External General Manager for an Owner-Led Company
An external general manager runs the company day to day while the owner moves to governance. It is the most common professionalisation step in an Italian family business, and the one most often done badly.
When an owner needs one
- The company has outgrown one person's daily attention
- The owner wants to reduce operational load without selling
- A generational handover is coming and the successor is not ready
- Growth requires a discipline the owner has never had to impose on themselves
- The management team has no one credible to lead it
Dividing the authority
Why it fails
Almost always for the same reason: the owner appoints a general manager and then keeps taking the decisions. Staff learn within weeks who really decides, they route around the new manager, and the manager either leaves or becomes an expensive coordinator. The remedy is unglamorous. Publish the division of authority to the whole company, hold the owner to it in front of the team, and review it monthly for the first six months.
Starting temporary before permanent
Many owners are better served by introducing an external general manager on a temporary or fractional basis first. It tests the working relationship, professionalises the company under a defined mandate, and produces a far more accurate profile for the permanent hire than any job specification written before the experience.
https://niklaslindahl.com/guides/external-general-manager