Financial Services
Case Studies

Case Study - Orbis Investment Advisory Limited

Launched in 1990, Orbis provides investment management services to institutions and individuals through the Orbis mutual funds. The company recently employed Russam GMS to help it manage internal challenges by finding Interim managers capable of hitting the ground running and delivering impressive results quickly. The company required someone who would also fit into the company’s culture.

Dr Jimmy Chan, Director at Orbis stated, “The Interims we hired were effective from day one. This was essential as we had specific projects that were critical to our business and we did not have the right skills in house to accomplish them. “We learnt a great deal from our Interim Managers. The HR Interim reviewed our HR processes and made some excellent recommendations for improvement.“

“Our Interim Relocation Manager gave us great direction when we moved offices and highlighted the importance of planning and timing. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Interims as a solution to anyone in a similar business dilemma.”

Case Study - Heavyweight Interimskills exceeds Pearl’s expectations

Pearl is a specialist owner/manager of long-term savings and investment portfolios, looking after the £19.8 billion of assets of closed life funds for 3.5 million policyholders. It also provides access to a range of financial products including car insurance, home insurance, travel insurance, equity release plans to boost retirement income and commercial insurance.

In 2006, Pearl decided to change the supplier of its outsourced general insurance products. Following the departure of the original internal project manager, Pearl appointed an Interim Manager to ensure continuity and bring in heavyweight delivery skills so that its customers would not experience any disruption. Whilst hiring a strategic player was important, the company needed someone who could not only put a strategy in place, but also execute it successfully and fit in easily with the company’s culture. Interim Manager Ian Rosser had previous experience of affinity marketing and customer services operations. He had also previously worked for an outsourced provider; experience which was highly relevant for the role.

Tracy Peplow, Head of Business Development commented, “Ian Rosser certainly lived up to expectations. His expertise and strength of character was apparent immediately. He made a strong impact from day one, integrating well into the team. Undoubtedly over qualified for the role, he contributed at various times well beyond the established requirements for the role. This was a highly successful assignment. Ian provided us with excellent service and we were sad to see him go.”

Case Study - Wesleyan

Kit Nash, HR Director at Wesleyan Assurance Society, the financial services specialist for medical, dental and teaching professionals firmly believes in the benefits of Interim Management. He has hired Interim Managers on several occasions and believes that the main benefit of using them is that they are experienced practitioners who bring to company specific skills that are missing and they can often undertake new projects at very short notice. They free up time for the business managers to focus on strategy and business development. Rather than employing Interim Managers to fill in recruitment gaps, Kit believes they should be used strategically and hired for their skills with specific projects in mind. He acknowledges that Interim Managers not only bring valuable experience, but a much needed fresh perspective on a business problem. His experience in working with Interims has been very positive. He believes that others can benefit from the presence of Interim Managers within the workplace and in particular, junior staff, who are often coached or mentored by Interims. This transferal of skills from an Interim to a junior member of staff can speed up their development and lay the groundwork for future business success.

Case Study - Graphite Capital

Graphite Capital is a leading independent private equity group investing in mid-market UK companies in a range of industry sectors. It has a 25-year history of successfully backing management teams in growing the value of their businesses across almost all industry sectors. The company usually invests in established companies with demonstrable track records of revenue and profit generation.

One of its busiest areas is transactions – typically involving management buy-outs and buy-ins. These businesses often need extra staff to support the management team in the months before the transaction or afterwards. It handles these busy periods by employing Interim Managers, who are seconded to the fi rm for a three to six month period. Mike Innes, a Partner at Graphite Capital explains, “One of the key benefi ts of employing Interim Managers is that they can bring a wealth of experience and sector knowledge. They are also not afraid to question the status quo and their fresh perspective and independence often delivers great results.”

Case Study - Midven Limited

Midven, a Midlands based venture capital firm provides investment for business start-ups, early growth stages and management buy-outs and buy-ins. It currently invests in a portfolio of 55 companies. One of the key challenges facing Midven is finding talented individuals to run and grow these companies to ensure their future success. COO’s and general managers are needed with specific industry knowledge and experience, such as technology or biotechnology (key areas area of expertise for Midven), impressive skills sets and strong track records of leadership and management. Finding such talent proved extremely difficult.

Tony Stott, CEO of Midven explained, “Russam GMS has an eclectic and extensive pool of talented Interim Managers. As we work with small companies, it is crucial that the people we employ are not just strategic players, but are also hands on – people who can get things done and know what it takes to build a company.

Finding this calibre of people skills was very tough. We have found that working with Russam GMS, and by tapping into its extensive database, we have found the talent we need to achieve our investment goals.”

Case Study - Co-operative Financial Services

Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) is part of the UK’s largest consumer co-operative with some 6.5 million customers employing over 68,000 people. Its business group includes Co-operative Insurance (CIS) and The Co-operative Bank. As part of a major restructuring programme, Russam GMS provided Graeme Honeyborne to manage a portfolio of large business critical projects covering new business models and proposed channels to market.

“The company needed an experienced manager as there was no time for a learning curve - someone to deliver projects relating to the day to day running of the business very quickly. Taking on these projects allowed the senior management teams to focus solely on restructuring the core business including selling various business divisions. I was appointed within 10 days, which was an attractive proposition to a team working to tight business integration timescales.” Graeme commented. “Interim managers should be viewed as a positive addition to the team not as a threat. They are not there to take a colleague’s job or to undermine the existing management team - they will bring a fresh perspective to any project. They will share skills and knowledge as well as embed processes to ensure the successful completion and handover of a programme.”