Boyden global executive search

Winter 2009

Welcome to the Boyden Interim Management January Newsletter.

2009 is shaping up to be a year of considerable challenges and also one of great opportunity.

Many of us are entering uncharted economic waters. We will all need to adapt and change our businesses; reduce our fixed costs; continue to improve our service levels; strive to find new customers for our products and services and employ creativity and adaptability in order to flex our business models to meet the challenges that lie ahead. And we will need to do it rapidly with pace and precision.

Interim Management is the ultimate flexible resource tool, ideally suited to those businesses that want to adapt and change, reduce costs, open up new markets, whilst reshaping and restructuring; with rapid results.

Boyden Interim Management have unrivalled knowledge and access to the very best Interim Management talent available, on a global basis, through our network of 70 offices worldwide.

The aim of Boyden UK is to offer you, our clients, a "right, first time" solution for all your seniorexecutive resourcing needs: be they short term interim or permanent leadership roles.

Our Interim Management team is one of the most experienced in the industry, led by Patrique Habboo and Tim Blackstone, both veterans of this niche market. With over 20 years in the Interim management marketplace, they both have an extensive knowledge and understanding of their Clients' business needs.

Boyden Interim Management work in partnership with a selected portfolio of career Interim Managers, whom we believe to be the "cream of the crop", carefully selected to match our clients' requirements.

With an average turnaround time of 5-10 working days from Brief to Placement, we are ideally positioned to deliver rapid, effective solutions.

If you wish to speak to either Patrique or Tim about an immediate requirement, please call 0207 389 9771.

Annual Interim Management Survey

A very big thank you to all of you who contributed to our Annual Interim Management Survey. With nearly 700 responses, historically, this is the largest and most definitive survey on the Interim Management marketplace within the UK.

We have amassed a huge amount of data, including average day rates, average length of assignments, the areas of greatest demand by sector and function, as well as identifying rising

trends within the market, such as:-

• An increase in demand for international assignments, which reflects our own experience, having successfully worked on assignments across Europe, both West and East, India, China, North America and South America and the Middle East

• A rise in the need for locum roles, as permanent candidates are more cautious about leaving their current "secure" positions, so the need for experienced Interim Managers to provide continuity of service and stability during a prolonged executive search has grown

• Perhaps predictably, a sharp increase in demand for Interim Managers with a proven track record of success in turnaround or restructuring, with heavy demand patterns from the VC and Private Equity market

The full survey results will be published in February 2009. Please email: wendy@boyden.uk.com if you or your HR team would like to receive a copy with our compliments.

Case Study featuring the use of Agile Methods

Betfair, which was launched in 2000, now has revenues of over £180 million, having pioneered the on-line betting exchange concept. It handles 5 million transactions a day which translates to more than 300 bets per second. Needless to say IT systems and processes are critical to Betfair and the technology challenge is significant: some of what Betfair is doing has never been done before, the products are complex, and the plan has been to re-architect the whole platform, whilst at the same time continuing to deliver new products at a very fast pace.

To support this pace of change, the organisation needed an injection of 'know-how' and proven delivery in Agile Methodology which could be transferred to the Betfair technology teams in the UK and overseas.

Within 10 days Boyden Interim Management had short listed three candidates for interview and Betfair appointed Gerald Williams to the assignment.

Gerald has worked in IT roles as diverse as Senior Programmer to Lead Architect and more recently Vice President Programme Delivery at a leading Internet security company. He has used Agile techniques to turnaround high value Programmes and Projects in diverse industries such as retail, utilities, security and the gambling and gaming industry. It was this 'real world' experience that attracted Betfair - utilising his experience to turn theory into solid, delivery focussed, initiatives.

Those of you who are not quite sure what 'Agile Methodology' is may be interested in the following overview:-

Agile methodologies are largely about project management and emphasise delivery in short iterations. It is a set of practises and guidelines which define a Vision to point the way, has visible progress with frequent product releases and uses the process to reduce risk. They deliver projects on time and within budget, offering great competitive advantage in the current environment of uncertainty and constant change. Agile hates giving management surprises!

There are various Agile methods and some of the names may be familiar - Scrum; XP; Crystal Orange and DSDM. DSDM Atern, launched in 2007, offers a framework which is open and free to use for example. Betfair is using the Scrum Agile methodology, XP Software Engineering Practices and other agile methods blended to suit their organisation.

Each Agile project is made up of Releases. These are pieces of development where the customer gets something - a new piece of software for example. Releases can take between 2-6 months but are typically delivered within 3 months.

In turn Releases are made up of Timeboxes. Each Timebox has a plan of its own that is created at the start and the customer/end user assigns the requirements to the Time box. The important thing about Timeboxes is that the delivery date is fixed. Quality is not compromised, and so the lever remaining is to change the scope of the requirements.

Life for the 'Agile Customer' is different in that they must take an active part in the development team. The customer, or its knowledgeable representative, is responsible for the requirements and must explain these to the developers. The customer also has to talk to other users and get their agreement to the requirements. During the development phase they provide input to the design and prototyping and they review and accept delivered functionality, implement user testing and provide the user documentation and training. Agile methods encourage co-location of the customer with the development team so that decisions can be made and queries answered quickly.

The role of the project manager in Agile Methods is to act more as a coach and facilitator than to have direct control of what the team does, however they make decisions when it comes to the crunch. The Agile project leader is there to encourage teams to self organise and take collective responsibility.

Simple, visible and direct communication between teams, within teams and to management is the key. Change is expected in agile methodology projects and time is considered to be more important than functionality which loses out in the trade off with time. Quality however is continuously addressed with stated quality goals

In summary Agile methodologies focus on the:

• Clear prioritisation of business requirements

• Continuous evidence of progress being made

• Effective communication with teams

There is generally less documentation, shorter time frames and more visibility of individual's work and progress - as a result work is faster and produces better quality.

Betfair started their agile programme in June 2008 with the objective of improving their approach to agile software development and also to facilitate changes needed to make the approach stick.

They have a young and enthusiastic team (over 1,000 people) but as with most maturing organisations there is resistance to change

The end game for Betfair is a process that delivers projects in bite sized chunks so that the Betfair teams and management can see visible progress of delivery and can make corresponding decisions on their investments. Continuous inspection and adaptation of work delivered ensures issues come to light very quickly - there are no nasty surprises, risk is reduced and the Project Sponsors are in control each step of the way.

This is the first time that Betfair has used an Interim Manager, a decision they did not take lightly, and they make sure that they are getting good value from Gerald - every 60 days a Director has to re-present the business case for his existence!

Tony Stansfield Betfair's Development Director said

"Gerry has performed an outstanding job in his time with Betfair. We engaged him to help define and rollout Agile Delivery to our Development community of approximately 200 people plus our Product Managers and Business Analysts. Gerry over-delivered, exceeding my expectations and has consistently added value outside his original remit. I know that if I have a tough problem to crack, Gerry is the man to do that.

Gerry quickly adapted to Betfair's culture and way of working, building himself a strong reputation amongst all our Engineering and Product people. He is focused, knowledgeable and has a strong "can do" attitude to everything that comes his way.

It's a privilege to know Gerry; he's an asset to our company and has made a positive contribution to the success of Betfair Engineering."

Ideally the 'Agile' way of working will become the cultural norm for Betfair. In a recession there is even more reason for organisations to consider the 'agile' way of doing things and to engage an experienced Interim Manager to help get the project going and organise and train teams in agile methodology. To date Gerald has educated over 200 members of the team at Betfair's Hammersmith and Romanian sites - something he did not envision when he took the role!

Interim Managers are almost always involved in skills transfer as well as doing their 'day job' so as the first agile project is completed the organisation should be able to undertake others without the need for another Interim Manager.

Once again, we would like to thank you for all your support through 2008 and look forward to working together in 2009.

Best regards,

Patrique Habboo