Transition Management in Numbers

Patrick Abadie, CEO of Delville Management, shares key figures on transition management. He reminds us that two conditions must typically be in place for a company to seek a transition manager: a management emergency and high stakes. The transition management firm, founded in 2010, carries out approximately 150 transition assignments per year.

External growth and mergers, digital and managerial transformation, cultural shifts and new economic strategies: to meet these challenges, organisations increasingly need targeted external support — which they find in experienced, adaptable professionals.

Delville Management: A Growing Talent Pool

On the supply side, both volume and structure are growing. Specialist firms benefit from an ever-expanding pool of experienced professionals who, for various reasons — including being sidelined professionally in their fifties — still have a great deal to offer other employers. In this regard, approximately 60% of transition managers are between 50 and 60 years old, according to data from Delville Management. "In general, two conditions are in place when a company calls us," explains Patrick Abadie, CEO of Delville Management, which he founded in 2010 and which carries out around 150 assignments per year. "There is urgency, and the stakes are high."

Assignments, which last only a few months, aim to put clients back on track — or to maintain continuity with the existing direction. Whether managing the consolidation of several acquired factories and rolling out consistent processes, executing a major transformation, or temporarily replacing a CEO, a supply chain specialist, an HR Director, or a project manager while a successor is found — or simply ensuring that employees are well supported during their manager's absence due to health or maternity leave — transition management is becoming increasingly mainstream.

Who uses transition management?

According to Delville Management's 2019 survey 1, nearly 50% of organisations using transition management are large groups or subsidiaries, followed by SMEs (28%) and mid-sized companies (19%).

For what types of assignments?

With a favourable economic environment, turnaround/recovery/restructuring assignments (20%) are declining in favour of assignments linked to business transformation and change management (80%), according to Delville Management.

For which functions?

The three functions most commonly served by transition managers are, in order: general management, human resources, and finance.

In which sectors?

One in two assignments is carried out in the industrial sector, according to Delville Management's 2019 survey. However, the services sector is growing and now accounts for 43% of assignments.

In which regions?

More than one in two assignments is carried out in Île-de-France. The next three most active regions are Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (11%), the Grand Ouest (Bretagne, Normandie, Pays de la Loire) at 9%, and the Grand Est (7%).

What is the profile of a transition manager?

The majority are men (85%), with women representing only 15% of active transition managers today. Furthermore, 82% are over 51 years old (60% between 51 and 60, and 22% over 60). Additionally, 71% come from executive committee roles. More than 77% of managers have been choosing transition management assignments for at least two years, and 82% of respondents to the 2019 Delville survey had already completed multiple transition management assignments. In a highly dynamic market, nearly 60% of transition managers find a new assignment within three months.

For how long?

The average assignment lasts around nine months, but the number of assignments exceeding 12 months has more than doubled in two years, according to Delville Management.

(1) The Delville study was conducted between July and September 2019 via an email survey sent to nearly 1,300 transition managers.