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Letting go of the IIM Survey
It’s been a good run and we bow out on a high but we no longer feel comfortable asking the interims we know to complete the IIM survey.
It’s with some sadness that we have decided to withdraw from the IIM Survey from 2024 onwards. We have had a good run and always ranked amongst the best interim providers since the survey’s inception. This includes regular stints in the Top 3, 1st place even in 2020. And for as long as we can remember we have been in the Top 10. In fact, we’ve just celebrated our seventh consecutive year in the Top 5 of the Institute of Interim Management Rankings.
So why leave the IIM Survey now?
It’s important for us to evaluate where we focus our energies to best serve the interims and clients we work with.
We have been actively promoting the Institute of Interim Management survey since its inception well over 10 years ago. And as a long-term supporter of the IIM and its mission, it’s not a decision we have taken lightly. We still believe in the Institute and what it stands for and equally to holding providers to account for the service they provide to interim executives and managers.
However, we have received consistent complaints from interims over the last few years about the size of the survey. Quite simply it’s become a considerable undertaking for interims to complete amidst the pressures of modern-day interim life. While the IIM hears these concerns and has taken steps to keep the size down, the feedback we received in 2023 from our interims was that it felt bigger and more demanding than ever.
The IIM for its part, shares with us that 2023 had the least questions of the last six years. Perhaps this did not translate well into the experience of completing the survey or it may be that tolerances around completing surveys have shortened. Regardless, we faced a host of negative feedback about both the size and nature of the survey itself, with additional objections referencing requests for personal details as well as consent to further communications and offers from the IIM.
Knowing the IIM as long as we have, we believe these particular questions were in good faith. The IIM have told us directly themselves that there is nothing untoward with these particular questions and that the personal details requested, in particular name and email address, were part of the validation process for the survey, and entirely voluntary. Going forward, they will actually be changing the method of validation to add comfort to those completing the survey. To be clear we cannot actually check for ourselves without breaking the survey rules but the IIM has shown us the relevant questions in emails and this is hopefully reassuring to those of you who raised these issues.
We welcome these changes but the fact remains that the complaints we received about the survey have been growing for some time, particularly around the size, and that on the last survey they reached an all-time high.
Choosing our interim relationships over the survey
Even with some further incoming changes that the IIM has planned for 2024, the long and short of it is that we feel the IIM survey has become a very “big ask” of people who we regard as the most important relationships of our business. Interims who are very time-poor and completing the survey at our request out of good will towards us. Having deliberated on the issue, we have come to the conclusion that protecting our relationship with the interims we work with outweighs both our support for the IIM and our own self-interest in appearing high in the league table.
This is of course not a decision without risk on our part.
Doubtless, without actively promoting the IIM survey to all the interims we know and who in turn know us best, that will mean less voting and ratings for Practicus overall and a less accurate picture of who we are in IIM rankings. Subsequently, we believe you would likely see us slip down the IIM ranking over time.
However, the IIM has kindly offered to remove our name from future surveys, something they have done in the past when asked by a provider, and we have agreed.
Regardless, our commitment to service excellence remains paramount and you can count on us to continue to advance the level of service we offer. Going forward, we will seek more interim-friendly avenues to ensure our service quality.
If you wish to continue to complete the survey then please do by all means. In addition to ranking IIM affiliates, the survey goes into depth around all areas of interim management, demographics, state of the market, rates and a whole load of other elements that serve the interests of the wider industry.
More on the IIM Survey and Interim Management
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