Once reserved for temporary back fill or emergency support, on-demand executives are now an essential strategic resource for many of today’s enterprises. By providing fast, targeted expertise with low overhead, they deliver significant value. Businesses are able to stay lean and nimble while still being innovative, and independent consultants are able to gain more experience and create a work schedule that fits their lifestyle.
This is a radically different workforce model than how corporations have traditionally formed and managed teams. There is a significant economic opportunity in leveraging contractors, freelancers, and sub-providers. The ability to “scale at will” has a lot of upsides. An on-demand workforce allows a business to tap the right skills and resources at the right moment, without the larger investments of time and costs associated with recruiting, training, and managing resources internally.(1)
Agility is key, and organizations are looking to increase their performance potential by leveraging highly experienced and specialized contractors and subcontractors. However, and that is a possible pitfall, an agile workplace can only flourish in an organization that is designed to support flexibility. Before contracting an Ad Interim Executive, it is important to assess your own “integration agility”.
As a matter of fact, CXOs & Co. recommends to collaborate with its independent partners. With independents, you make it easier for your team to digest the learning by removing the heavy footprint and restrictive workflow involved with traditional consulting firms.(2)
By the way, don’t judge independent consultants by their previous job titles or assume they’re too senior to want to join your team in the trenches. Often, consultants choose the independent path because they enjoy a little hands-on analysis—and prefer doing work to talking about it.
References:
(1) eBook: The White-Collar Gig Economy, Mavenlik
(2) eBook: Working with independent consultants, BusinessTalentGroup