Entrust us with a mission
Join the community

Interim Management Firm in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East

BlueBirds, your interim management firm in Paris, offers the services of a community of 5000 experienced executives and managers ready to tackle your company's temporary challenges in France as well as across Europe.

5000 Executives and Managers at Your Service

BlueBirds, a management consulting firm, identifies, assesses, and assists you in selecting qualified executives and skilled professionals who intervene within your organization. Because the right individual can make all the difference in certain contexts, BlueBirds supports you at every stage: growth, performance improvement, transformation, and turnaround.

Our Intervention in Interim Management

Organic Growth and External Growth

Beyond executive leadership, the interim managers within our community support you in your growth journey. When your resources don’t match the pace, when a new managerial need arises, or when a specific skill or experience gap becomes apparent, our interim managers step in. In organic growth scenarios, interim managers address the entire spectrum of conceivable challenges: transitional sales leadership, analysis and exploration of new markets, partnership creation, go-to-market strategies, launching new products and services, and more. In external growth scenarios, they most often intervene post-acquisition: managing carve-outs, post-merger integrations, leading acquired companies as interim CEOs, and more.

Transformation and Digital Transformation

Businesses are constantly undergoing transformation. From setting up Shared Services Centers to complete corporate reorganizations, creating digital pathways, BlueBirds’ interim managers step in when companies face temporary resource or skill shortages. Their involvement concludes once the transformation is secure and/or completed. As a management firm in Paris, BlueBirds also provides support with specific digital and data skills: CTOs, Chief Digital Officers, Chief Data Officers, Chief Product Owners.

Performance Improvement

Companies are encountering numerous new challenges to balance their books: inflation, supply chain disruptions, increased regulatory costs. The talents within our community step in to optimize your EBIDTA or cash flow situation. BlueBirds supports you across all fronts of commercial, financial, and economic performance.

Restructuring

In a market undergoing a turnaround, you may face a critical situation that could jeopardize the sustainability of your company in the short or medium term.

Interim managers intervene in crisis situations. They initiate swift restructuring actions and sometimes accompany administrative processes: conciliation procedure, ad hoc mandate procedure, safeguarding procedure, judicial recovery procedure.

Our Areas of Intervention

Our firm operates across all sectors of the economy and focuses on three fields of expertise: sector-specific, functional, and managerial.

Transition managers by sector

For a company’s operational function (e.g. Purchasing, Operations, Sales, Supply chain, etc.), industry expertise is key to the missions’ success. Our community of interim managers covers most sectors of the economy.

The leaders you need

Interim managers by position type

BlueBirds offers interim management services to operate within an Executive Committee (CODIR) or to report to its members. It encompasses typical functions found in companies: General Management, Financial Management, Human Resources Management, Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, among others.

An interim General Manager can intervene as a corporate officer.

The interim managers within the BlueBirds community

BlueBirds, an expert in interim management, identifies, assesses, and selects the interim managers who join our community. We choose men and women who are experts in their respective fields, with proven human qualities in whom we can place our trust, and in whom you can place yours.

Gaelle
Interim Purchasing Manager
Retail, FMCG
Bertrand
Interim Manager
Supply Chain, Retail
Marie
Energy & Utilities, Digital Distribution
Consultante et manager de transition en transformation
Olivier
Interim Manager
Opérations / Industrie, Automobile
Sylvain
Communications consultant
Assurance
Christophe
Management Consultant
Banque
Thierry
Consultant and Interim CEO/Commercial Director
Pharma
Frédéric
Consultant and Interim Operations Manager
Automobile

Why Bluebirds?

Established in 2016, BlueBirds has grown organically since day one. This growth stands as a testament to the increasing trust from a growing number of companies: large enterprises, mid-sized companies (ETIs), fund management firms, and consulting firms.

Since its inception, BlueBirds has anchored its growth on three cardinal values: excellence, enjoyment in work, and independence. This pursuit of excellence is evident throughout the support process, from the selection and qualification of interim managers and freelance consultants to the handover at the project’s conclusion.

BlueBirds is a management firm wholly owned by its partners. We operate independently of any group or management company. We independently choose our clients and commercial policies.

We do not set growth objectives for ourselves or for our shareholders. We are fundamentally committed to the principles of sustainable economic, social, and environmental growth.

Our business model resembles that of a freelance platform. As a company, you can access our services online. As an independent professional, you can apply online to join our community. However, the comparison ends there. We foster relationships built on in-person interactions between our clients, interim managers, and freelance consultants.

The BlueBirds community members support Executive Management Committees and their teams on assignments lasting a few months while building a lasting professional relationship.

Martin Videlaine
Managing director

In an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world, some values matter more than ever: simplicity, discerning the essential from the non-essential, and loyalty. This is how we approach relationships with our clients and the community. This is how we approach our joint projects.

A word from Martin Videlaine,
Managing Director

Focus : The interim management profession

Interim management, a Human Resources solution in many cases

Why opt for Interim Management ?

Our partners resort to Interim Management when traditional recruitment doesn’t address the encountered challenge.

Often, urgency necessitates the support of an interim manager.

Recruitment typically takes several months to complete: on average, 9 months for an executive position. An interim manager can start reinforcing a human organization just a few days after our request.

This urgency can arise in various contexts: a lack of management in a project involving organic growth or external acquisition, transformation projects, operational and financial performance enhancement, restructuring, or crisis management.

Our clients frequently ask us to later recruit the manager permanently. We warmly recommend this. By the project’s end, stakeholders are acquainted, trust is established.

What is an Interim Manager?

Almost everything is encapsulated in those three words: ‘interim manager.’ This individual typically leads a team, which can range from 10 to 10,000 people. Celle-ci peut compter 10, 100, 1000 ou 10000 personnes. The foremost expectation of an interim manager is the ability to lead a team alongside extensive sector-specific and functional expertise.

An interim manager operates in ‘project mode,’ meaning their involvement is transitional. Typically, they will engage for around 6 months, sometimes less or more depending on the situation. At BlueBirds, we prioritize offering significant flexibility to our clients. Our contracts allow for project termination if conditions, or simply the client’s preference, necessitate it.

What are the missions of an interim manager?

As a highly qualified professional, the interim manager first intervenes to lead an operational or functional team. Whether this team belongs to the finance, human resources, industrial, or supply chain function, the primary mission of the interim manager is to oversee all tasks associated with the department under their responsibility.

The tasks within this department can have two natures: an intrinsic nature and a project nature. The intrinsic nature is related to the department itself and is outlined in the job description.

For instance, in the case of a finance department, it might involve controlling, accounting, consolidation, budgeting, etc. The projects linked to the mission entrusted to the interim manager will be contextual and can vary widely. Continuing with the example of a finance department, it could involve an ERP system change, the financial integration of an acquired company, or overseeing an economic performance project for the company.

What are the primary qualities of an interim manager?

Foremost, managerial qualities are expected. An interim manager knows how to lead a team, whether it is of modest size or counts hundreds or even thousands of individuals.

As they are not intended to work in the company for an extended period, they must adapt to the corporate culture they encounter. The personal interaction between the client’s teams and the interim manager is often the primary success factor for a mission.

Assuming this interpersonal interaction is successful, the client expects proven experience in their sector or in a sector facing comparable challenges from the interim manager. For instance, a manager with experience in the pharmaceutical sector will quickly adapt to a company operating in fine chemicals. This is less true (or not at all) if the manager comes, for instance, from the automotive sector in the cited case.

The interim manager also masters all aspects of the role they will be required to fulfill at the client’s company. Most of the time, though not always, clients demand from the interim manager an even more extensive experience than the position necessitates. Such an approach minimizes risks at the start of the assignment.

Lastly, the interim manager brings methodology in addition to their professional expertise (CEO, HR Director, CFO, etc.). This methodology is often specific to the encountered context. For instance, a transitional CFO addressing a turnaround or crisis situation will have different reflexes and approaches to the encountered issues than an interim manager accustomed to high-growth contexts. And vice versa.

What is the cost of hiring an interim manager?

An interim manager is remunerated on a daily basis according to a daily rate.

BlueBirds defines the level of remuneration with the interim manager and consequently proposes a daily rate to the client.

Daily rates vary significantly depending on the profile sought. The criteria influencing these rates are primarily:

  1. The sought-after function (CEO, CFO, HR Director, others)
  2. The size of the managed team (10, 100, 1000 people, or more)
  3. The company’s context: growth, transformation, performance, or turnaround
  4. The rarity of the sought profile

At BlueBirds, we always encourage our clients to discuss daily rates before commencing the search. We align our market knowledge with the client’s expectations to ensure an initial alignment of supply and demand.

Case studies