Interim Group Chief Executive Officer — Integration

Leading a group as one delivery programme

A property group that delivers through several entities, partners and workstreams can find that each one meets its own plan while the whole still misses. The Interim Group Chief Executive Officer, answering to the Board Chair for 18 months, is appointed to lead a single, integrated delivery programme that the board can depend on. In a non-profit, dependability is also a question of mission, because what the organisation commits to deliver is usually what its purpose rests on.

The executive authority of the seat

As chief executive in an interim capacity, the role decides. The CEO sets the group's thresholds for what stays local and chooses the evidence the group uses to govern capital, delivery capacity and controls. They own the decision on whether each inherited commitment goes on, waits or closes. They stop proposals that quietly move a cost or risk on to others with nobody answering for it, and decline investment that ignores adoption, what it relies upon or the downside. They approve who leads and how issues escalate, resolve tensions between the Board Chair and the operating team, and set a fixed timetable on which the board sees delivery progress, missed dates and choices awaiting its decision. Joint ventures make all of this harder, because authority is shared and partners measure success differently; the CEO has to integrate delivery without overriding agreements that bind the group.

Eighteen months to dependable delivery

The Board Chair and the CEO should, during the first ninety days, agree the integrated delivery programme, the group's division of decisions and an accountable lead for each workstream. Around month nine, the workstreams should be running on one group rhythm, with integration conflicts resolved before resources move. By month 18, integrated delivery should be dependable across the group, in a form the leadership team can sustain after the interim term ends.

A chief executive who has shared control

You have led through value creation, without letting the board narrative separate from operating evidence, in an organisation turning over $700 million or more with 2,500 or more people across seven or more countries. Joint venture and turnaround are the other two experiences we will explore closely. We will want to hear how you kept a joint venture partner aligned when delivery dates slipped, and what you gave up to do it. Turnaround matters because integrated delivery is often asked of a group just after something has gone wrong, when confidence is low and patience is short. Strategy formation at level 4 matters most; at level 3 we want P&L ownership, an operating cadence you have set, and sound risk judgement. You have taken decisions you could undo on partial information and firmed them as the facts came in, and you would count halting a commitment, defended with evidence, as a worthwhile first result.

From the Board Chair to the Investment Committee

The process is short. The Board Chair opens it in week one, privately over video. The Board Chair returns in week two with a case on integrating delivery across workstreams for you to work through. In the third week you meet the Investment Committee in person. A response in writing follows each stage within three working days.