Interim commercial leadership
Interim leadership, when something important has to be built or changed
I step in for a set period with a clear mandate, when a commercial ambition or a department is short of leadership, structure or momentum. The job is to steady things and give them a direction, make the initiative work, and leave the organisation ready to take it on.
When people call
When the ambition can’t wait for a gap in the diary
An interim makes sense when the leadership knows something important has to happen now, and nobody inside can pick up the whole thing without dropping something else that matters.
01
An important bet has nobody on the hook for it
The direction is more or less agreed, but the initiative falls between functions and loses pace to the day job.
02
A key commercial role is empty for a while
A new market, sales model or business area needs building while you find the right permanent hire and get them ready to take over.
03
The change needs more than someone advising you
You need someone experienced who can test the direction, make the decisions you’ve agreed they can make, and answer for the progress alongside the sponsor.
What I take on
Three kinds of job. One person on the hook.
Build
New commercial capability
New markets, new business areas, go-to-market, a sales organisation, or a commercial model that hasn’t found its shape yet.
Change
An operating model that stopped fitting
Roles, decision paths and the way sales, delivery, product and technology work together all need to line up better.
Drive
A business-critical initiative that cuts across functions
The ambition matters, the dependencies are everywhere, and somebody has to own the whole thing from the first choices to a working routine.
How it works
An interim mandate with the exit designed in
I’m not there to become a permanent shadow organisation. We agree what has to be different, how much room I need to decide things, and who takes it over afterwards.
01
Agree the end state and the decision rights
We get specific about the business result, the scope, the sponsor, the mandate and the things we’re deliberately not doing. How long it runs follows the job, not a standard package.
02
Build it while it’s moving
I organise the work, get the right people around it, and keep decisions and deliverables coming. What we learn from the market and from your own people goes straight back into the direction.
03
Get the organisation, and my successor, ready
Accountability, working rhythms, relationships, knowledge and the choices still open all get written down, so an internal leader or a new hire takes over with something real to stand on.
Handing it to a permanent hire
Steady now, and the right person on board after
If a permanent hire is missing, part of my mandate can be to steady the work, sharpen what the role actually is and what success looks like, and help find the right person. I can help write the brief, assess candidates and run the commercial part of the conversations with them.
Once you’ve chosen someone, I help with a proper handover, so they arrive with the context, the relationships, the standing and the momentum. Not just a folder of documents.
I’m not a substitute for a proper recruitment partner. I help as the interim who already knows the job, the organisation and the mandate my successor has to succeed in.
A strong match
When the mandate is about movement
- A commercially important result that needs leading now.
- New or partly unfamiliar ground, with real choices along the way.
- An active sponsor, and access to the people who have to make it work.
- A wish to use the gap to find and settle in the right permanent hire.
- A wish for your own people to carry it on afterwards.
Not this one
Keeping a mature operation ticking over
I don’t put myself forward as a general stand-in line manager, someone to firefight day-to-day problems in any function, or cover for a settled CEO, CFO or HR role.
If the job is mostly to keep a well-run function going, with no real mandate to build, change or execute, another interim will suit you better.
A word you might hear
Fractional leadership can work well for owner-managers and growing companies, when the mandate can be handled part-time over a longer stretch. It doesn’t change what’s underneath: a real commercial responsibility, a clear end state, and progress somebody else can pick up.
What sits behind the mandate
Tried at international scale, and up close
Three very different scales sit behind an interim mandate. The numbers for each are under cases.
Microsoft
Market building, go-to-market and commercial leadership across functions
Growing markets, building new-business sales capability and leading teams spread across European markets.
Encodify
Changing Consulting & Delivery, close to the customers and the teams
Running the team, the delivery model, the operating model, customer service, and the handover between sales, delivery, product and development.
My own ventures
From idea and positioning to an offer, partnerships and daily operations
The whole thing, as an independent: strategy, market, delivery and the economics all have to add up, and there is nobody else to hand it to.
Related pages
Interim is just the format. The commercial result is the point.
An initial conversation
What has to get built, changed or moving?
We talk about the ambition, where you want to end up, the timing, and the mandate that would make an interim worth doing at all.