(March 5, 2014) — “I’m just not good at sitting in a grey suit doing the same thing day in and day out,” says Neil Parfrey, when asked if he’ll be an interim head of pensions for the rest of his career.
“But if it’s a challenging role, it doesn’t really matter to me whether it’s a permanent role or an interim.”
Having started his financial career as a consultant, working for Buck and KPMG among others, Parfrey took an interim position as director of pensions at what later became high street pharmacists Alliance Boots in 2004.
That temporary position became a long-term engagement, lasting seven years. From there, Parfrey became the interim director of pensions at beverage manufacturer Diageo UK & Ireland, where he stayed for 10 months.
This was followed by a five-month tenure as head of pensions at energy provider EDF UK, and most recently, the interim Heineken appointment, finalised at the end of 2013.
Being an interim leader has its benefits and its downsides, Parfrey says. “Initially there was probably a certain naivety,” he says. “I thought I’d operate in the cracks between the big employee benefit firms. I picked up appointments quite quickly, but at a director level role rather than on project-based stuff, which is what I’d envisaged.”
Parfrey gets satisfaction from the caretaker role an interim position offers, saying: “Whether you do a role for six or 10 months, it’s nice when you leave places and the people you’ve worked with say ‘you may not have been here very long, but you’ve made a difference’.”
“You meet a lot of people as an interim and I’ve broadened my network as a result. I suppose you don’t get that feeling of belonging that you would as a permanent employee, but they certainly made me feel very welcome at Heineken. That’s typically been the case everywhere else too,” he adds.
The negatives of taking on an interim role can be challenging. The temporary nature of the contracts means that there can be long periods without work. Asked what the most difficult element of his job is, Parfrey cites the eight months of unemployment he endured between positions in 2013.
“On a more practical level, things like not being able to sign of things like invoices (because I’m not an employee) can be frustrating. I can make the decision, but not necessarily sign off the bit of paper. That can be a niggle sometimes,” he adds.
But isn’t the temptation for an interim leader to only take on the short-term issues and leave the longer strategic problems for the permanent chief to look at? Not a bit of it, Parfrey says.
“That’s a perfectly logical explanation, but I wouldn’t want to look at it in that way. I might be at Heineken for five months, or five years, but I’m going to engage on the basis that whether it’s me or someone else, these projects are important and need to be done properly.”
The skills needed to be an interim head of pensions are largely project management ones. “The first thing is to be able to hit the ground running,” says Parfrey.
“You need to be able to absorb a lot of detail and information quickly and do something constructive with it. You also need a degree of political acumen, and to understand quickly where the powerbases are and make sure you don’t upset anyone on the way through. Equally you’ve got to be resilient where you need to be.
“Operationally, you need to be strong, and have a clear vision on how people should develop, and what they can and cannot do. It’s really about taking a brief and moving it on as fast as you can. You get a lot of detail coming at you very quickly, and you need to be able to take the bits out that are crucial, because you can’t possibly retain all of it.”
The final crucial thing is to treat the role as though you’re looking after it for future generations, Parfrey says.
“It’s not about you putting your mark on it, it’s about making it. If you get something out of it too, great, but that’s not what you should be there for.
“You have to recognise that in a year’s time you might not be there, but you have to do the right thing. You need to make sure whoever succeeds you has inherited something that’s been done properly.
“That’s a big thing for me, I’d hate to think that the legacy of what I’ve left behind is someone thinking I’ve made a mess of it and they’ll have to sort it all out. You’d hope to think they’d think I did something good and kept things in order. It’s the pride of saying you did a good job that drives you.”
Heineken are actively looking for a permanent head of pensions. When asked if he would consider taking the role on, Parfrey plays his cards close to his chest.
“Whether it turns into a permanent role or not will depend on how they see it going forward and whether we can reach terms on a package,” he says.
“But it’s a fascinating place to work. It’s got a lot of challenges and I’m really enjoying it so far.”
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