Change Agent

I’ve done 10 interim CEO / interim COO gigs during the last 10 years.  In my view, there are four cases when hiring an interim CEO make sense:

.

.

.

1. For The First 3 – 18 Months of a Startup: As detailed in this post (which in turn was prompted by Flybridge Capital Partners venture capitalist Michael Greeley’s recent post) there are times when hiring an interim CEO at the formation of a startup makes sense.  Adding the experience of a senior, successful entrepreneur to the passion and vision of the founding entrepreneurs can increase the likelihood of the venture’s success.  (This is the role I played at Ember Corporation.)
2. Helping a Founding CEO: Often, later in a startup’s life, a founding CEO can use help.  Rather than terminating the founder and “throwing the baby out with the bath water,” a better solution might be to bring in an interim COO to counsel the founder, and – in many cases – to actually assume some hands-on, day-to-day duties for some number of months.  When the company moves to the “next level,” then the founder can again assume full control. (This is the role I played at Eink.)
3. Clean Up to Attract an Industry-Specific CEO: Sometimes a company wants to hire an “industry-specific” CEO to have the venture really take off.  But often an executive search firm will say that – until things are “cleaned up” – top-notch CEO candidates from the industry cannot be attracted.  An interim CEO has the very clear remit of cleaning up the place for the next person.  (This is the role I played at HeartSine in the UK.)
4. Due Diligence for Further Investment: Often the investors have been asked to invest further in a company that has not met plan. For a variety of reasons, the investors often want a person of their choice placed inside the company to manage this next round of investment.  (This is what I was charged with doing at CR2 in Dublin, though the way I started the assignment was a bit unorthodox.)

Do these interim CEO / interim COO assignments always work out?  No.  Startups and turn arounds are both high-risk ventures.  Some turn out well.  Others do not.  But in all cases I’ve worked with great people; and it was these great people – and not I – who, with a bit of guidance and leadership, took the company to the next level.

This entry was posted on 11 November 2009 at 9:57 PM and is filed under Business, C-Level, Change Agent, CR2, Des Pieri, Desmond Pieri, Dublin, E Ink, Eink, Ember, Everypoint, Flybridge Capital Partners, HeartSine, Interim, Interim Management, Kindle, Michael Greeley, Startups, Turnaround. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.