How We Work

Phase One – First contact
We operate like an emergency service. As soon as we receive a request from a company’s top management by phone or by email, we make a rapid assessment to see if the emergency can be dealt with.

Phase Two – Meeting with the Client
If the result of the initial assessment is positive, we fix a meeting at the offices of the company who has called us in. This meeting may be followed by others. There are two main aims – to get a clear picture of the problem to be dealt with (this can be very different from the one initially described by the client) and to understand the predominant company culture, in other words, to understand the management style. Once we have a clear picture of the problem and the management style, we are in a better position to decide what kind of manager the client company needs.

Phase Three – Check up and Relaunch Plan
At this point, the management team chosen to carry out the temporary management assignment makes a thorough check up of the company. The aim is to diagnose the problems and then draw up an Action Plan to restructure and relaunch the company. This phase only applies to General Management assignments when an ailing company is to be restructured.

Phase Four – Management
This is the most distinctive phase in temporary management, when the contract manager is assimilated into the requested role. He meets his new colleagues, obtains the mandates he needs and gets down to work. The project is monitored by through regular progress meetings between the contract manager and the shadow manager from Contract Manager s.r.l. and representatives of the client company. During the course of the project the contract manager has to prepare the way for his successor and take part in the in the selection process, whether internal or external, of the resource who will continue the management role.

The contract may last from six months to two years for function or project management assignments, or two to three years for contracts for general management assignments. The contract manager never operates alone. He is always accompanied by a “shadow manager” who supervises his work, provides any necessary support and acts as interface between Contract Manager s.r.l. and the client company. The shadow manager is usually a member of our team.