Italy

The Italian Interim Management market ( (often referred to locally as Temporary Management) is growing rapidly but remains less mature than its Northern neighbors (UK, Germany, France). It is characterized as emerging and fragmented, yet highly dynamic.

• Main Driver: The market is driven by SMEs and Mid-caps (the famous PMI - Piccole e Medie Imprese) which form the backbone of the Italian economy. This contrasts with France or the UK, where the market is dominated by large corporations.
• Geography: Activity is heavily concentrated in Northern Italy (Lombardy/Milan, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna), the country’s industrial heartland.

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Interim management in Italy addresses specific issues related to Italian family capitalism:

• Generational Handover (Passaggio Generazionale): This is a major use case. Founding families hire external managers to professionalize the structure or provide interim leadership before the next generation takes over.
• The "Fractional" Model: Due to the modest size of many companies, Fractional Management (sharing a manager for 2 or 3 days a week) is much more common here than elsewhere (over 50% of assignments according to some sources). This allows SMEs to access C-Level profiles they could not afford full-time.

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Main sectors requesting interim managers are:

• Industry (Dominant): Manufacturing, Automotive, Precision Mechanics. This accounts for the bulk of the volume.
• Luxury and Fashion: A key sector requiring experts for supply chain optimization or international expansion.

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Types of Assignments are mostly:

• Restructuring / Turnaround: Crisis management and recovery (highly requested).
• Digitalization & Export: Helping family SMEs modernize and expand beyond Italian borders.
• Gap Management: Standard vacancy cover.

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Interim managers generally operate on a B2B basis (via their own structure or Partita IVA - independent status), invoicing the firm or the final client.

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Assignments tend to be longer than in France or the UK (often 12 to 15 months compared to a 6-9 month average elsewhere), primarily because managing change within family structures requires more time to build trust.

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There is strong demand for executive interim management in Italy, especially to handle succession in family businesses, digital and AI transformation, operational restructuring and international expansion.

Interim executives are often parachuted in as interim general managers, interim CFOs, Chief Digital Officers or project leaders to redesign organisations, improve governance and prepare companies for private-equity deals or cross-border M&A.