Nordic CEO uses interim management as crisis management
Andreas Viefhaus has 25 years of experience as a leader, the last five as CEO of the Nordic business at AB Electrolux. We asked Andreas to share his experiences during challenging times and best practice for leaders in crisis situations.
Proactive and practical crisis planning
Andreas' long experience as a key member of the management team has meant that he has worked closely with several crisis plans and been a vital part of internal crisis teams in various companies. In the larger companies, he feels that there has been a proactivity when it comes to supporting the organization in shaky periods. Andreas explains, the most structured crisis plan I have experienced is in the oil industry. There, the entire group management practiced annually to prepare for real crises. Incredibly useful now that we look back on it. I have not experienced that kind of practical training to prepare for a real crisis since.
The practical training has come in handy during his professional life, and the real crisis Andreas remembers most is the financial crisis of 2007/2008. At that time, he was part of the group management team for Marketing and Sales at the energy company Preem AB.
- I remember it as a great challenge when the whole world completely collapsed. At Preem, we worked with continuous crisis communication at that time and it was at the top of our priority list throughout that period.
Prioritize right and de-prioritize
Prioritization is something Andreas often comes back to and he has a clear idea that a leader's order of priorities is directly crucial to how a company copes with a crisis situation.
- You need to make a clear order of priorities, especially what you want to do during the crisis not should prioritize. In a leadership role, you need more than ever to focus on the right things and with that said, delegate away as much as you can. The one priority you as a leader cannot delegate away is crisis communication.
To keep the focus on crisis management and in challenging times allow the organization to continue, Andreas has relieved the workload with the help of interim management. Even before crisis situations arose, he had a selected interim supplier to work with so that appointments were made safely and easily.
- Over the years, I have had an interim supplier even before the crisis occurred. It has been a contingency that has been invaluable to use during challenging times when the internal organization needs to focus. Dependency On the scale of the crisis, in some cases we have been so busy and affected that one team focuses on day-to-day operations and the other entirely on crisis management. In those cases, it has been a huge comfort to have a temporary resource where needed.
Rebuilding and adapting after the crisis
Riding out a storm takes both thought and energy and is often preceded by both proactive strategic measures and firefighting. Both during and after a crisis situation, you need to manage an organization that is suddenly more vulnerable. Here too, Andreas highlights the benefits of bringing in external help, in different ways, the business is still processing the crisis and getting ready to rebuild and reorganize where in some places it has been destroyed. I have used interim management in particular after challenging periods. It has been a way to support the business and keep up the momentum and energy of everyone in the organization. For me as a manager, it has allowed me to look up and be available where I am really needed.
