WORKSHIFTER - Dispatches from the New Executive Frontier

At EPOCH, one of the first things we do when speaking with prospective clients is talk about the executive manpower challenges they face, with an eye toward identifying which might best be addressed by interim executive talent. Inevitably this leads to a discussion about what types of assignments are generally well suited for interim engagements. A few examples of the kinds of specialized project assignments that could appropriately be fulfilled by an interim executive would include:

• Centralizing a global human resource function and human resource service center
• Re-engineering the workflow of a global operation to ensure regulatory compliance and drive maximum efficiency
• Creating offshore operating capabilities in countries like India and China
• Evaluating risks in organizations undergoing global expansion
• Examining compliance functions to ensure processes and procedures align with requirements
• Launching a new product or service and developing the appropriate marketing and distribution support
• Evaluating procurement practices with vendors to improve profit margins
• Evaluating the feasibility of outsourcing non-core activities, review alternatives, make recommendations and assist in the development of a plan to execute the decision
• Evaluating where it’s best to expand either your customer care organization or your operation, domestically or globally
• Providing market data to assist in the development of a long term product development strategy
• Creating comprehensive new distribution strategies to expand businesses
• Evaluating the alignment of current systems with business strategies to determine where and how changes should be made to your core systems
• Evaluating HR practices and compensation plans to ensure they are aligned with business strategies
• Reviewing employee demographics to understand the impact of the impending executive labor shortage so you can begin to develop plans to address them now

What all of the above activities have in common is a need to lead an organization (or one of its business units) from Point A to Point B over a finite period of time in order to achieve a corporate goal. In all cases, given specific examples, it's easier to see how the level and relevancy of an executive's experience is much more crucial to success than his or her tenure or permanency with the company.