Companies will need more flexible senior recruitment strategies to cope with the increasing trend towards short-termism, according to the Now Management Report by interim management company Executives Online.

The report found that 14% of firms were slimming down their senior management teams in a bid to keep up with investors’ demands, and that this was reflected in the growing demand for senior, highly skilled managers to head up short-term projects.

But this demand is not uniform across all sectors: a survey by interim supplier Global Executives showed telecoms, IT and financial services accounted for 25% of interims, with finance the most in demand.