Our client was an industrial Plc in the North of England that was in trouble. They had back to back profit warnings, their shares had been suspended, their accounts had not been signed by the auditors and they had cycled three CFOs in 12 months.

We were invited by a Non-exec Board Director to meet the recently appointed Chief Restructuring Officer. In ten days we had secured a CFO who worked with the CRO on refinancing the business and the creditors, saving the pension fund, realigning the company structure, selling a loss-making subsidiary, and returning the company to profitability, with accounts signed off and shares restarted.

The process took 12 months and, once complete, the Interim Manager left the business in good shape. This is what Interim Managers do. They are highly skilled at dealing with a crisis in their field of expertise, but they are also skilled at doing it at pace. They’ve usually done it many times before.

What differentiated us? The company had tried many recruiters and cycled three people, but no one had really listened to what the problem was. The agencies had just tried to find them an ‘off the shelf’ replacement, not a solution, and they could only offer what they had. Our skill was to understand the true issues and go out and find the right solution, through a much more robust, but fast, search methodology.