Ian, a very experienced career and executive coach, has designed the book to be a very practical collection of easily actionable advice drawn from over twenty years of experience.  I’ve known Ian (@iansmunro)for several years now through the Link Management Group which he also runs and of which I’m an associate.

The book is available on Amazon, via the Next Steps Group site or from Waterstones and other leading bookshops.

Demographics, good health and bad economics suggest that we will see increasing numbers of older people choosing not to stop working as the reach their 60s and beyond: either the mind or the bank balance remains hungry.  It is interesting, therefore, to read that:

“Dane Stangler of the Kauffman Foundation studied American firms founded in 1996-2007. He found the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity among people aged between 55 and 64—and the lowest rate among the Google generation of 20- to 34-year-olds.”

A couple of recent pieces illustrate the point.

Research from Microsoft, reported on ComputerWeekly.com, highlights how 90 per cent of UK businesses now allow flexible working but only 34 per cent provide the basic technologies to make flexible working a practical reality: laptops, remote connectivity etc.  Only 44 per cent have invested in collaboration technology like instant messaging or video-conferencing.

The Microsoft research also found that while 60 per cent of business leaders say policies are in place, 70 per cent of workers are unaware of their existence.

At the same time, on the HBR Blog, Tony Schwarz highlights the need to adopt a mature, results-orientated (as opposed to presence-orientated) management style: hire smart, trustworthy people and hold them to account for results, not hours.  (And, of course, a results over hours focus makes it far easier to effectively access the expertise on demand offered by interim managers and other freelancers.)

The essential elements for flexible working : Tools and Trust.

Computer Weekly is running an article on new research from Corporate Executive Board claiming that “Generation Y is a myth”. 

I haven’t read the research paper yet, and it’s always interesting to understand a contrarian view, but the covering article suggests it may be less than it might appear. 

For example, it is claimed that

“Leading employers have introduced buy your own computer initiatives, which free employees to choose the computers and mobile phones best suited to their needs, in an attempt attract young talent.”

Isn’t it possible that BYO initiatives offer benefits beyond simply attracting young talent?

And, in fact, the 10 page slide deck is actually titled, Building “Consumerized”
End-User Services … something less than a considered sociological exploration of work-place demographics.

I’m interested to read the whole paper/deck.  I believe that Generation Y exists (on a purely semantic level, there are undeniably young people currently entering the workplace).  I also believe that this generation, the first true generation of digital natives is different in ability and expectation.  However, I’ve also believed for a while that these differences and the possible/probable consequences have been over-hyped. 

I’m keen for insights but in scanning the work while writing this blog, I think it’s much more about consumerisation of IT than anything to do with Gen Y per se.

It’s easy to be cynical about branding – especially in consumer markets where the power of the brand often exceeds the quality of the product – but in essence this is all about helping your potential clients easily understand and recall the value you bring.

The Daily Muse on Forbes.com has this simple guide to thinking through your personal brand.

Essential for all freelancers, interim managers, contractors and portfolio workers (who may well need several).

Duarte uncovers the anatomy of a great talk, or speech, or presentation and – surprise surprise – it is the same structure as great story-telling anywhere: from the fairy-tales of childhood to the great myths of our ancestors to the most celebrated movies of our own time.

This structure at its three-part simplest is, as Duarte has it:

• Likeable Hero
• Encounters Roadblocks
• Emerges Transformed

It was wonderfully elaborated by Joseph Campbell in works like The Hero With a Thousand Faces and brought back to a practical writer’s level in Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey.  Essentially, it is about dynamics and about structure: building tension and then resolving it.  It works in every scenario and it needs to used much more in business scenarios.

Watching the video reminded me very much of Peter Guber’s excellent Tell to Win which was published last year.  Some of his themes were covered in an  HBR video interview with him that I blogged here.  The book is entertainingly self-effacing and revelatory.  In essence he is saying tell a story, in this form: problem, struggle, resolution.

A final insight for story-tellers:

I am indebted to novelist Adrienne Dines for her insight that the purest essence of story-telling is encapsulated in Eric Hill’s classic book, Where’s Spot. 

Every writer should have a copy on the shelf next to the Writers Journey and The Economist Style Guide.

He emphasises that technology is an enabler of flexibility but is not, in itself, sufficient to drive effective flexible working. 

Mutual trust between employee and employer, and an effective, results-oriented management style are harder for some firms to achieve than simply throwing new kit at people.  It is this more fundamental change that is essential to effective flexibility.

On the subject of flexible working, earlier this week, Computer Weekly was promoting the excellent Smart Working Handbook from flexibility.co.uk, a body that promotes good practice on flexible working.

Across the economy, organisations are dealing with uncertainty and change. Some are restructuring and dealing with the need to scale down their operations; others are innovating their way out of recession. All are, necessarily, seeking greater agility in their operations.

Interim management provides that agility.

Interim managers are independent professionals each running their own small business and providing expert services to client organisations, as required: expertise on demand.

The typical interim works full-time on a project for an average of six or seven months (although projects can be both shorter and much longer) before moving on to look for their next assignment. Interims are often over-skilled for the project in hand. They are hired to “hit the ground running” and to deliver agreed results quickly and effectively using valuable, specialist skills only for the period required. By the nature of their work, interim managers bring breadth and depth of experience to a project and they transfer valuable skills into the organisation as part of the assignment. According to the IIM’s latest annual survey, 74 per cent of interim managers are hired for their specific skills.

Interim managers also bring flexibility. Using flexible resources means that organisations can innovate more easily; able quickly to kick-off a pilot project or a new venture and then to “off hire” those resources when the project comes to an end. Valuable permanent staff are not distracted from core activities or put in jeopardy on high-risk projects.

What interims offer, then, is different in important respects from a traditional, “permanent” employee. The way they are paid is also different. The amount on their invoice is not salary but revenue out of which the interim must meet the costs of running their business: insurances, training, professional memberships, computer and other equipment, marketing, bookkeeping, travel and all of the costs that employees experience as benefits: healthcare, life assurance, pension etc.

Interims must also fund their own holiday, training and sick time along with the time spent seeking new assignments. As an independent small business, an interim manager shoulders a degree of business risk that employees are shielded from.

A comparable employee cost, as any Finance Director will tell you, is not simply the employee’s annual salary divided by the days of the year. The cost of placing an employee at their desk is easily between 60 and 100 per cent higher than the individual’s salary. The employer has to bear additional costs for: pension contributions, life assurance, healthcare, annual bonus, car costs, employers’ National Insurance, other employee benefits, training and equipment costs.

This significantly higher, true cost then needs to be divided not by 365 but by the actual number of working days available; i.e. net of weekends, public holidays, annual vacation, an average of eight sick days per year and a similar amount of training days. The resulting availability is around only 212 days, some 42 per cent lower.

Taking the true cost per available day of an employee gives a more realistic comparison with the cost of an On Demand interim manager. Even without allowing any premium for getting the exact skills required for the exact period needed, the true cost of a ready-skilled and equipped interim manager, on the job “right here, right now” compares extremely favourably with that of an employee.

Interim management is a very different proposition from traditional employment. It offers precisely targeted expertise on demand, enabling innovation and flexibility across the economy to the benefit of tax-payers and shareholders everywhere. We must not lose sight of this difference nor of the value it represents.

[NB: this is an edited version of an original statement that I wrote with my Institute of Interim Management hat on.  The original is available here.]

You have to admire his sang-froid as he locks back into the groove (even as you excuse the 1980s’ fashion).

You can see the whole graphic in readable size on Oli Gardner’s blog at unbounce.