments on the need for the industry to look for “long-termism” for future investments, and that the existing model is just no longer viable.
These are just opinions of course, but if they both hold true then how are investments going to be valued going forward, will there be an even greater stagnation in the deal market as perceived values from either side of the fence differ drastically as we all dispute what the bottom of the market really looks like.
I’m personally seeing quite an interesting marketplace at the moment where my clients are looking for long term operational sense in some of their portfolio businesses and short term cash grabs in others. We can help in both cases as well as assisting in their more traditional needs of executive gap management.
My question for today relates to the current position of the market that needs a good kick start. Are perceived investment valuations changing extensively at the moment due to economic forecasts (flat being the new growth) and as a result what activity will we see in the non distressed marketplace? Sadly I think I know the answer but would be really interested to hear your thoughts.
Simon Gough is a Director and Head of Private Equity.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
The year so far has provided some interesting debates on varying markets within Interim Partners, the market is changing, the landscape is shifting, surely this is a good thing for the interim marketplace. The Pharmaceutical market is no different, in fact I’d say that in its own real terms it’s a position of accelerated chaos. Through all of my meetings this year I’m not witnessing companies talking about business as usual, I’m hearing the talk is about change management, outsourcing, procurement initiatives, downsizing, consolidation through acquisition and regionalisation with a smattering of six sigma and a thirst for quality thrown into the mix.
So what does this all mean for us? Well change is good, it’s what we’ve built our business around. The question is around what’s the best approach to make sure the Interim marketplace aligns itself to the large amounts of change in this vast industry. I’ve just read this morning in the IMA Q1 IPSOS MORI poll that Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences makes up just 3% of the professional interim marketplace. The consulting businesses are stocking their shelves and strengthening their benches in their approach to Pharmaceuticals and we are looking to do the same, this percentage has to increase.
I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on where you think the market will be in Pharma over the coming year and perhaps more importantly where clients will engage directly with the interim community and not engage a consulting business to outsource their problems to. Your comments are greatly appreciated and help us form a wider view.
Simon Gough is Director of Consumer and leads the Pharmaceutical practice.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
I wanted to communicate to the whole Interim Partners community following a couple of problems this week with the posting of assignments. Whilst I was looking to explain what happened on the site over the past few days, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight what we hope to get out of the site as well as what we want the interim management community to experience.
Firstly let me explain the fault from this week. We have investigated the cause of the problem and the result is that a failed web-link that is supposed to take the user from our assignment alerts on LinkedIn, to our website www.interimpartners.com where there is more detail. I apologise if this has affected you however this fault on the LinkedIn platform is beyond our control. We will continue to monitor our LinkedIn Group and we have checked that the RSS feeds that automatically publish our assignments from our website are present and correct.
Could I advise the following: Should you see an assignment on LinkedIn that does not have a working link to the IP website please report it to our LinkedIn group manager, flag as inappropriate or contact one of our offices.
Secondly the purpose for our site and how we think you could get the best out of the site I have broken down below:
What do we use LinkedIn For?
We use linked in as a distribution channel to promote and drive traffic to our website. It can be used as a news feed so you can see the type of assignments we handle as well as a forum for blogging.
Interim Partners provides visibility on our assignments because the feedback from our interim managers was that they preferred to see what we were handling. LinkedIn provides convenience because you will probably view and return to LinkedIn more frequently than our own site.
Our priority.
Interim Partners’ priority is to work with talented interim managers, who make it their permanent profession. Attracting new talent is important for a growing business with big ambitions. However, we are keen to confine our support to candidates who are seeking ongoing assignments as senior interims, as opposed to offering a route to permanent employment. We endeavour to meet as many interims as we can. Unfortunately we can’t commit to seeing everyone, especially if they are new to interim management, do not have senior level experience, or are outside the sectors that we specialise in.
Our LinkedIn group is not open to everyone.
The group is for professional interim managers who have successful track records. We target only a small range of clients who have very specific needs so we can’t be everything for everybody. We are far more likely to have success in working with you if you have significant experience of working in large complex organisations at a senior level. If you do not then there is a much smaller chance that we are able to work with you. We are happy for others who are on the periphery of Interim management to join our group and remain un-registered on our site because they may be interested in our news or blogs however we are unable to accept applications for assignments from them.
Assignment alerts posted on LinkedIn.
Many of our assignments are posted on our website and on other channels such as this LinkedIn group. We send or post email alerts to keep you informed. The assignments are duplicated across a number of media – so if you are across the web there is a good chance that you may see the assignment listed in two places, please look at the assignment references. We do not pre-qualify who receives email alerts or who can read the LinkedIn posts. They are posted for everyone in the group to see. This means many assignments may not be appropriate for you. Our aim is to get the balance right between informing the market and maintaining client confidentiality. If an alert is not of interest, please delete it or forward it to someone in your network who may appreciate it.
If you wish to apply for an assignment it is essential that you are registered on our website www.interimpartners.com and that we have met you. We need sufficient information from you at the outset because we often need to react to our clients very quickly. If you comment that you “like this” next to the assignment posting we will not be able to acknowledge your application and if we do not hold your details on file we are simply not in a position to assess if you are suitable or not.
Based outside of the UK?
We do have a track record of assisting clients with international assignments; however, we will often place UK-based candidates with them. This is because we will have had the opportunity to meet them, assess their skills and take references. Therefore, if you are based outside of mainland UK and unable to meet us, there will be less opportunity for us to work with you. As our business grows and develops we hope to develop an international footprint.
Feedback on applications.
The dynamics of the interim market have changed over the last decade. Technology has significantly increased the level of applications we receive for assignments posted on the internet. We aim to provide a consultative service to everyone in our candidate community; however, whilst we acknowledge all applications we are unable to write back with detailed feedback as to why it has been unsuccessful. If we have interviewed you please refer to the consultant you met who will provide feedback. If you have applied to a few assignments and are frustrated that you have not made progress please call us. We hope all our interim managers will want to engage with us but will understand the vagaries of the market and demands of our clients.
It’s about relationships.
Building close relationships with our clients and interim managers is absolutely key to us sharing success. We recognise that there are many high quality interim managers interested in fewer assignments. Our chances of making the right recommendations to clients will be much improved if we have a good, all round understanding of your strengths so that we can promote these accurately to our client base. There is no short cut to developing a relationship. We need to get to know you because if a suitable assignment arises we need to be able to fully recommend you and suggest why you are more suitable than another interim manager. Please work with us, keep us informed, provide feedback on our service and invest time in building a long-term relationship with us.
Our expectations.
We expect all those that we accept into this group to ensure that all communication is honest, open and professional. It is important that we can verify who you are and will not accept applications to join the group from those that will not provide full contacts details or whom we believe are using an alias or secondary profile on LinkedIn Anyone who deviates from what we believe to be acceptable behaviour will be removed from the group.
Using social media is a brave new world and we won’t always get it right. Our overriding purpose is to promote interim management and help our interim managers. I hope the above provides more clarity on what we are able to do with our LinkedIn members. For further information please contact us.
We look forward to working with you.
Simon Gough is Director of Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the General sector
Following on from the “is food too cheap” blog, I did speak to the farmer involved and let him know that his comment had received a great deal of interest online and the power of social media was responding to his thoughts, he did look a little confused by it all.
Moving on from that I’ve been talking to lots of people over the last few weeks following David Cameron’s visit to China about the opportunity for Great British food to make a greater presence in Asia and, in particular, in the Chinese market as there is a lot in the news right now regarding large retail businesses jostling for position. Were this to be the case and there are early signs that it will be, what would be the impact over here and more importantly for us, the position for the professional interim manager. Surely there must be a commercial angle to be explored on behalf of British and European food manufacturing that in the short term would offer real opportunity.
My own gut feel on this would be that Interims with experience of setting up JV’s, and those with international commercial due diligence experience need to dust off their passport and prepare to take flight. We haven’t got a mandate as yet for this experience but with the recent explosion of British brands across the board there and the westernisation of their eating and drinking culture this has to be an opportunity to explore beyond the brands with the established global presence? Clearly there’s a great deal to take into account to make this happen. It’s already happening in retail, food and non food, that much we already know.
I’d be keen to hear your thoughts as this is just a gut feel on what’s around the corner for us in food. If there is to be a move, what are the products to watch and what are the timescales. If you’ve not commented on a blog before, then jump in and get involved.
Simon Gough is a Director and Head of FMCG at Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
This weekend I was out and about with the family and we visited a farm up in rural North Yorkshire where they encourage the children to feed the animals and give you an overview of the farming industry. During the course of the visit I listened to the farmer who owned the business as he talked about the plight of British Farmers and what needs to be done. His explanation of why farming was on the decline was simple “you lot don’t want to pay what the food is worth!” He then listed his neighbours whose businesses had ceased to exist, not down to the recession but down to the fact that the country had traded out of British Foods and preferred the cheaper import with the artistically licensed labelling.
On the way home we debated this point quite extensively and then it spilt into the office in Interim Partners. Is Food too cheap? Has everything become purely price driven now and is there a way for the farming market to return to a profitable existence so our grand children can enjoy a range of foods that is grown and produced in the UK. The clients that I’ve visited in the past month have reported a constant theme, price rises are needed as a matter of urgency to assist the market getting back on track. We’ve had multiple first hand examples of cost cutting Interims we’ve put into businesses that have cut costs back to the bone and argue the way forward is more volume but at prices that mean something to the producer.
Does this mean that the commercial agenda is now jostling for pole position as we come out of recession?. Interims who can drive price rises as well as value add back into the retail trade. The other side to this argument is that the retailers can’t be seen to raise prices in the period of austerity and that inflation needs to be contained. So what’s going to happen first?
I’m going to visit the farm again in a fortnight as the kids loved it and I’d like to take some thoughts back to the chap who runs the place so please get involved, give me your opinions, is there more cost cutting to come, is there more fat in the land? Do the retailers need to give more back?? I look forward to hearing from you and contributing further to this debate.
Simon Gough is Director, FMCG of Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
It’s been an interesting time of late within the consumer market, much has been anticipated with the new financial year upon us, Easter out of the way and the imminent change in government, but what has actually happened? Well not as much as expected seems to be the general theme in the consumer market. There has been a rapid move towards restocking the shelves with regards to permanent hires and change appears to be on its way with the agenda for Interims coming back into play.
Over the past few years the area within consumer that has really driven the market had been the amount of deals that had been done within this space, whilst almost completely drying up in 2009, they have shown some signs already this year of coming back to the table. There have been talks of clients being more aggressive and some strategic deals have already gone through with what we hope to be a significant amount on the horizon. The change agenda following these deals has been one of the biggest users of Interim Managers and will continue to be the way in my opinion. I anticipate that the back half of the year will see us very active in this area and until then we will see the demand in businesses looking to get their houses in order following the great cut backs. Commercial Interims may well lead the way on these changes as clients look to reposition themselves. The most senior part of the Interim market remains tight but it is starting to ease up as deals come back and the top table merry-go-round begins once again.
I’d be really keen to hear your thoughts on where the market is going and the timescales involved in getting there. As our practice progresses we want to be much more involved with the Interim managers that we’re currently working with as well as those that we want to get closer to. Please give me your thoughts and get involved.
Simon Gough is Head of the FMCG Practice at Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
It’s been an interesting year to say the least and one I’m sure a fair few of us will enjoy saying goodbye to. Its not all been bad news as some areas have held up well, but what I really want to know is will we have projects in time for Christmas. The noise and general discussions within the FMCG market would suggest that we will. The last six months have created frustration for the talented Project and Programme managers out there who has seen work streams identified but haven’t made it past the Finance Directors cutting table.
The projects that we have been scoping have largely revolved around efficiency, some integration work and even a return of commercial work coming back on the agenda. So what do the timescales look like? Well from my perspectives we will see projects starting this side of Christmas but with the lion share coming in the new year. There has been a significant of clients getting burned this year by recruiting a low cost option to run a project to keep costs down, its these same clients that are now asking me the question “are these individuals committed interims with a track record”, yes they are.
I’d be interested to hear when you think different areas of the interim market will see a lift and your rational as to why. We have an interesting time ahead of us, let’s enjoy it.
Simon Gough is Head of the FMCG Practice at Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
So as we move to the end of the second quarter of 2009 a number of points have become clear in the market of FMCG. In previous Blogs we discussed the fact that it’s not all doom and gloom and people will always need to eat, well this hasn’t changed but the speed of change is becoming more apparent.
First of all the good news. We’re now seeing signs of programme and project budgets being signed off creating a focus on genuine Interim Managers for delivery. The purse strings that we predicted for the start of the new financial year are beginning to loosen. The requirement to differentiate between the “professional interim” and the “candidate between” has never been more pronounced and clients are actively seeking people who can demonstrate this difference quickly and effectively. The current focus on projects has been around operational efficiency, value engineering and supply chain.
A question I’m asked almost every day is should clients be using the current climate to take business off their competitors or to just to hold their own. Well I’m not seeing much with regards to commercial investment from an Interim perspective, though companies are forming commercial briefs to ensure they hold their position with increased challenges coming from the retailers. I can see this trend continuing until we line up for the golden quarter where clients may look to make a point of difference but surely they must be already thinking this?
With regards to the slow news, the business of turnaround hasn’t yet caught fire. I’ve had lots of conversations over the last few months about how the government’s actions have affected the appetite for businesses to seek funds focused on turnaround. Predictions from senior turnaround professionals have ranged vastly as to when this market will start accelerating and I’d be keen to hear your thoughts and predictions on the market as we head into the summer period.
Let me know where you think the biggest challenges are going to be and lets discuss it. I look forward to reading your comments.
Simon Gough is Head of the FMCG Practice at Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
Well it’s been an interesting few months in the world of FMCG with a really busy start to the year followed by a quieter time through March. I get the feeling that we’re sitting in the eye of the storm right now. The new financial year could bring optimism to the interim market in the short to medium term as the projects that have failed to take off could receive their budgets. The interesting dilemma will be how the clients spend their money and the suggestions so far will be that the briefs will be very specific as they look to focus on key skills delivering quick pay backs as well as long term returns. We’ve all been witnessing the decision paralysis in the market place of late and I think this will start to lift as clients brace themselves going back out into the storm. Whilst it would seem that although cutting costs are at the top of everyone’s agenda it would appear that it’s a mutual belief that this won’t be done if it deteriorates the supply chain, instead, solid continuity planning together with acid tests could be a route for interims through the summer leading up to the golden quarter.
So what I’m interested in are your thoughts on where the market goes from here. Will Alastair Darling come in on his white horse during the budget or will it follow my prediction that the market will be ugly yet ripe for the right type of interim looking to demonstrate a point of difference.
Over to you.
Simon Gough is Head of the FMCG Practice at Interim Partners.
Click here to read other blogs on the Consumer sector
