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Interim Insight - UK, the International Destination
The Interim as a spring-board for international development
Procrastinating on the phone before writing this article with my friend, an Interim CTO whose finger rests on many pulses, he picked up on the title word “insight” and downloaded his pitch to me. Turns out I´d hit on something! He tells me its the latest buzz word to pepper consultants´ talk as they enlighten clients on what to do next. “Insight” it appears is valuable. Not only that, it is forward thinking; it is the wisdom that is pulled out of understanding and extrapolating data, from winnowing the leading indicators from the lags. Let me explain.
We want to be able to predict, to make safe bets, manage risk and invest wisely. Insight by all accounts is the latest zeitgeisty term for the ability to correctly sift and interpret the mounds of information, to know if a trend will continue or is just yesterday´s headline; it´s understanding and interpreting customers´ feedback, the context of the market, gut instinct, and a keen weather eye. It informs the astute CEO in which direction he should head his ship — and furthermore my friend tells me, it can get him £1500 a day!
Well I think William Hague must be following more than just the Bahraini Foreign Minister on twitter, he´s sifted the data and seen the trends, he´s stuck his finger in the air and knows which way the wind blows. Britain he says should take advantage of the trend towards growth in the emerging nations. We should have a co-ordinated foreign policy that links with and supports our economic development. What insight! Still, shouldn´t mock a politician as he earnestly states the bleeding obvious.
Stop looking outwards though, Britain (and the West) is the international destination! Our markets are seen by the BRICs states and other emerging nations as pots of gold — huge potential margins to be made compared to the home markets. The problem it seems is where to start. Recruiting and employing a European national is often seen as both expensive and fraught with risk — sending over one of your own boys fails to take advantage of local knowledge and connections. Interim cries out as the solution.
An example: at a recent international gathering of our partners in Rome, our Indian and Chinese colleagues were delighted at the opportunity to take our interim collateral into their clients´ boardrooms. Why? They could immediately grasp the potential opportunity this presented as being the conduit to a trusted party overseas for those clients of theirs who are looking for a low risk, low cost method for market entry.
Well done Mr Hague, but I think in this instance, the pronouncement is something of a lagging indicator: the sharp money is already there.
Link to article published in The Executive Grapevine:
http://www.thegrapevinemagazine.com/?newsid=2958
29.7.2010 Global business leaders survey results