by Russell Pearlman, originally published by Korn Ferry in Briefings Magazine
Things were getting desperate last year for the sprawling hospital system. Their CFO had just left, and a search for a suitable full-time replacement would likely take six months or more. But the healthcare company couldn’t wait that long—their financial-reporting system was a mess and the organization was leaking profits.
A week after the old CFO’s departure, the firm found a replacement—someone who a generation ago would have been called a “temp.” This interim executive said she would do anything the company needed done, but had no intention of staying longer than a year. She set about updating the firm’s reporting systems and plugging up the profit leaks. Twelve months later, she cleaned out her office so the newly found permanent CFO could take it over. Within a week, she’d started another 12-month assignment to clean up a similar situation.
