How to Create Business-Driven Interim Impact

Business-focused interim management isn’t just about filling a vacant position. It’s about understanding what actually needs to change—and why. When an interim solution works at its best, it provides not only capacity, but also direction, momentum, and reassurance in a situation that is often complex.

At Scandinavian Executive, business-focused interim management is a central part of our approach. This means going beyond the job description and instead focusing on impact: what needs to change, how the organization will be affected, and what results need to be achieved.

Meet Rickard Cox, Senior Business Manager

Rickard has extensive experience in commercial leadership roles and has worked closely with both management teams and boards of directors in environments undergoing significant change.

Among other roles, he has served as Sales and Marketing Director at Avonova, Head of Client & Market Development at PwC, and played a key role in business development at Arlanda Airport. Previously, he was also a partner at Mercuri International, where he focused on sales and leadership development. 

Today, Rickard works to match interim leaders with organizations undergoing change, with a clear focus on business value and impact.

We asked Rickard four questions about business-focused interim management, value creation, and what it takes to succeed.

You have extensive experience working in executive teams. What has that journey taught you about how companies operate in practice?

– Reality is almost always more complex than it appears on paper. In a management team, you often have to balance the owners’ demands for growth with the organization’s need for stability. There is a direction, but that doesn’t mean everyone agrees on the path to get there, or even interprets the goal in the same way.

Rickard also highlights how much the dynamics between people influence the outcome:

– A single person can shift the balance of an entire management team. At the same time, there is always financial pressure in the background, where cash flow determines which decisions can actually be made. As a result, strategic ambitions often need to be adjusted to reflect operational realities.

How does your background in customer service influence the way you work with customers today?

– I think less in terms of a requirements profile and more in terms of impact. What should have changed in six months? Which outcomes are critical? And what needs to happen within the organization to make that a reality?

He describes how his experience in leadership roles makes the dialogue with the customer both broader and more challenging:

– I try to look at the big picture. How different functions are affected, what the current culture is like, and what needs to change. Sometimes that means asking follow-up questions the client hasn’t considered themselves, or challenging a narrow view of the need.

Rickard believes that organizational buy-in is also crucial:

– An interim solution always affects more than just the individual role. That’s why it’s important to understand how the decision will be received by the management team and the organization as a whole.

When companies contact you for an interim solution, what are the most common challenges?

– Often, there is a clear business imperative driving the situation. This could involve declining profitability, projects that aren’t really gaining momentum, or an organization that isn’t delivering in line with the owners’ growth ambitions.

In many cases, it’s also a matter of leadership:

– It could be a role that isn’t working as intended, or where the person lacks the business acumen required for the situation. In that case, we don’t just need a replacement—we need someone who can step in and actually turn things around.

How do you see business-focused interim management making an impact?

– For an interim leader to be able to create value quickly, the conditions must be right from the start. It’s not just about who the person is, but about how well the assignment is defined and supported before anyone steps in.

Of course, a lot depends on the individual who comes in. But the success of an assignment also depends on the work we do beforehand: how well we understand the need, what questions we ask, and how clearly we can define what the assignment is actually supposed to achieve.

Rickard breaks down business-focused interim staffing into three parts:

• Strategic understanding: Seeing the big picture and the business logic behind the need
• Operational realism: Knowing what can actually be accomplished within the allotted time
• Interpersonal intuition: Understanding the dynamics of the leadership team and the organization

When we get these elements right from the start, we create the conditions for the interim leader to actually succeed. It’s about combining experience, perspective, and business acumen to ensure that every appointment truly makes a difference—not just in the here and now, but for the organization’s continued development.