1. What is an interim manager ? “He / she is like a samurai; bound by duty and honour.”

2. Why should you hire a “samurai” for a business “Because you feel (may still not know) you are heading towards a “change situation” that can be negative (a downturn) or positive (new business development, new financing…)”

3. When should you hire the samurai ? “Before the problem arises.”

4. How should you choose samurai ? “Essentially, we are talking about a person that would excel in his assignment and from day one push out of his/her own boundaries: honest, transparent with a hands-on approach. You need to “feel” their potential to work out the details bottom up from the trenches while defining and making the change happen. Also they must be excellent in communication.”

5. How do you measure the success ? “By jointly defining and continuously refining the assignment parameters: financing raising amounts, sales increase, profitability increases, mitigation strategy potentials, new candidates, new suppliers or new potential customers fit to the business, etc… Finally the success should always be > 10x of the “hire” efforts (total expenses of the “hire”).”

THE BUSHIDO CODE