Editorial by Managing Director Alexander De Beir
Transforming to last
Think of a company. Multinational or SME, it doesn’t matter. Now, ask yourself the following question: are you sure that it will still exist in 10 years?
Kodak, Alcatel-Alstom, Compaq, Toys “R” Us, Yahoo… Or closer to home: Brantano, Blokker, Makro, Esprit…
While some have succumbed to scandal or blatant mismanagement, others simply did not see the need to transform themselves in time to survive in a world in perpetual motion.
The first quarter of the 21st century has done nothing to bring the salutary stability that every business leader is entitled to hope for in order to quietly develop a long-term vision: the subprime crisis, COVID, wars and inflation, a tense geopolitical context and the threat of tariffs in all directions. Not to mention, of course, the continuation of digitalization and artificial intelligence that many have begun to apply in companies without really accompanying it with a long-term strategy.
Rest assured, far be it from me to panic you. Quite the contrary. Every entrepreneurial challenge also presents an opportunity. The adage is well known, but the first step is to dare to identify the challenge. The employee who dares to project his company into the future is very valiant, making his boss aware of the dangers he cannot or does not want to see.
A temporary transformer for sustainable transformation
The Interim Manager, from his perspective, has everything to gain in appreciation and recognition if he manages to put his finger where it hurts. Thanks to his experience, he knows how to transform a system, a department, an organization according to changes external to the company.
The role of the Interim Manager, especially because of its limited duration, will only become even more fundamental to contribute to the longevity of a business well beyond his/her mission.
Canary in the AI mine
The news may make people jump. Both Amazon and ASML have just announced the elimination of thousands of jobs, especially in decision-making positions, while both companies are showing excellent results. The decision can be described as the height of cynicism, but both the American group and the European company evoke the role of AI to justify this organizational transformation. In the case of Amazon, whether one likes it or not, it must be recognized that it is a company that has been able to reinvent itself, go through difficult phases, and find new customers and new markets.
The Interim Manager can sometimes be that canary who will whistle where everything seems quiet, to open the eyes of the company to the pitfalls that could present themselves to it. AI will certainly play an increasing role in the morphology and core business of companies. Just as neutral but endowed with irreplaceable human qualities, the Interim Manager as a profession is expected to facilitate the transformation of the companies of the future. I invite you to discover in the next article the different forms of transformation that have allowed some companies to successfully rediscover themselves.
Wishing you a very good reading.
