Tag Archives: Business school

Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern Moritz Erhardt found dead after working long hours | Mail Online – Best Blogs Series

December 11, 2014 By in Austerity, Business Administration, Business Strategy, Education, Millennials, People, Politics, Students Tags: Leave a comment
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/94432760

This is an extremely depressing story reported in the Mail Online. It’s a MUST READ. Check it out! via Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern Moritz Erhardt found dead after working long hours | Mail Online. This story takes me back to when I was a part-time tutor to Masters’ students at EAP (Ecole Affairs de Paris – a French Grand Ecole

ESCP Europe

ESCP Europe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

– this subsequently became ESCP and was ranked No.1 worldwide by the Financial Times in 2010 for its Masters in Management). The students were exceptionally bright, typically from privileged backgrounds were required to undertake, at that time, internships in London, Paris and Berlin. In London, there was always intense competition to get a place in a prestigious investment bank, especially by the German students. I remember vividly one German student who described the practice of “working over the top”; he meant around the clock. Interns in investment banks are typically glorified “goffers” but there is intense competition to do a good job and hopefully be offered a job when they finish their studies. There was another German student who completed his internship in a major consulting house – he too worked very long hours to create the right impression; a few years later, in his late twenties, he died on a squash court. This is the other side of austerity, where privileged students tap in to their connections to gain an internship in a big-named organization to put on their CV or possibly be well-placed to be later offered a job. Of course, these students are typically from families in the top 1% income range. Most students of ordinary families from the “great unwashed”, the 99% do not get a sniff at these prestigious internships and, off course, their careers follow much humbler trajectories. Let me turn this to an open question:

How can internships be cleaned -up?

Any thoughts?

What are the three types of Interim Management assignment? – Best Blogs Series

December 10, 2014 By in Business Administration, Coaching, Consulting, Executive Interim Management, Executive interim management career, Independent Professional Services, Interim Management, Interim Manager, People, Personal Marketing, Search engine optimization Tags: , Leave a comment

According to Andrew Turner, a seasoned Interim Chief Executive, specializing in change management, business strategy and performance improvement, there are broadly three types of interim assignment:

* Resource-Driven

* Project-Driven

*Change/Solution – Driven

Andrew believes that the characteristics of each type of assignment are typically as follows:

* Resource-Driven: Need for temporary staff – low risk to client and sponsor – high price sensitivity

* Project-Driven: Management and skills for a defined contract – low/medium risk – high/medium price sensitivity

* Need for Change: Need for fresh ideas and solutions. – What the client buys – Solutions. Scarce and specialized expertise; someone to help resolve complex problems. Risk to decision maker – High. Risk to company – High. Price sensitivity – Low.

Andrew argues that both Resource and Project Driven assignments should NOT strictly fall under the banner of Interim Management. He believes that the first should be in the world of temporary staffing, and the second in the contracting arena. He reasons that neither have the decision-making independence of the true Interim Manager (at least at CEO/COO level), nor the ability to bring about change, other than in a far more circumscribed manner, ultimately controlled by the client, rather than the “interim”.

Traditionally, the professional interim has been seriously over-sized and could demonstrate that they had truly earned their T-shirt! In recent years, the boundaries between the professional interim, contractors and consultants have all become a little blurred. Top-end professionals and intermediaries have introduced terms like Executive Interim Manager, Interim Executive and Professional Interim Executive to provide necessary differentiation.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, as a Member of the Association of Professional Interims(MAPI), I am going to deploy some basic definitions agreed by the API.

1) What is an Interim Manager?

A Professional Interim Executive is a high impact external resource, usually operating at or near board level on a short-term basis, who utilises extensive proven experience to solve complex problems or deliver solutions to business critical issues fast. Professional Interims diagnose, design, deliver, embed the learning, and then disengage.

2) What do professional interim executives do?

a. Professional Interim Executives are usually deployed as a flexible strategic resourcing tool in organisations from large multinationals to small owner-managed companies.

b. They have a previous proven track record of success usually across a range of organisations or have been seconded across several areas of a large organisation. They are used in all sectors.

c. They are focused and hardworking and deliver results extremely quickly, usually far exceeding client expectations.

d. Almost every successful interim executive has previously been a successful permanent executive. They typically report directly to the senior management, the Board or shareholders.

f. They bring with them a wealth of experience and expertise – and no political baggage – ensuring they are exceptionally focused on delivering the agreed business goals.

g. They thrive on new challenges and immersing themselves in new situations and have a remarkable ability to adapt to different organisational cultures and win the trust and respect of their teams and colleagues.

#####################################################################

In separate article, we shall focus on the difference between professional interims and consultants.

#####################################################################

Finally, I would like to thank the Institute of Interim Management (IIM) for supporting an open debate which prompted Andrew to share the above conclusions. These conclusions are entirely Andrew’s and were neither provided nor necessarily supported by the IIM, nor other members of the debate.

In December 2009, I asked the question on the IIM LinkedIn forum: “How can we help the client and the professional interim match more effectively?”. Apart from myself, participants in the debate included: Ad van der Rest, Tony Evans, Katrina Shepherd, Les Ormonde, Martin Eley, Colin Mclean, Nigel Cole and Tom Pickering.