Top charge @part time
Today, an increasing number of companies are looking at hiring temporary executives to address their financial, HR and administrative requirements
Temporary hiring was in vogue in corporate India during the economic slowdown. In that period of uncertainty, most organisations had placed a premium on flexibility. Temporary hiring or temp hiring (as it is popularly called) was particularly trending in manpower intensive space such as FMCG, retail, BFSI and telecom. Having moved over the dark cloud, companies are now turning to what is known as “flexible boardroom”, hiring executives such as CEOs, CFOs, CXOs and HR heads to fill specific needs for short durations, without having to pay them “abnormal” sums.
Today there are firms that cater to this demand (of temp executives). So if you have a bright idea and wish to start a business but need a CEO whom you cannot pay enough, a temporary chief executive officer is just a call away. If a company wishes to launch a new product in the market and needs a person to design its marketing strategy, it simply hires a temp chief marketing officer for a few months without taking on a long-term obligation. Similarly, if there is a company that wishes to go public, it hires a CEO who will disappear after the company finally lists its shares.
Chandrika Pasricha, a former consultant with McKinsey & Company, started Flexing It, an online platform for temporary executives who are looking for short, temporary assignments of this kind. “I felt that there was need for a platform from where companies, especially start-ups, could hire niche quality talent without having to pay a lot. These companies were seeking parttime consultants for foraying into new territory, redesigning their business strategies, hiring talent and raising funds. The solution was to secure them with temporary CEOs, CFOs and HR executives,” she says.
According to Pasricha, the platform also gives access to executives who do not wish to restrict themselves to a single firm but work across companies and disciplines.
Neilum Malgonkar of Malgonkar and Associates had worked for over 18 years in a well-known company before branching out on her own. She started her journey by setting up processes for an SME (small and medium enterprise).
“At the time of inception I was answerable for everything that went wrong. Since there is no reporting hierarchy and team, I am more like a mentor to the young SME owners. In the initial period there were 13 employees. Today there are almost 50 employees – all hired by me. I’ve introduced best practices such as the communication and engagement strategy, appraisal systems, documentation and training and promotion strate gies. I have also introduced exit interviews, collated employee
WORKING AS A PARTTIME BOSS IS A GREAT WAY TO ENHANCE YOUR LEADERSHIP ACUMEN ACROSS MULTIPLE BUSINESS DOMAINS
data and helped the young SME owners to set up their portal,” she shares.
Anurag Gupta and Dewan Ashwani of CFO Connect, say that though there is excitement and passion in a start-up the work environment is completely unstructured. Each promoter is different and each business brings with it new challenges. “It is intellectually stimulating and rewarding to head a start-up because you can see the impact of what you say and do. The people working in start ups are raw but have great ideas. Therefore, you are the veritable medium that converts the ideas into an institution,” says Gupta.
Elaborating on their scope of responsibilities, Gupta and Dewan say, “We give them tips on how to effectively deploy finances, how to make use of tax laws and save costs. We also make them (the people working in the company) aware of legal implications both in India and abroad, advice them on how to design a contract and offer them the intangible benefits of our network.”
Initially, the duo helped companies to set up business and helped them grow. Now they provide strategic inputs at the board level. According to them, as organisations grow, the nature of engagement also changes.
MS Jagan, who helped set up a Singapore-based company in India and ran it for four years as its first Indian CEO, is now a virtual CEO for several firms.” My responsibility now is to help set up companies. In some cases, I also help to run them. I have visiting cards from several companies that I represent in the capacity of CEO. Being a temp CEO is not an easy task. Working for companies that fall in different domains requires you to keep switching your focus, which is quite challenging. Also, time is never ample and you require high discipline levels,” he says. Ask him about the number of years he has spent with these companies and he tells you with a sense of pride that “I have definitely stuck on longer than even their full time employees.” Temporary arrangements do leave behind an indelible mark after all!