Boyden expands interim management capability in the Netherlands and receives positive market forecasts from polled interims, with 75% expecting stability and growth as summer approaches.
The first Boyden Brief of 2023 was attended by a large number of our established network of interim managers as well as some new faces, including some international candidates, which was fantastic to see.
Lisa Farmer provided an update on Boyden's international expansion and announced that a Partner had been appointed to lead Boyden's interim management capability in the Netherlands, working closely with our Executive Search team. Bas Fransen has a strong network and a wealth of experience working with clients in a variety of sectors and functions, all at the Director and C-Suite levels. We now have interim focused Partners in Paris, Düsseldorf, Munich, Stuttgart, Oslo, London, and Dublin, in addition to the Netherlands.
Claire Lauder, Josh Blackman, Daniel Harrison, and James Hunt from the Boyden Interim team then provided us with a market update. Despite the various economic challenges, the market has been a little busier than expected, and the PE market has seen plenty of deal flow. Partners have worked on a variety of functional change and transformation roles, as well as senior leadership positions.
During the webinar, we then asked the interims on the call a series of poll questions to get their feedback and market views:
According to the first poll response, a significant number of people are securing roles through their own networks or directly from clients and referrals. This came as no surprise, as there has always been a split in the industry regarding how roles are sourced. Many companies have used in-house teams, Linkedin, and their connections to find interims. Working with interim providers, on the other hand, allows you to tap into a much larger network of known, tried and tested individuals and thus provide a broader range of options to ensure the market is thoroughly covered.
We see Interim managers are used in a variety of ways, and fractional roles are becoming increasingly popular and can be a powerful offering in addition to full time interim roles. It not only allows businesses to access high quality advice from senior leaders, but that advice is often impartial and from experienced leaders whom may not have been able to attract or indeed need to have on a full-time basis.
This question confirmed our hypothesis that Interim managers tend to keep in touch with a small number of providers they believe they can get to know better, with 55% networking with no more than ten providers. Rather than reaching out to as many providers as possible, established interims tend to seek out providers who work on roles relevant to them. They can develop deeper relationships in this manner, which not only increases their chances of being considered for more roles, which are typically the types of roles that they enjoy working on and that play to their key strengths.
We then asked the interim managers about their forecasts for the coming quarter. 75% of interims expected the market to have plateaued or to see some growth, and the consensus was that activity would pick up as summer approached.
It wouldn't be an interim discussion without a thorny question about IR35! On the call, we asked the interims what the status determination of the roles they had worked on was. Although 67% of the roles were outside of IR35, just under a quarter of the interims had roles deemed to be inside IR35. This is still a hot topic in the industry, and at Boyden, we work with QDos Consulting, who guarantee the determination of the roles we work on to ensure transparency for both the interim manager and the client.
Overall, the first Boyden Brief of 2023 provided valuable insights into the interim management industry and its current trends. We thank all those that attended and will see you at the next one.
If you are operating as an interim manager and would like to join the next Boyden Brief call, please email Maleeha.khan@boyden.com
If you or anyone in your network are seeking interim management support for a business or organisation, please do not hesitate to reach out to the team directly at 020 3651 6993 or visit www.boydeninterim.com
