Articles in extrajournal.net from 14.03.2023.

On March 4, 2023, the Interim Management Congress was held again in Salzburg. DÖIM – Dachorganisation Österreichisches Interim Management organized the marketplace for the interim industry for the 8th time. Managers from the D-A-CH area, Interim Provider and mediators, representatives of the UBIT/chamber of economics Austria and many further industry representatives met, so the organizers: Salzburg was thereby also this year a meeting place of the scene and with nearly 200 participants a large success, so DÖIM executive committee Martin L. Mayr. In the early days, the number of participants was 120 to 130.

After greetings from the boards of the partner associations DDIM, DSIM and VRIM, the Interim Manager of the Year 2023 award was presented. Six interim managers were nominated from all participants and entrants. The winner and Interim Manager of the Year 2023 was Bodo Antonic, who has been working successfully in interim management for over 20 years. Furthermore, the “Certified Interim Manager” was awarded to four managers this year by DÖIM in cooperation with UBIT/WKO.

The tasks

This year’s conference was held under the motto Digitalization and Decarbonization. Two big terms that affect the entire economy and the future and will play a central role in the interim management market in particular, as they say. DÖIM Chairman and GoInterim Managing Director Mayr:
“The topics of digitalization and decarbonization are a prerequisite for the future success and survivability of companies.”
The congress had also shown how interim managers can accompany the implementation and bring an advantage for companies. The next edition of KIM is planned for early March 2024 in Salzburg.

The interim managers

According to various studies, there are a total of around 20,000 interim managers in the D/A/CH region, of which around 1,500 are in Austria. The majority of interim managers belong to the professional association of management consultants in the Chamber of Commerce, as “temporary managers”, the rest are mostly active in the engineering services sector. About 70 to 80 participants enroll in the Interim Management certificate course each year, and about 40 have already graduated, according to the information.

The outbreak of the corona pandemic slowed things down, but now the industry is growing again at 15 to 20 percent fee revenue per year, says board member Mayr: by 2022, it should have been about 2.5 billion euros. He sees several factors as major causes. For example, companies do not want to employ salaried managers for all tasks; conversely, not all managers want to spend several decades or even their entire careers at a single company. Above all, however, it is current crises that set the task. “The market has become a manager’s market, difficult times bring more demand,” Mayr says: “Currently, the issues are dealing with inflation, material shortages and the impact of the Ukraine war. These issues are likely to remain important for the next two to three years. But digitization, automation and process improvement as major trends will remain important for the next 15 years, says Mayr: “Add to that decarbonization, which companies cannot escape.”

Source: https://extrajournal.net/2023/03/14/interim-management-schwere-zeiten-machen-mehr-arbeit/