Interim Management The IIM Linkedin group guide
Amyexecutivecareer.com guide in association with
Compiled and written by: Ad van der Rest, Director IIM Contributors: IIM Linkedin group members Editor: Janet Davies, myexecutivecareer.com
IIM LinkedIn Group guide
Introduction This guide to interim management serves as a useful and highly topical companion to the myexecutivecareer.com guide Interim management for newcomers. It is a unique publication in that each topic was originally a discussion thread on the official Linkedin Group for interim managers supported by the IIM (Institute of Interim Management); this guide represents the collected wisdom of practising interims, newcomers and IIM members. Contents
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The interim management value proposition The IM assignment life cycle Fees and day rates How to use Linkedin effectively as an interim manager
About The LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM The LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM, welcomes Interim Managers and prospective Interim Managers, Clients who utilise the services of interims, or are thinking about doing so, Service Providers / Recruitment Consultants who specialise in Interim Management, or who source Interims and Consultants and Industry partners or members of other interim and professional bodies with an interest in Interim Management. Its guides are freely shared with the Interim Management community for appropriate use and adaptation (with due credit). About the IIM The Institute of Interim Management (IIM) hosts the LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM. Since September 2002, the IIM has been a fully independent professional Institute and incorporated as a not-for-profit organisation - www.iim.org.uk. About the author Ad van der Rest, Director IIM & Interim HR Director & Consultant is a passionate supporter of the Interim Management community, a career HR Interim, from the IT and Telecoms sectors and a keen supporter and Director of the Institute of Interim Management.
About the editor Janet Davies is a co-founder of myexecutivecareer.com. A business graduate, she enjoyed a spell in both finance and HR management before moving on to senior executive roles in sales and marketing with organisations such as American Express, NatWest, Ogilvy & Mather, Credit Suisse Private Banking and the HR Services consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has a wealth of experience in the field of talent management and leadership development as well as being a seasoned speaker on people management and a respected business writer.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide
The interim management value proposition There are several factors that make the interim management offering increasingly popular and cost-effective to a variety of organisations. These factors can be characterised as a ‘value proposition’ that interim managers offer to their clients. Although there is some variation at the margins of how the benefits of interim management compare with temporary workers, freelancers, contractors and consultants, the following factors are typical of the interim management value proposition: Return on investment Interim managers add value by using their skills and expertise to help deliver an outcome, solution, service or mitigate risk that provides a meaningful return on investment to a client. Interim managers are paid on the understanding of goals and objectives being performed and delivered, and not simply on the basis of attendance. Speed Interim managers can be in place within days as opposed to weeks or months - essential when time constraints are paramount. Being practiced in engaging promptly with a given situation, they become effective quickly when they join a client organisation. Because they possess significant levels of experience and expertise, interim managers also conduct and complete assignments effectively and at the requisite speed. Expertise Interim managers typically operate at a senior level in a client organisation, often being sensibly over-qualified for the roles they take on. They usually bring skills and knowledge not otherwise in place, to address a specific skills gap or problem. Their experience and expertise enables them to be productive and make a noticeable impact from the outset, maximising the likelihood of success. Objectivity Unencumbered by company politics or culture, interim managers provide a fresh perspective and are able to concentrate objectively on what's best for the business. Being independent operators, they are able to contribute honestly without constituting a threat to the incumbent management team. Not being part of a larger service business or consultancy organisation, they are not pressured to unnecessarily extend their assignment. Accountability Rather than taking on a purely advisory role, interim managers are managers who will take responsibility for and manage a business or project in their own right. They expect to be held accountable for results and being instrumental in an assignment’s successful delivery. They give clients the peace of mind that the interim manager has stewardship of the project in hand.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Effectiveness Operating at, or near, board-level gives interim managers the authority and credibility to effect significant change or transition within a company. Unlike a ‘temp’, they are not just there to ‘hold the fort’. They actively add value to the client organisation as a result of their expertise and approach, even when the work and the decisions to be made are difficult. Commitment Career interim managers maintain high professional standards because their future work relies upon referrals and a successful track record. They therefore have a stake in the success of the assignments that they undertake. This contrasts favourably with other ‘temporary workers’ who may also be seeking ‘permanent employment’ or are simply motivated by a day rate or extending their tenure. Acknowledgements This article was triggered by a discussion thread on the LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM, posted by Alan Salamon entitled: “What is the Interim Management Value Proposition?” The basic structure was compiled by Ad van der Rest and based on various public domain sources about interim management. It was then shaped over the best part of two months, through 48 online and further offline contributions. Particular thanks are offered to Les Ormonde for his extensive input that has shaped and honed the ‘Value Proposition’. Further useful contributions, which triggered useful debate or were directly incorporated into the document, were made by Mike Abbott, Martin Eley, Roger Emmens, Nick Lake, Alf Oldman, Andy Rothery, Paul Vousden, and Wendy Williams.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide
The interim management assignment lifecycle Interim assignments vary in scope and requirements, encompassing change management, ‘gap’ assignments, project management and turnaround management. The following stages of the ‘assignment lifecycle’ are typical of how interim managers enter into an assignment, reach and carry out the actual implementation, and finally exit the assignment. The early stages have much in common with consultancy, as do later stages with project management, but the accountability and responsibility that interim managers have for successful analysis and delivery of a fitting solution, is what makes these stages uniquely typical of the interim management approach. Entry The prospective client and interim make initial contact and explore the requirement sufficiently for the client to be able to decide to engage the interim manager (or not) to address the situation. This is likely to involve a ‘preliminary’ assessment of what the client thinks they want and the boundaries of the interim manager’s contribution. Typically this takes place over one or more initial meetings and results in the interim manager’s provisional engagement. Diagnosis The interim manager researches the current situation in order to understand it: how it came about and what the requirements of the varying stakeholders are. At this stage a more detailed understanding of the current situation is formed as well as generating potential approaches to address it. Different issues or problems may come to light at this stage other than those initially highlighted by the client. On a ‘gap’ assignment this diagnosis may run concurrently with the handling of immediate issues. Typically the diagnosis stage may take several days. Proposal The interim manager then presents a more detailed proposal which acts as the interim assignment’s objectives and plan. If this differs significantly from the preliminary plans determined at entry, the solution may involve different requirements from the interim manager or, possibly, the ending of the assignment. It is common that this proposal may challenge the client’s understanding of the situation given the interim manager’s expertise. The interim manager takes the responsibility to propose a solution most likely to be effective, not automatically the one originally requested. In the case of a ‘gap assignment’ such a proposal may simply outline how the interim manager will be a ‘safe pair of hands’. Implementation The interim manager takes responsibility for managing the intervention, project, or solution, tracking progress and conducting periodic feedback reviews with the client. It is particularly during this stage that interim managers exemplify their expertise, accountability and effectiveness. Depending on the assignment, they get as close to the situation as is necessary, whilst remaining an independent practitioner. They may be managing teams, projects, dealing with crises or transformations or simply ‘holding the fort. Their
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide implementation is unencumbered by company politics or culture, focused on the task in hand. Exit As the interim manager approaches the end of the project they ensure that objectives have been met and that the client is satisfied. This stage may involve knowledge transfer and training, determining and sourcing ‘business as usual’ successors, and sharing ‘lessons learnt’ in the process. The interim manager is focused on the success of the assignment and not simply the length of their own tenure, which means that this stage can be carried out both professionally and objectively. Often this will be end of the interim manager/client relationship. Sometimes interim managers may continue to provide occasional ad hoc consultancy and sometimes the interim manager will be re-engaged on a follow-on or further assignment, starting the lifecycle again. Acknowledgements This article was triggered by a discussion thread on the LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM, posted by Ad van der Rest, entitled: “What are the Stages of an Interim Management Assignment?” The basic structure was compiled by Ad van der Rest based on various sources about the stages and phases of the assignment lifecycle, with further suggestions (many of which were incorporated into the article) by Richard Bednarek, Martin Eley, Noeleen Schenk, Dr Alf Oldman, Les Ormonde, and Andrew Turner.
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The interim manager’s guide to fees and day rates In a tough market, it may seem surreal to dwell on your own fee value when so many interims are going for assignments at massively discounted rates. Yet to give yourself the best chance at maintaining a profitable micro-business, understanding your value, understanding the market and understanding the field of negotiation, gives you the strongest chance of achieving a sensible day-rate for your efforts. A conversation lasting a few minutes can have a significant impact on your fee for an assignment lasting (hopefully) many months. It would be a real shame to be ill-prepared for it, or to regret a poorly negotiated rate after the event. This article pulls together strategies on fee assessment and negotiation, but there is clearly more than one view of the best approach. Some people will be firmer than others in their negotiating approach, so please adapt these approaches to suit your style. Day rates: what are you charging for? An interim manager charges a fee, ‘a day rate’ for services that will address the needs of their clients and deliver outcomes that will bring that client a range of benefits, achieved objectives, cost savings or risks migrated. Whatever the interim manager does, they will typically bring to the table their own special brand of expertise that will get the job done, for as long as required, in line with the interim management value proposition, which positions the interim manager as delivering: Return on investment: delivery of a solution that gives real benefit to the client. Speed: being available quickly and able to make an impact fast. Expertise: being sensibly over-qualified with a wealth of skills and knowledge. Objectivity: outside of company politics with a business focused perspective. Accountability: being instrumental in an assignment’s successful delivery. Effectiveness: with the authority and credibility to effect significant change or add value; and ! Commitment: a professional interim approach to deliver and then exit in a positive way. ! ! ! ! ! !
So, with all these great benefits on offer, why do some companies wish to use some form of comparison related to the cost of a permanent employee when calculating an appropriate day-rate? In truth, there isn’t a direct fee-relationship between professional interim managers and employees. They are not the same because the two incur costs and add value in very different ways. The starting point for an interim manager should be the value, saving or contribution that will be achieved on assignment. When a plumber turns up at your door they will charge a fee, typically based on adding, changing or removing something, or for dealing with leaks and emergencies. An interim manager does much the same (philosophically), though typically plumbers are not quizzed on the doorstep about how much the pro-rata salary of a permanently employed plumber might be!
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Quantifying the interim management profession The interim management fee range, including regional and functional variations, runs from around £300 to £1,500 per day. There will always be fluctuation depending on sector, function and location. Based on a recent poll run from the Interim Management – IIM LinkedIn group, interim management is currently perceived to ‘properly’ start at c£450. Taking into account regional and functional variations, this will soften to £300-400 in the regions and less well paying sectors, and may be c£500 in the South East/London and in higher premium sectors. The average day-rate is said to be c£700 per day. Relatively recent Surveys include Executives Online 2009 where £649 was found to be the average and Boyden 2009/10 where it was £742. Establishing your day rate: what are you worth? Assessing an interim manager’s ‘worth’, let alone your own ‘worth’, is hardly an exact science. However, before you enter into any kind of negotiation, you should decide what you believe your value to be, so that you know exactly what you are negotiating about (your own value) and what the best outcome would be. Your fee should be related to what you are taking responsibility for (i.e. the results), the amount of responsibility (or fallout if it all goes wrong), and the unique mix of skills, ability and experience you bring that is needed for the assignment. If you are so fortunate that your services will create an immediate financial return or saving, then charging on the basis of the benefit achieved makes perfect sense. In these cases it may be worth considering fees based on project success with ‘upsides’ and ‘penalties’ built in. A ‘collar and cap’ arrangement can be used whereby there is a minimum fee based on a daily rate, (the collar) to which a percentage or additional lump sum is added based on achievement of results This would normally be limited to a maximum (the cap). There may also be ‘fixed fee’ arrangements in some circumstances. A traditional starting point for a fee calculation is by using the ‘1%’ rule. This is the notion that an Interim Manager should charge 1% of their ‘equivalent’ base salary i.e. £80,000 equivalent salary = £800 day rate. Whether this can be achieved in practice is another matter. Your proposed fee gains credibility by virtue of your track record, gravitas, depth of experience and expertise. Logically, you could justify all sorts of day-rates to yourself, but that justification has to be credible in the marketplace. Clients have to believe that you are worth the fee. Throughout negotiations, it is important not to lose sight of your value, even if you end up adjusting your expectations to accommodate the market. Understanding market conditions: what will the client pay? Surveys suggest that the market has softened by about £100 at the bottom end and by about £200 at the top end since the recession started. In part this is down to clients being squeezed in their budgeting and in part down to interims accepting lower fees and accepting such work more keenly. Yet regardless of all that, before going into a fee discussion it is
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide important to remind yourself of your value and the best credible price that you can go to market with for your services. Let’s work with the £80,000 salary-equivalent example - acknowledging that there are problems associated with that example. You might argue that you are adding value at £1,000 per day – that’s your ‘worth’, so present yourself as, and behave like a £1,000 per day interim. You may decide that £1,000 per day is not credible under current market conditions, and the best rate you could credibly justify is £800, so that’s your best market rate. There may also be a target that you think is reasonable to achieve after concession trading, let’s say £700 per day, and if push comes to shove a figure you don’t want to go below, say £600 per day. Market conditions affect your own business as much as they do the client’s. The brutal truth is that if you can’t justify and sell your day rate to clients above about 0.7% of ‘equivalent’ salary (£560) then you are probably losing money, benefits or sanity. There may be a case in tough times to set a rate still lower, but something will have to give. An assignment gap of longer than you plan will kill your cash flow when you have little or no profit built into your day rate model. So don’t sell yourself short before you even reach a fee discussion with the client. The day rate, or day rate range you set should reflect your costs, the value you add, as well as a reasonable profit margin. As an interim manager you take many risks, those risks deserve an appropriate reward. Don’t start discounting your services in your own mind, even before you approach a client conversation. So before you even speak to a client, you must be clear about the fee rates that you are prepared to entertain and keep these fee ranges in your mind: Example (all figures exclude VAT): Conceivable worth Highest Market credible Market target Fallback figure Desperation fallback
£1,000 per day £800 per day £700 per day £600 per day £560 per day
(1.25%) (1%) (0.88%) (0.75%) (0.7%)
- behave like this – ask for this – target to get this – accept with trades – desperation rate
If you are just starting out as an interim, you may find you can only attract work with fees of 0.6% or even less. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you are making a decent profit, with such a rate. Corporation Tax and demands for other taxes will soon arrive. Such a rate should only be acceptable while you build your experience, track record and list of people willing to recommend you. If accepting such a ‘bread line’ rate, make a plan in your own mind to increase your rates over successive assignments so that your fee increases again with the economic recovery and/or your enhanced interim skills. Think very carefully about your business model. If you cannot do profitable business over the medium term, find a different calling, because interim management is a challenging enough trade. Don’t add stress-laden financial debt to the list of challenges. In summary, you should work out your value proposition and know what you're worth in a given scenario. Understand the market and know what your walk-away fee is at any given
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide time (a fee level that becomes easier to set once you have amassed a financial cushion). It's amazing what power and confidence this preparation gives you - and it shows when negotiating with your clients, which we come onto later. Planning fee flexibility and fallback So you have your target day rate in mind. Before you speak to clients or intermediaries, you need to work out your fallback position: Your fallback is not simply your ‘minimum rate’, it may be a combination of factors. For example, rather than reducing your rate, you could work 4 or 4.5 days (still charging the same rate), still satisfy the client, and have some space to allocate to a second revenue stream. You could consider a lower starting fee with some upside on project completion, or an increased rate after a specific timeframe. There are other ‘non-fee’ factors that may be beneficial to you in terms of seniority, responsibility, length & location of assignment. Decide what trade-off might work for you. In truth the assignment may be so interesting, or valuable for building up your track record that softening your rates would be a sensible thing to do. Consider what ‘levers’ you have that have high value for the client, such as your immediate availability, your expertise, specific sector or client knowledge and so on. Finally, before you haggle decide what is the combination of rate and terms that you won’t go below. If your rate is unprofitable, you are paying the client to work for them. Remember, offering ‘panic discounts’ makes the situation worse. You may end up locked into an assignment with sub-optimal revenue, no profit and possibly even incremental losses. In such circumstances, where there truly is no profitable common ground, you should decline. You could even gain some credit for helping the client find a person more in line with their budget. If that fails to work for them, they may be back. Whatever your pricing plans and strategies – write them down. The logic, concessions and fallbacks will be much easier to defend or dismiss laid out before you on paper. This allows you to plan your flexibility with yourself before you embark on the negotiation discussion. Think of it as getting your ‘ducks in a row’. You remain in charge of your final decision. There is nothing to be gained by discounting away your value before you start negotiating. Let’s revisit that worked example again and place against it a new dimension – your trades. £80,000 ‘salary equivalent’): Conceivable worth Highest Market credible Market target Fallback figure Desperation fallback
£1,000 per day £800 per day £700 per day £600 per day £560 per day
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(1.25%)- behave like this (1%) – ask for this (0.88%) – target to get this (0.75%) – accept with trades (0.7%) – desperation rate
IIM LinkedIn Group guide Trades & concessions Agree Agree Agree Agree Agree Agree
to work 4 or 4.5 days but keep the day-rate up. to limit your services to match a lesser rate – then charge for ‘extras’. to exchange a day-rate drop for a completion upside. willingness to feature (subject to success) as a reference case study. to work from home/closer location some days. a strong interim title or testimonial.
The rule of thumb in any negotiation is: IF I agree to that, THEN I will be seeking this. Trade something for something. Maintain a list of ‘something’s’ that have value to you, but may be presented as a fair trade to an end client. The ‘posted advert’ negotiation You might think that a posted advert for a role specifying a fee of £X00, or a fee range of £X00 to £Y00 simplifies negotiation. It remains important to fix your mind on the notion that just because the lowest stated figure is £X00, that does not mean that you should be automatically assumed to have accepted the lowest point in the range. However, if you debate the numbers too early, you may be ‘ruled out’ versus less expensive candidates, so if possible defer this conversation until after you have pitched to the end client. Once you are getting buying signals, have that discussion then; ideally face-to-face. The ‘cold phone call’ negotiation A service provider or client calls you. You pre-amble about a possible role and after a while, out comes the dreaded question: “What is your daily rate?” Nothing impacts the outcome of a negotiation so much as to who makes the first pitch. The wording you use matters; practise it. If you are well prepared, a confident and credible quoted price sends the message that you know your value and operate in a business-like manner. Using the example above, a response could be: “I achieve £800-£1,000 per day for my services, subject to the nature of the assignment, time-scale and location.” Note the use of the term ‘achieved’. It’s great to use if you can justify it – it signals that others have deemed you worthy of this value. Unless the service provider or client wishes to haggle on the phone ahead of any more detailed face-to-face discussion, a situation best avoided, this is now the time to shut up about fees and seek to move the discussion to a face-to-face setting. You may find the service provider or client then responds with an ultimatum response, such as “We would only see people on a maximum £400 per day”. This is what your fallback is for. It stops you being caught in the moment and going ‘OK then’. Once you are at the bottom of the hill in a negotiation, it is almost impossible to climb back up it again. Without immediately accepting the £400, you might respond with “I would be delighted to meet you to take you through the way I add value. Perhaps we can discuss the scope and pricing of the work face-to-face?”
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Or, “It’s a little difficult to discuss pricing without knowing more about each other, could we discuss the potential assignment and my possible fit, face-to-face?” and so on… If it is simply not practicable for you to meet, ask for more information: “Can you give me more information about the assignment/company by email, so that I can do some research, then we can speak again about pricing before moving forward?” If you simply capitulate on a phone call, for an assignment you do not fully understand, you may have very quickly locked yourself in at a sub-optimal rate for a challenging piece of work. If you can hold back the price negotiation to a point where you understand the brief more thoroughly (and they understand your value), then the successful end of a negotiation is likely to fall between your own and the service provider/client’s fair assessment of your value. That way, all the work done so far in terms of preparing for and making a confident opening bid, give you a firm footing ahead of exploring the assignment requirements further. Even in a buyer’s market, your confident appraisal of your value is a way for you to be both perceived and assessed. Let’s say you end up after some trading at £600. You will still be viewed as an ‘£800-£1,000 worth’ interim. Once a price has been set you will be unlikely to want to talk about reducing it and the client is not likely to want to discuss increasing it. Demonstrating value It might sound like an obvious thing to say, but the quality of each encounter you now have with the service provider/client will support the assessment of your value. This reinforcement will range from your expressed expertise, the quality of your pitch documents, even the quality of your branding, website, CV, personal presentation and business card. It’s all part of supporting the notion that you are worth what you say you are worth. Interim service providers About 30-35% of interim assignments are sourced via service providers or recruitment consultancies who take a cut or margin from the sum paid by the client. The remainder goes to the interim. For example, a service provider taking a 20% margin on a £1,000 day rate to the client, pays £800 to the interim, keeping £200 (20%) themselves. Service provider margins will typically range from 20-25%. They may be less in certain circumstances; 15% is not untypical where the client has negotiated fixed margins. Recruitment outsourcers make take an even smaller cut. At the other extreme, margins may be quite a lot more. There is no harm in asking the service provider what their margin is. The chances of the invoice from the service provider to the client being seen by the interim manager are pretty high. Far better that this is transparent at the outset. Good service providers will treat interim managers well because they are a source of revenue. In return it falls to interim managers to communicate openly with service providers. With the service provider as your ‘agent’, fee discussions will take place with that service provider and not usually with the end client. You also have the possibility of building a relationship with the service provider over time. Your strategy when discussing fees with a service provider should be no different to when you are discussing fees with a client.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Understand your value, understand the market, prepare your fallback position. What will often help this process is that the service provider should better understand your value and can help to relate that value to the client. As service providers will, or should, help to sell your services, there should not be such a wild difference between the fees an interim can achieve directly, as opposed to via a service provider. If you achieve a decent rate, and you and the client are happy, there is no need to ‘fixate’ about the service provider margin. Keep in mind that the service provider will be looking to use you again if things work out well with the client. Work with the best service providers in your sector/function that you can. The IIM publishes an industry-wide list of service providers that feature in interim management and myexecutivecareer.com also publishes a segmented directory on the website. Help the client understand your value We have already explained that interim management and ‘permanent employment’ are not the same. However, because the interim model is not universally understood, it is hard to talk about interim management without making some kind of comparison to ‘permanent employees’. If a price conversation shows that the client or recruiter (excluding interim service providers) may not know what the deal is, take a moment to revisit the interim value proposition: You might also help them, if appropriate, to understand all the hidden costs of an employee that are factored into your rate, and that they get additional interim benefits on top. The myth: an interim costs pro-rata what a permanent hire does When businesses look for an interim, they sometimes calculate the interim day-rate based on the pro-rata cost of an equivalent permanent member of staff. That calculation may go as follows: Senior employee salaried at £80,000 divided by 260 days = £308 This calculation fails to take into account the daily cost to a business of a permanent employee. Why is that? On top of the £80,000 base salary, we need to add the typical benefits, costs and variable costs of employment: Company National Insurance Car Allowance Medical/Life Insurance and other benefits Employers’ Pension Contributions Bonus and Incentives Total:
£ 9,500 £ 7,000 £ 3,500 £ 5,000 £15.000 £40,000
Permanent hires require inductions and training to get them up to speed. They also consume significant costs at the end of their employment, whether that is in notice periods, or other sums such as redundancy, compromise agreements, and the easing off of effort. There are also costs relating to unforeseen events ranging from maternity leave, paternity leave, ill health, employment disputes and tribunals, or plain old poor performance or capability problems they have to deal with. An additional 25% base salary pays for all these actual and potential costs.
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The resulting £140,000 cost is not over 260 paid working days, because employees may also take: holidays, Bank Holidays, Jury Service, sick days, training days, compassionate leave (which you pay for). Calculating 25 days holiday, 8 paid Bank Holidays, 13 typical sick days, and a further 14 days in a variety of compassionate leave, burst boilers, jury service, training days and others, a permanent employee may actually only work 200 days per year. £140,000 is now divisible by 200 days not 260. So, the fully loaded cost of employing an £80,000 permanent employee now looks more ike £700 per day. Not only do interim managers factor in all these costs you have to pay, into their Interim daily rates, their Interim Value Proposition means they bring that unique ‘Interim’ approach: Return On Investment – delivery of a solution that gives real benefit to the client Speed – being quickly available and able to make an impact quickly Expertise – being sensibly over-qualified with a wealth of skills and knowledge Objectivity – outside of company politics with a business focused perspective Accountability – being instrumental in an assignment’s successful delivery Effectiveness – with the authority and credibility to effect significant change or add value Commitment – a professional interim approach to deliver then exit in a good way So for real added value, they are well worth that ‘bigger-looking’ number and a bit more... Gatekeepers You may run into other client intermediaries who wish to debate (or set) cost ahead of a business conversation. This may be HR, Procurement or others. As an ‘product to purchase’, or ‘person to hire’, Interim Managers sit uneasily half-way between Procurement and HR with variable levels of knowledge held by these parties about Interim Management, from poor to great. As with any other intermediary, you can only engage fully when you have all the facts at your disposal, so ask intelligent questions that will enable you have a meaningful conversation. So as neither ‘fish nor fowl’ it falls to the professional Interim to ‘help’ the ‘gatekeeper’, in cases where there is not such a full understanding of the Interim Management value proposition, in order to be let through the gate, to be allowed to deal with the end client. Once you have satisfied the gatekeeper, the real negotiation can start. It is unusual for the end client not to be able to overrule gatekeepers on matters of fees, once value is justified and accepted. Preparation for the ‘face-to-face meeting’ Before you meet to chat, have a meeting, or more formally pitch, you need to have already: ! Understood your own value, expertise, availability, ! Understood the market, and others in the running; and
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide ! Prepared your target, fallback and scoped your trades and concessions. Next, find out about the other parties in the negotiation. Who are they? Check them out on LinkedIn, on Google or on their company website. Does your network include anyone from that company who can share some ‘public domain’ information about how things are? The main reason for doing all this is to try to assess what the other party wants from this deal. You are looking for both hard and soft information, facts and figures as well as information about personalities, culture, strategy, working style, authority, internal company politics etc. If you are handling a crisis assignment, this may help you better understand the depth of the crisis! Be ready to sell the benefits of your proposition. Consider what negotiating style you will adopt. Clearly it won’t be confrontational, but it should be ‘confident’ and ‘expert’ and ‘collaborative’. If any of your points are difficult to understand verbally, you can prepare brief written notes and illustrations that underpin your value proposition. The ‘face-to-face meeting’ Arriving to your meeting, looking professional, well prepared, with the confident air of an expert with business relevant solutions in hand, you will already be ahead on your ‘success checklist’. Price reflects perceived value - do everything you can to reflect that value. Try not to worry about other candidates. You can’t second guess their expertise or rates, so don’t even try. The client will want to buy the best solution at the right price. When you begin to discuss price, your behaviour during that exchange will be vital in how successfully your negotiation turns out to be. . State your fee expectations confidently, clearly and logically. Follow the plan you prepared beforehand and avoid jargon. Don’t keep talking or keep trying to justify your fee. Once stated, remain silent. What happens next may be that the other person writes down what you have said and the discussion moves on. This doesn’t mean the deal is done, but it’s a good thing to happen and implies some level of provisional consent which you can work to ‘lock in’ later. The other possible outcome is that the other person falls off their chair, spills their coffee, drops their pen, or makes pained sucking noises (or any combination of the above). These behaviours are not an excuse for immediately lowering your price, remain as ‘Sphinxlike’ as you can and wait for the other person to say something. Write some worthy comments in your note-book to fill the silence if you have to. If they then push back on price (known in the trade as an ‘objection’) take that as a ‘good sign’. If they are not interested in you, they would have little need to debate the price further with you ahead of a ‘Dear John’ e-mail. Use questions to understand or clarify why they are saying what they are saying. Be ready
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide to offer up further explanation to support your value proposition. So not: Instead:
‘That BMW is expensive’, ‘ok you can have it half price’ ‘That BMW is expensive’, ‘let me explain what you get for the money’
Listen out for and politely challenge misunderstandings or inconsistencies in the logic or validity of the other person’s points. You are the ‘subject matter expert’ after all. You could help put the price in context; It’s similar or only slightly more than the actual cost of employing someone (see the ‘Myth’ above), or, put the cost in context against their hourly spend on lawyers and accountants, or put it into context against a still higher cost Consultant. Put constructively, you could explore with the client, the costs to the business of not solving the problem, but this is a tack that requires judgement and sensitivity. If you truly have explained your proposition and the price objection still remains, you may then explore other ideas to bring you together, as you have prepared ahead of time. Don’t give something for nothing. If you make concessions, get something in return, whether it is more or less tangible. As we discussed earlier, these concessions may include: ! ! ! ! ! !
Agree Agree Agree Agree Agree Agree
to work 4 or 4.5 days but keep the day-rate up. to limit your services to match a lesser rate – then charge for ‘extras’ to exchange a day-rate drop for a completion ‘upside’. willingness to feature (subject to success) as a reference ‘case study’. to work from home / closer location some days. a strong Interim ‘title’ or testimonial
And as you go, keep calm, maintain rapport, speak with confidence and try not to fiddle or play with your pen so as to annoy the other person. To summarise, in the heat of the negotiation: Don’t undersell your value as an Interim. Be innovative. Sell your services intelligently and passionately. If the ‘benefits’ are correctly sold, the client business will be happy and willing to pay your fee and consider they have received decent value at the end of the assignment. That satisfaction justifies your ‘price’. Closing the deal The ‘deal close’ may fall within a face-to-face meeting, or it may only be a conditional close, pending a decision against other unseen candidates; It may even may fall to a post-meeting telephone conversation, to negotiate the close. Regardless of the setting, if you are debating and trading fees and delivery approaches, intuition plays a part in a successful close, but there are some strategies you can follow: ‘Trial’ a hypothetical closing summary to ‘sound out’ the other person., such as ‘on the basis of ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’, shall we work to a fee ‘x’…?’ Link different terms together so that there are ‘upsides’ for both parties.
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Keep summarising and clarifying as you go. This helps to ‘funnel’ the conversation to a close. Keep any potential parts of the offer you are proposing ‘in the air’ on an ‘IF I did ‘x’, you would pay ‘y’’ basis, so that you avoid ‘locking in’ your requirements and concessions until you are ready to close the whole deal. Make notes and summaries, which you can refer back to. I like to write my proposed figure in big letters on a notepad visible to all. A ‘written down’ number confers legitimacy don’t you find? If the going does gets ‘too hot’ request a comfort break or request an adjournment to seek further information. Avoid a ‘knee jerk’ agreement at any price, as we have discussed. Of course ‘breaking off’ does carry the risk that you may not be rescheduled! Assuming you do reach agreement, document it, including all the trades and concessions of value to you. There is a strong psychological value to a handshake even in this contractually focused age. Exchange a photocopy or e-mail confirm the agreement in a follow-up e-mail straight after your meeting - that’s what iPhones and Blackberry’s are for!. Then move swiftly into ‘adding value’ following up with solution focused proposal documents, project briefs, etc. Conclusions All of this positioning and negotiating may seem like a lot of wasted effort in a ‘buyer’s market’. I beg to differ. Knowing your value, being able to articulate that value and having the skills to negotiate a reasonable fee in this marketplace, gives you a better chance of making an assignment you do secure 'count'. The learnable skill of fee negotiation could increase your fee by 10-20% without prejudicing an assignment nearly secured. That margin makes a real difference when assignment gaps are longer. A Sales Interim would be criticised for not making a strong case for their fee. Why are other functions considered to be ‘fair game’? Poll data suggests that the number of Interims back on assignment is increasing Quarter on Quarter, but also that the number of Interims off-assignment more than 9 months is not dropping, and may be increasing (LinkedIn Polls: Interims working, Q4-09: 20%, Q1-10: 38%; 9 months+ off assignment, Q4-09: 17%, Q1-10: 23%). This suggests that some level of ‘survival of the fittest’ is a reality. I choose to try my hardest to be in the ‘fit camp’; To actively embrace the skills of marketing, negotiation, website design, networking and so on, to increase the chances of business success, not to be cowed by the gloom in the economy. So remember:
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide
Timing Confidence Nerve Acknowledgements This article was triggered by two discussion thread on the LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM. “Day-rates and day-rate negotiations” posted by Ad van der Rest, and “Fee rate vs. Salary” posted by Roger Emmens. These fee discussions ‘raged’ over the best part of 2 months, via 90+ discussion comments. Thanks are offered to the comment posters who contributed to this endeavour, who are: Bryce Barrett, Viv Blake, John Bowen, Stuart Copeland, Tony Evans, Angela Franks, Matt Jefferson, Ian Lawson, Sara Livesey, Martin Lloyd-Penny, Diane McWade, Andy Montgomery, Matthew Needham, John Niland, Les Ormonde, Yvonne Payne, Eamonn Phillipson, David Philpott, Tom Pickering, Graham Rae, David Randall, Andy Rothery, Barry Ryan, Katrina Shepherd, Tim Spriddell, Mark Stacey, Alison Stevens, Andrew Turner and George Williams
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide
The interim manager’s guide to using LinkedIn With the growth of social networking and business networking sites like LinkedIn, recruiters and clients are increasingly turning to seeking and finding candidates online. This can be accomplished more quickly, and with more under the control of those seeking candidates, than posting adverts and waiting for people who are out of work to ‘apply’ for those positions. So as well as being good at applying for advertised positions, and networking with recruiters and networked clients, the ability to be found and discovered on LinkedIn and on Google becomes increasingly important. If you doubt the speed of change, it was not many years ago when candidates applied for jobs by sending paper CVs and covering letters by post (sometimes on quaint ‘marble-effect’ CV paper). This article focuses on use of the business networking site: LinkedIn, having a profile worth reading and being found on LinkedIn While many of the ideas presented in this article are relevant to any business person, it particularly addresses the marketing needs of Interim Managers.
Having a profile worth reading Because your LinkedIn profile is an entry indexed by Google, your profile will show-up in searches about you. Treat your profile with importance and respect – too many profiles are just cobbled together or are incomplete. Get the basic information right This will be searched upon so make it count. Don’t have your name all lower case. Opinion is divided about letters after your name – some choose not to use these on the ‘name line’ but do reference them in the ‘Headline’ and you may reference them in your ‘Summary’ as well. Also, refrain from putting your e-mail addresses and weird symbols in your name line such as " #$. Use your name consistently Use your name or nickname consistently on LinkedIn, on websites and on your CV. So don’t use ‘Andy’ in one place and ‘Andrew’ in another as this will hamper searches. If you have changed your surname, use one surname consistently (there is a ‘nee’ option on LinkedIn for surname changes). This extends to e-mail addresses actively used – keep ‘old name’ addresses active so as not to lose contacts but promote and use current named e-mail addresses. Your professional ‘Headline’ This should accurately represent what you want to have people search for, and what you are best equipped to deliver. If what you ‘do’ is carry out assignments as an ‘Interim XYZ’ then that should be your ‘Headline, not that you are ‘Owner of XYZ Limited Company’ unless you want to be found by people looking for owners of Ltd companies. A good tip for interim managers is if you are ‘available for assignment’, or ‘on assignment’, say so in your headline as this is visible when you post comments on LinkedIn groups and on updates.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Be sure to select an industry sector Recruiters will often filter by industry sector so do select one. Have a professional looking photo A photograph builds trust and credibility and makes you a ‘real person’. It’s the first thing people notice. Have your face visible (no long-shots, weird cropping or strange photo effects). Have a plain background (no cars, dogs, companions). Also your name should be part of the ‘filename’ of the photo your upload and if the photo has an associated ‘tag’ your name should be there too. Write a powerful summary A powerful summary section that explains your value proposition is a vital component of your profile. This explains what you are about and can be found in searches. Don’t fail to describe what you want to be known for and what you want to be doing next, because if you don’t list it, a search for it won’t find you. This value proposition should be reflected consistently throughout your marketing materials – it is your personal ‘elevator pitch’. List applicable specialities By supporting your summary with ‘keyword rich’ information highlighting your skills, competence and expertise, you make it easier to be ‘qualified in’ by those reading your profile, and to be picked up by LinkedIn and search engine searches. Diligently complete the ‘Experience’ sections This is your ‘online CV’ so complete it accurately, highlighting evidence of your expertise and making sure to maintain a strong ‘keyword’ density of those words that will be searched for by those who are searching someone with your skills. Because it is so public, take care not to share anything that will compromise a prior client (because they will look) and make sure it is congruent with and not contradicting any other CV you publish or submit. Naturally you may have different CVs that emphasise different facets of your expertise, or omit unnecessary information, but ‘facts’, where quoted, should match. This section is key for being picked up in LinkedIn search, and is picked up in Google search. Update ‘old’ job titles This is a marketing document after all; particularly with older jobs, it is perfectly acceptable to update job titles to accurately describe the role in line with a current understanding of such a role. You don’t have to slavishly stick to out-dated or meaningless titles that will no longer be understood by either people or search engines as long as such a change is honest. You don't have to list every single role held over decades. Quote useful ‘Additional Information’ This section contains key information that will help you get found. Make sure you link to other web locations and help people to find you: Specify ‘your’ website If you have a website (if not, why don’t you?), select the ‘Other’ not the ‘My Website’ dropdown, because if you choose ‘other’, then you can name your particular website link, e.g.: “Interim XYZ Company”.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Select an easy ‘Public Profile’ URL Select a ‘public profile’ URL that’s easy to use and easy to arise in searches. Typically, this will be your name, for example mine is http://uk.linkedin.com/in/advanderrest Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Link your own website and other sites you control back to your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn has ‘high authority’ on Google, and should feature highly in a Google search for you. On the subject of being found, if you refer to your company in the text, then its name e.g.: “Interim XYZ Company” is a better ‘keyword’ than saying ‘my company’ or ‘my blog’. Check your spelling Paste your finished profile into a spell-checker (LinkedIn fields don't do this) for a final ‘ok’ and you’re done.
Being found on LinkedIn Having a strong profile is the starting point, but additional techniques will help you to be located. Build a strong network of connections If you are not within the extended network of the person searching for you, you will not be found easily. Many commentators advise getting your connections to 500+ as quickly as possible, but I disagree with this scatter-gun approach. I prefer to maintain an active and steady ‘quality’ network growth, but I am happy to be flexible. So, I accept and invite good quality connections that I develop in my business endeavours, including clients, client employees, service providers, consultants and other industry key players. Additionally, I will accept invitations from people I have met on LinkedIn groups, Q&A groups or on blog sites. I will not connect without a good reason to an unknown “I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” invitation. These invitations come with the risk of destroying your trusted network by leaving other connections open to being spammed and preyed upon. So not wishing to be rude, I typically now ‘reply’ to an invitation asking – “what prompted your invitation? Have we met or communicated electronically before?” If I get an intelligent answer back, I might, but if not, it’s quite safe to archive the invitation. If you feel it was a deliberate spam invitation that is designed to simply boost connections, I prefer to use the dreaded “I don’t know this user” button that will reduce the sender’s ability to invite more people quite so openly. When inviting – say more that the ‘default greeting’, show some enthusiasm for making that connection and if the invite is not immediately obvious, explain the reason for it. When accepting an invitation – send them a short message to reinforce your pleasure at being connected. Connections that would help to develop your network more effectively are ‘node’ individuals – these are people who through position or force of personality have many real and meaningful connections; they are well worth linking to.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Finally, if a weaker immediate connection acts improperly or ‘updates’ you to death, there is nothing wrong with quietly de-connecting them – this is not something they will be notified of. Be obviously available for assignment (if you are) Don’t confuse people. If you are currently employed by your Limited Company – make sure it is clear that you are seeking assignment. You can do this either by the creation of a job ‘Seeking assignment’ (you can always delete it again when working), or by making it very clear at the top of your own company entry that you are seeking assignment. If you do little pieces of ‘ad-hoc’ for a client, don’t leave them listed as a ‘current’ employer to give the impression you are 'fully occupied' if you are otherwise hunting. You can always keep updating that clients’ end-date to be the ‘month before’ the present. Keep it up-to-date There is little point still being listed as working where you are not. A quality LinkedIn profile justifies periodic updates, typically in conjunction with your CV or CVs and other profile listing on other websites. To keep it simple, if I am updating a role, or adding expertise to a section, I will do this consistently across my profile, CV’s and other sites in one session. Have flexible contact settings Be as easy to contact as you can possibly be (or your sense of privacy allows). If you are difficult to contact, a recruiter may not talk to you, but may instead speak to other qualified people with easy contact routes. The link to your website or blog gives you a further route to your contact information, and if you want you to, you can share your phone number in the Personal Information settings. Don't forget that while recruiters may have access to InMail (a premium contact option) to contact you, clients or other parties probably won't. I often come across profiles that welcome contact, but don't publicly share contact details. Issue ‘Network updates’ appropriately You can issue ‘Twitter-length’ Network updates. Your connections will see your updates on their LinkedIn home page. Such updates can now automatically be made to your Twitter account as well. Your updates can vary from communicating a change, to asking a question, to letting people know you are alive. But treat network updates with respect; Keep to the guideline of not ‘selling’ more than 20% of the time. People will tolerate the occasional request or pitch if is dropped into a tapestry of informative updates. If your connections ‘eco-system’ includes contacts, clients, recruiters, friends and associates, then your ‘thought-leadership’, activities and assignment availability or non-availability will be passively apparent to your immediate network. LinkedIn and Twitter still have different styles and uses, so don’t just automatically send updates to both without thinking. Some updates will be better on only one site or the other, or only on both given some tweaking of the text. Repurpose your marketing If you Tweet, ‘Network update’ your Tweet (if relevant). If you blog, signpost the blog in your ‘Network update’. Don’t forget when referencing your blog site or website to use URL compression sites such as www.bit.ly to shrink your hyperlinks – or they won’t fit. If a LinkedIn group comment is stunning, also blog it, tweet it and ‘network update’ it – how
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide efficient a use of your ‘thought energy' is that! Advertise your LinkedIn identity by including your LinkedIn Profile URL in your normal e-mail signature. Have recommendations Recommendations push your profile up the search criteria which is why you may sometimes receive dubious recommendation requests (which you should not respond to), and it is even known for people to create bogus identities to recommend them (LinkedIn don’t like that at all). The best time to work on your recommendations is when you are on assignment or when you are not under pressure because they must never look desperate, urgent or rushed. ! Subtle method Proactively write recommendations of people you respect and have worked with, particularly in recent assignments. This acts as a ‘thank you’ for value you have received from them. Emphasise their professional behaviour rather than getting bogged down into technical skills because these will be more useful recommendations to them in the longer term. A one liner explaining how you know them, followed by a short ‘story’ highlighting why you are recommending them is most memorable. Actively encourage the recipient to tinker with it and recommend how you could make it ‘just perfect’. ! Direct method You can ask for a recommendation through LinkedIn. Only do this only with people you are sure gained value from your work and would have naturally recommended you had they only got around to it. I prefer to give them an ‘escape route’ by adding that they might suggest an alternative recommender instead, and not to be concerned if they don’t do one at all. Why give them an escape? The relationship is more important than the recommendation. There may be other reasons why they don’t like to recommend people – and putting them in a position through your request where they feel uncomfortable may prejudice that relationship. Getting the most out of LinkedIn groups We’re back to brand again here; if you are commenting on relevant discussion posts in an intelligent way, you become visible and may make interesting alliances into the bargain. Find a site that fits your niche; join it; enjoy it. Naturally, I recommend the LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM, as an example of such a group for Interims, prospective interims, recruiters/service providers, clients and others in the interim management eco-system to share their ‘thought leadership’. If you are in a LinkedIn group that has died off or has become spam-laden, leave it. Why, because high member-numbered groups will naturally attract more members and frankly, if they are poor – they don’t deserve to be at the top of the group searches! List your own company on LinkedIn LinkedIn lists companies on LinkedIn. If you own a company – even if it’s just you – you can still list your business on the Companies section of LinkedIn which gives you another opportunity to share your offering and link to your website.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Use LinkedIn Applications There are several excellent applications that you can display on your profile – you can find them in the LinkedIn Applications Directory. Particularly useful are the Blog applications such as WordPress and Blog Link. If you have presentations to share, such as your ‘Interim offering’, you can use Google Presentation or Slideshare Presentations for this. If you have a compatible CV or other marketing documents, these can be shared using Box.net files. But make sure only to load or keep the applications you actually use and that add value to your profile. Conclusions Being savvy on LinkedIn is not an ‘instant win’ but is a long-term investment. The recession has taken a toll on many Interims and new technologies are changing the nature of the game. As the economic environment recovers, being locatable on LinkedIn, and having a coherent proposition once found, will be a distinct competitive advantage. Acknowledgements This article was triggered by a discussion post at the LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM, posted by Juhi Bera entitled: “Has anyone secured a role using sites like LinkedIn, in this economy?” The basic structure was compiled by Ad van der Rest, based on various sources about the best use of LinkedIn. Particular thanks offered to Jens Gemmel for his wisdom on the matter, which has been included in this article. Further kind suggestions, also incorporated into the article were made by Jamshaid Anwar, Jean De Mey and Gilbert Tuplin, my thanks go to them also.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide
The interim manager’s guide to using photos on LinkedIn “Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.” Coco Chanel
This section is a mini-guide on the use of personal image photos on LinkedIn. It is specifically aimed at interim managers but is equally applicable to a range of business people, independent workers and professionals. NB: A note about the faces and pictures shown here. They are all real ones and were all publicly displayed on LinkedIn on the date that this article was originally prepared (June 13th 2010). The point is that are all in the public domain, so you need to feel comfortable with what you show because your photo is there for all to see. Why do I need a photo at all? A photo builds trust and credibility and makes you a ‘real person’. It’s the first thing people notice. Not having a photo might mean that you just haven’t got round to it, or you don’t have a decent photo or, in the days of online fraud, you may not be who you say you are. For anyone marketing their own business, a good photo is a sign of confidence, something that shows you are a real person and makes you easier to remember and identify after networking events. Particularly with the changes to the LinkedIn ‘Groups’ format, photos are more prominent than ever. Will any photo do? The maximum picture size allowed on LinkedIn is a square of just 80 x 80 pixels so make the most out of it. Most image editing software will allow you to crop a photo to the exact size before saving it. The key points to bear in mind are: ! Your face must be visible – for credibility and recognition purposes. ! It must be clear, in focus and well lit so that everyone can see who you are. ! It should be business-like and reflect your professional persona. You don’t need to have a professionally shot photograph (although if you have one, excellent!) but there are some obvious errors to try to avoid as illustrated in the following examples. Remember, LinkedIn is a business networking not a social network like Facebook where the rules and norms are rather different. Confusing the function of the two is often where people go wrong.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Classic errors include: ! ! ! ! ! !
The person in the photo is too far away. Their face is not visible. The image is too arty. The image is too complex for the size of it. Featuring family, friends, pets etc. Showing off your hobbies.
80 x 80 pixels square is quite small Below are a few examples of photos that show that the person too far away. In an 80 x 80 pixel long-shot image, your face is at best a tiny blob. The last one is my favourite. What’s the message there? “I have a nice garden?” It’s not ideal when you are marketing yourself as a ‘branded’ professional anyway. Have a photo that shows you up close, essentially a head shot.
Your face needs to be visible ‘Cool dude’ sunglasses don’t help either. Taking a shot from your summer holiday snaps is not a very good way to illustrate who you are in a business context.
But is it art? Take care not to have all or only part of your face in the frame, unless your artistic tendencies are a reflection of your professional image. Yes, this is a way to deal with the reality that the image is very small and allows the viewer to focus in on the centre of your face but odd treatments of your image are not particularly helpful unless you are making an artistic statement congruent with your business. Some of these photos are from the profiles
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide of artistic folk but consider what these photos tell you about the person. If it isn’t positive, is it worth the risk?
Here is my life Some people try to convey their lives and business in their image. That’s fine, but again, don’t forget the 80 x 80 pixel size. You will struggle to show your workmates, office, work area, or products in such a small space without things getting very confusing. So, unless your concept is so simple it can fit in alongside your head, this is too complicated an ambition to normally pull off.
My family and other animals Yes of course, you are proud of your partner, children and pets. But really, how is it supporting your professional persona to show your family alongside (or even instead of) yourself on a professional profile picture? It’s very sweet – a lovely family scene or a friendly dog. Would you have a photograph of your partner, children or family pets on your business card? Thought not.
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide Hobbies, interests and the world of the strange LinkedIn is not a place to show off your car, motorcycle or the size of that fish you caught. More than 80% of employers these days say that they will check you out online ahead of assignment or hire.
A technical note If you are able do this, the filename of the image and its ‘alt’ filename tag, are both searchable online, so it’s quite helpful that the filename of the loaded image is your name. So, what does make a good photo? Without wishing to embarrass anyone, here are a few images of members of the LinkedIn group that hosts these guides, the Interim Management – IIM LinkedIn group that exemplify the quality standards we’ve explored here. This is not about beauty parades; it is about clarity and representing yourself credibly and professionally. . Great profile photographs!
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IIM LinkedIn Group guide
Published by | myexecutivecareer.com Editor | Janet Davies | janet.davies@myexecutivecareer.com Advertising enquiries | janet.davies@myexecutivecareer.com Design | Cromwell Studios © Copyright myexecutivecareer.com and The IIM & The LinkedIn group: Interim Management IIM With due credit, this guide may be freely reproduced and used by the ‘Interim community’. The publisher accepts no responsibility for errors, omissions or the consequences thereof.
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