I would like to begin this article with a situation I experienced myself. Not because it is pleasant to write about. But because it illustrates a truth about interim mandates that is rarely stated so directly.
I had a mandate that I ran over an extended period. The work was complex, the results were substantial, and the knowledge I had built up over that time about the processes, the systems, the posting history and the specific idiosyncrasies of this finance organisation was considerable.
At some point the moment approached at which a decision about the continuation of the mandate should have been made. That decision was not made. Not negatively. Not positively. Simply not communicated.
As an interim manager in such a situation you face a simple reality: you cannot wait indefinitely. An interim manager who builds their professional livelihood on mandates has to plan. I looked for the next mandate and found it. The ongoing mandate ended earlier than it would have needed to had the communication worked.
What Companies Underestimate When an Interim Manager Leaves
An interim manager who works in a finance organisation for weeks or months builds up knowledge that goes far beyond their formal remit. They learn the peculiarities of the posting history. They understand why certain accounts hold certain balances that at first glance are inexplicable. They know the implicit processes that are documented nowhere but are functionally important.
This knowledge is not in documents. It is in experience. And experience leaves with the interim manager when they leave the company.
What Is Concretely Lost
In my mandate the work concerned a finance organisation with a complex posting history. There were postings that resulted from specific historical decisions and that are incomprehensible without that context. And there was an audit that built on this history and that now has to take place without the people who know this history.
The auditor will ask questions. Questions about postings made two years ago. These questions cannot be answered. Not because the answers do not exist. But because the people who know them are no longer there. The knowledge is gone. This produces a reconstruction audit.
It would have been avoidable. Through a simple communication about extending the mandate.
Why Companies Fail to Communicate and What It Costs
What internally looks like a normal process delay has considerable professional consequences for the interim manager. They cannot plan, do not know whether they will still be in the mandate in a month, and have to consider alternatives. If they find a suitable alternative, they will take it.
This is not disloyalty. It is professional common sense. And it is a consequence that would be entirely avoidable through timely and clear communication. A short conversation every four to six weeks in which the current planning status is communicated is enough.
What Good Mandate Design Means in Practice
Clear communication about the mandate horizon and extension options. Structured knowledge transfer from the outset as a condition of the mandate. An overlap phase when an interim manager hands over the mandate, at least four weeks, ideally six to eight.
What I Bring
I am Nicole Vekonj, Interim Finance & Controlling Manager. I bring to every mandate the willingness to actively transfer knowledge and to document processes that keep working beyond my mandate. My goal is not to be indispensable. My goal is to leave behind a finance organisation that is stronger without me than with me.
👉 Submit a project enquiry: zahlenkompetenz.de/en/contact
