The expertise companies still too often underestimate – an article by Ivan Reusse for Le Monde Économique
27.05.2026
Temporary replacement of an absent executive, intervention by an interim manager while waiting for a permanent hire… For a long time in Switzerland, interim management has been confined to an extremely reductive perception.
Today, this vision is outdated. Interim management is not simply “managerial temping” — it is a fully-fledged strategic discipline, designed to address situations where companies no longer have the luxury of time.
In countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France, this approach is already fully integrated into governance practices. Companies turn to interim managers when they need to rapidly transform an organization, support hypergrowth, restructure an activity, manage a crisis or regain control of an unstable situation.
Whereas, in a traditional recruitment process, an executive benefits from an onboarding period, an interim manager is expected to deliver impact immediately. This is also why they are often overqualified in relation to the actual requirements of the role they temporarily occupy within the company. And this is precisely what makes this expertise so unique.
Let us take a concrete example. A Swiss industrial company with nearly 500 employees suddenly loses its Chief Operations Officer just as several strategic clients are threatening to leave. Production delays begin to pile up, teams are under pressure, middle managers start working in silos, and the executive committee gradually loses visibility over operational priorities. The board of directors becomes concerned. Shareholders demand rapid answers. And the organization enters a turbulent period.
The board then decides to appoint an interim manager specialized in complex industrial environments. In less than three weeks, the manager secures critical operations, restores clear governance, reorganizes production priorities, rebuilds alignment between teams and leadership, reassures key clients, implements simple and readable performance indicators, and provides the steering committee with concrete decision-making scenarios. But above all, the manager restores psychological stability within the organization.