Survey
What Interim Leaders Know About Change in Privately Held and PE-Backed Businesses
Boyden’s latest survey reveals what experienced interim leaders across Europe have learned about making change happen - and sustaining the results.
When a business faces a turnaround, an ownership transition or a demanding transformation, the instinct may be to look for a permanent executive who can take charge. But some of the most consequential work cannot wait for a long search or a lengthy settling-in period. It calls for a senior leader—often at director or C-suite level—who can enter a complex situation, determine what is really happening and help people act.
That is the value of interim leadership.
Lisa Farmer, Boyden UK Managing Partner and Global Practice Leader, Interim Management, observes, "The best interim leaders do more than steady a business through a difficult moment. They bring the perspective to see what is really happening, the judgement to prioritise the changes that matter and the influence to bring people with them. Their success is measured not only by what they deliver during the assignment, but by the stronger leadership, capability and legacy they leave behind."
A Boyden survey of hundreds of interim executives shows why that distinction matters.
Asked why privately held businesses most commonly bring in an interim leader, 41% of respondents selected restructuring or turnaround, and 27% selected accelerating operational transformation. These are change and transformation roles.
The wider private equity environment adds urgency. Bain’s 2026 Global Private Equity Report found that global buyout-backed exit value rose in 2025 even as the number of exit transactions declined slightly. For portfolio-company boards, that uneven recovery reinforces the importance of improving performance and building a business capable of sustaining it.
Boyden’s survey—Change, Transformation, Turnaround and Restructuring in Privately Held and PE-Backed Businesses—points to eight trends in how effective interim leaders create value when a business needs to change.
1. Transformation is about people first
It is tempting to begin a transformation by focusing on a new structure, process or set of targets. But change occurs only when people understand it, accept their role in it and work in new ways.
In Boyden’s survey, senior interim leaders said the single biggest barrier to successful transformation in privately held businesses is founder or owner attachment to legacy ways of working (36%). Leadership misalignment followed at 22%, and cultural resistance from long-tenured employees at 20%.
“The hearts and minds must be invested in the turnaround,” says one interim leader. Another adds: “The culture that built the success isn’t necessarily the one you need to grow.”
Experienced interim leaders know how difficult it can be for a business to reconsider practices that have brought it success.
In family-owned and founder-led businesses, commercial decisions can be inseparable from relationships, identity and succession. The interim’s role is not to arrive with a verdict about the past. It is to understand what owners value, make the case for necessary change and help people engage with it.
Boyden Netherlands Partner Bas Fransen explains: “Having an objective interim leader who can navigate these politics with high emotional intelligence makes all the difference. The objectivity and the emotional intelligence belong together. Without the first, difficult issues stay hidden; without the second, people may be unwilling to address them.”
Asked which trait matters most in turnaround or transformation, respondents’ top selections were:
- Stakeholder management and influence - 36%
- High emotional intelligence - 30%
- Resilience under pressure - 20%
As one interim leader advised, “Speak honestly, with compassion but don’t skirt the tough conversations.”
2. Interim leaders bring a whole-business view
An interim may enter as a CEO, CFO, transformation director or commercial leader, but the title should not narrow the mandate for an interim leader. Performance problems rarely respect organisational boundaries. Weak commercial execution may be connected to unclear decision rights, an unsuitable operating model or a leadership team working toward different goals.
Survey respondents’ views on performance improvement reflect that breadth. Asked which intervention most often has the greatest positive impact, the interim leaders said:
- Changing leadership roles or team structure - 29%
- Redesigning processes or the operating model - 23%
- Improving commercial focus, pricing or sales execution - 20%
- Introducing stronger governance and KPI reporting - 17%
The pattern indicates a need for interconnected approaches, not a single universal fix.
Senior interim leaders often have experience with many organisations. That can help them recognise a problem the incumbent team has normalised, or see how a decision in one function will affect the rest of the business.
Maurice Carr, Boyden Ireland Partner explains that: “Executive interims view the world through a strategic lens that enables them to see the whole picture quickly. To do their best work, they must be given the scope needed to take a holistic approach.”
For owners and boards, the implication is practical: set clear objectives, but give the interim leader enough access to customers, operations, people and financial information to test the assumptions behind the brief.
3. Pace matters—but speed is not the same as progress
Interim leaders are expected to make an impact quickly. For PE-backed businesses, the time pressure can be especially visible. About 43% of respondents said investor pace and return expectations were the leadership dynamic that most often shaped their approach to an assignment. Meanwhile, 28% identified a lack of urgency despite a clear need for change as the most common form of resistance they encounter.
Yet pressure to move does not justify launching disconnected initiatives. Fransen argues for “speed with alignment” rather than reckless execution. The interim leader must forge that alignment among the owners, board and leadership team for significant changes to succeed, he says.
“The biggest missed opportunity I see,” one executive comments in the survey, “is treating transformation as a series of initiatives rather than a fundamental shift in how the business operates and creates value. That’s why so many programmes underdeliver. The organisations that consistently succeed are those that combine pace with discipline, aligning strategy, culture, and execution from day one and maintaining that rigor throughout the journey.”
Those are not arguments for delay. They are warnings against activity that looks decisive but leaves the underlying business unchanged.
The discipline is particularly important in restructuring. Asked what is hardest to right-size without damaging long-term value, respondents most often selected leadership and talent (36%), followed by innovation and product development (27%).
It may be necessary to cut costs, but stakeholder alignment can help interim leaders achieve this without weakening the business.
4. Objectivity is a major advantage
Privately held businesses can have complicated histories. A longstanding executive may know that a decision is overdue but avoid challenging a founder. A board may receive reports that describe symptoms without exposing their cause. An interim leader has the advantage of arriving without the same internal position to protect.
Asked why interim leaders can be especially effective in change situations, 32% of respondents chose objectivity and independence; another 16% chose being less constrained by internal politics.
“Interims have a unique viewpoint as they are moving between businesses and therefore see best practices,” Dr. Thorsten Dörr, Boyden Germany Managing Partner, Interim Management, points out. “Objectivity isn’t bluntness. It’s the ability to surface root causes without career incentives distorting decisions.”
Independence is useful only if the business is willing to listen. One respondent describes how limited access to a board could make it harder for an interim to raise concerns about existing leadership.
The lesson for owners and directors is to establish appropriate access, a clear reporting relationship and permission to challenge assumptions before the assignment begins.
5. Good interims leave lasting capability
A senior interim assignment is finite, but its contribution should not be.
In the survey, the senior interim leaders placed considerable weight on what remains after they have finished an assignment: 35% said the quality of the permanent leadership team most often determines whether change is sustained after the interim exits, while 31% chose cultural and behavioural shift.
“The most successful interim assignments are the ones where the organisation becomes less dependent on the interim leader before the assignment ends,” one interim executive observes.
This is why exit conditions belong in the initial mandate. What capabilities must exist? Who will own them? What evidence will show that the business can sustain progress? Fransen highlights “embedding routines and defining clear exit conditions upfront” as central to the return on interim talent.
6. AI needs leadership
AI presents opportunities, but adding tools does not by itself future-proof a business. In Boyden’s survey, senior interims identified the two biggest obstacles to adopting AI as:
- Limited leadership understanding of AI’s practical uses - 37%
- Legacy systems and weak data infrastructure - 23%
The open-ended responses sharpen the distinction between experimentation and value. One interim wrote that businesses using AI effectively “start with business problems rather than technology.” Then they invest in data quality, process discipline and clear ownership of information.
AI, the respondent cautioned, “does not fix weak processes or bad data; it exposes them.”
Another said AI can’t be treated as an isolated project, but must be embedded in core workflows and decision-making.
That assessment fits the wider picture: McKinsey’s 2025 State of AI report found that AI use was widespread, but most organisations had yet to scale it. For a privately held company, the starting point should not be “Where can we add AI?” but “Which customer, operational or decision-making problem are we trying to solve—and what must change for the solution to stick?”
Lisa Farmer notes that many businesses feel like they are on the AI journey just to keep ahead of competitors.
“A senior interim leader, having worked across various businesses, can bring a useful perspective. They can help a leadership team distinguish a promising use case from an attractive demonstration, while testing whether the data, processes and people are ready.”
7. Interims should be seen in terms of their value to the business
One survey respondent proposed a useful test for interim leaders and the people who hire them: “What will be demonstrably different in this business 12 months from now because this person was here?”
The answer should be specific enough to guide the work and important enough to justify it.
It’s easy to determine the compensation costs of an interim leader. It’s almost impossible to put a price on the cost of delayed action, the cost of wrong sequencing, the cost of a leadership vacuum or not having the right expertise in house through significant periods of change.
As one interim leader puts it: “Interims may seem costly but compared to floundering through a major transformation or getting it wrong, it’s a drop in the ocean.”
8. Interim leaders are strategic change operators
Senior interims are not simply advisors with a temporary contract, or executives who are keeping the seat warm. At their best, they diagnose, decide, influence and execute—while preparing others to carry the business forward.
That combination is particularly relevant when the stakes are high. The 41% of survey respondents who selected restructuring or turnaround as the most common reason for an appointment underscore the immediate need to support businesses through difficult circumstances.
The 27% who selected operational transformation point to the forward-looking opportunity—using interim leadership to change how value is created, not just to manage a crisis.
A question for owners and boards
The survey’s findings suggest that before a board appoints a senior interim leader, it must know what change business needs and whether its owners are prepared to support that change.
A clear mandate matters. So do access to decision-makers, authority appropriate to the assignment, honest information and a shared view of success. Survey respondents repeatedly called for measurable outcomes and genuine board support—not a title without the means to act.
“Give the interim leader real authority, and hold them accountable for pace and delivery—not consensus or longevity. As an interim transformation director, I focus on rapidly diagnosing reality, aligning stakeholders, and delivering visible results early to build momentum and unlock value quickly,” one interim leader asserts.
For privately held and PE-backed businesses, the strongest interim leaders offer more than additional capacity at a difficult moment. They bring an independent view, the judgement to work through sensitive ownership dynamics and the ability to turn urgency into disciplined change. Their contribution is measured not simply by how quickly they arrive, but by how much stronger the business is when they leave.
Throughout our 80 year history, Boyden has built a stellar reputation in interim management by connecting organizations with proven leaders who can step in quickly, navigate complexity, and deliver immediate impact.
Produced by Boyden’s Interim Management Practice, this article draws on insights from Boyden’s survey of senior interim executives to explore how experienced leaders drive transformation, turnaround and sustainable value creation in privately held and private equity-backed businesses. Through expert perspectives, survey findings and real-world leadership lessons, it highlights the strategies, mindsets and capabilities that help organizations navigate change, accelerate performance and build lasting impact beyond the interim mandate.
