The technical management of the business unit at a tier 1 automotive supplier was faced with the task of taking over at the helm of the division to manage the carve-out from the DAX parent company to a private medium-sized equity-managed company. A key step in this process was to drive ECU development, which had been independently established previously as a corporate function. This was to be done in co-operation with an external supplier who was to carry out both the development and production of the ECU hardware. The task of the interim manager was to assume responsibility for and further develop the customer interface to the ECU supplier. When selecting the interim manager, it was crucial for the managing director to find a candidate who had both in-depth expertise in hardware development for ECUs and experience in the field of organisational development in order to lend a calm and steady hand to the technical projects despite the turbulent environment of the carve-out.
