How do business-focused interim professionals create value?

Business-oriented interim leadership isn’t just about filling a role. It’s about understanding the business, assessing the situation, and quickly contributing to stability and progress. With experience in similar businesses, situations, or roles, an interim leader creates value from day one. But it also requires the client to be transparent about what is expected of the assignment.

At Scandinavian Executive, business-oriented interim solutions are a fundamental part of our approach. This means we meet clients where they actually are, understand their reality, and provide solutions that work in practice.

Our senior consultants have firsthand experience in executive teams and business-critical roles. One of them is Michael Gabrielsson. He helps leaders find qualified interim talent when it’s truly needed.

With extensive experience in the business world and a track record of working closely with executive teams, Michael understands how crucial the right support can be. He has served on the executive board at the Stockholm School of Economics and IFL Executive Education, and served as CEO of Mercuri International. In those roles, dialogue with senior management at client companies was a major part of Michael’s daily work. From those experiences, he has gained valuable insight into and a deep understanding of the challenges and key issues facing management.

We asked Michael four questions: about working closely with the business, about interim expertise, and about creating value quickly.

– It’s often about creating a calm working environment. When an experienced interim consultant steps in, the immediate pressure and stress ease, and management can begin to make more well-considered decisions.

Michael describes a situation where an acquisition required more highly qualified staff in the finance department. They resolved the challenge by bringing in an overqualified interim consultant.

– Once the pace returned to normal, we were able to bring in more junior staff. It paid off in the long run, and the stability during the intense phase made a big difference.

– The most important thing is experience with similar operations, situations, or roles. Experience brings confidence, and that’s immediately apparent when someone joins a new organization.

But that's not enough. Michael continues:

– The client also needs to be transparent about the actual situation: what the core of the project is and what results are expected. The better we understand the current situation, the better we can match the right consultant.

– I always do my homework before meetings, follow companies in the news, and try to understand how the industry is doing right now. Connecting on LinkedIn and subscribing to newsletters from various industry publications also helps me gain a better understanding.

Different industries, roles, and assignments can present various challenges. But with extensive experience in the business world and working closely with senior management, Michael can provide interim solutions that work in practice.

For this to succeed, communication with the customer is absolutely essential.

– I’m often told that I’m quick to grasp situations. That I keep my promises and act as an extension of the consultant in our dialogue. I make myself available to our clients and am always happy to listen.

Accessibility, speed, and transparency. In other words, always delivering on our promises. To wrap things up, here’s a quote about Michael from one of our customers:

“You understood our situation, clearly summarized our needs, and I gained a great deal of confidence in you during our meeting. The hiring process went quickly, and we truly found someone who understood us and our situation. Our business will now be in a better position to succeed.”

For Michael, business-focused interim management is exactly that: combining experience, responsiveness, and agility to help companies move forward when they need it most.