Interim Management

„I call them the temporary „lust managers!“ Dr. Harald Linné


This refers to the temporary employment of one or several, highly qualified managers at the same time, for projects or line positions. Two aspects are taken into consideration. On the one hand the aspect “management“ and on the other the factor “time“. Management here means those positions from managerial staff up: area manager, general manager and executive officer level. Time here refers to temporary mandates lasting less than 15 months. The average time-span in Germany is between six and ten months.


The tasks of a temporary manager can be as manifold as the fields of business, in which he works. However there are five core areas, where temporary management is increasingly employed:

  1. To bridge management gaps or overcome management shortages
  2. To accelerate the development of entrepreneurial strengths and innovations
  3. As crisis manager and for restrictive changes
  4. Within task forces in extraordinary situations
  5. As neutral project controllers and project auditing experts


Besides the „lust managers“ there are the professionals, they position themselves in the market solely as interim managers. They are often listed with several providers in the databank. but also secure acquisitions themselves. They operate actively between 9 and 11 months of the year. They covers comprehensively the areas of expert competence, management and consultancy.

An interim manager must be able to access sensitive company data, within the framework of the project he is undertaking. This is an important pre-requisite for a successfully completed task. And it is naturally a question of trust between the existing company management and the incoming interim manager. When he leaves the company, it is a matter of professionalism, that he treats this information as confidential. Should he then spread this confidential information in the market, he would damage his reputation. For this reason one can rest assured, that the interim manager would keep this information secret and maintain apropriate confidentiality.


Interim managers are in competition with consultants, as they can operate in both worlds, in the consultancy world, as well as in the manager world. If a manager has never had any operative responsibility, then no-one knows, what it will happen down the line. All our people have this experience. The focus with interim management is not primarily on the concept, but on the active implementation of the proposed changes. He has full managerial responsibility until the target is reached. There are therfore no consultants charts left in the drawer.


Interim Management has been a growing market for years. Although this applies less so to Germany, rather to England, Holland, Switzerland and to the United States. However German managements are increasingly recognising the attrativeness of this managerial solution.

Germany is an „expanding market“. In the established countries the situation is such that the tasks facing interim managers are much more clearly defined. In Germany the quota of this kind of task lies currently below 5%, as opposed to 10%-20% in the UK and 20%-30% in Holland.

An interim manager should have three qualifications:

  1. A future-oriented expert knowledge, i.e. he must have knowledge of future developments.
  2. Consultancy know-how and
  3. of course he must be able to implement the plans he has developed.

He should have acquired managerial experience at least at area management level. It is important that the manager is confident in line management, that he can deal with employees and can resolve conflicts in crisis situations. This is not the case where consultants are concerned. The interim manager must be able to recognise where potential opposition lies, where the multipliers sit in the company and the prevailing culture. He has no trial period: it is sink or swim! /either he succeeds or he does not succeed.


An interim manager is always more economic than a consultant or a salaried employee. Particularly as a major part of the fee can be defined as performance based. His contract offers flexibility in termination.


Merger of Atlas with T-Data GmbH, organisation transfer prices Global One

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