Malikshaw Interim and Executive is pleased to announce its appointment as an approved supplier to Cirrus Purchasing, further strengthening our presence in the public procurement and strategic resourcing space.

This partnership reflects Malikshaw’s proven track record in delivering high-calibre interim and executive talent to organisations across the public and regulated sectors. As a trusted supplier to Cirrus Purchasing, Malikshaw will support their work with public sector clients by providing leadership and expertise that drive effective procurement and operational outcomes.

“Being appointed as a supplier to Cirrus Purchasing is a proud moment for us,” said Rob Shaw, CEO of Malikshaw Interim and Executive. “We look forward to working closely with Cirrus and their partners to deliver exceptional talent solutions that make a measurable impact.”

 Legacy systems rarely feature in project headlines, but anyone who’s led a transformation will know their impact is real — and far-reaching.

They sit quietly in the background, rarely discussed in early planning meetings, but slowly shaping what is and isn’t possible. They increase delivery risk, add costs that weren’t budgeted, and often leave teams trying to build modern services on unstable ground.

If you’re a hiring manager, transformation lead, or programme sponsor, this probably isn’t news. You’ve likely seen the signs before. Projects running slower than expected. More stakeholder meetings to explain technical blockers. Highly skilled teams spending more time working around old systems than delivering innovation.

These systems are often seen as too costly to replace, too embedded to disrupt, and too risky to touch without a major business case. So they remain, year after year, draining resources and patience.

But the real issue isn’t just technical. It’s human.

The presence of legacy systems changes the kind of people you need to deliver successfully. It’s no longer enough to find someone who’s great at solution design or agile delivery. You need people who understand the constraints, who know how to make progress in less-than-ideal conditions, and who can bring calm, clarity and direction when the systems don’t cooperate.

That’s not always an easy brief to write — let alone fill.

Some organisations try to tackle this by doubling down on specialist technical hires, but skills alone don’t solve the problem. What’s needed is a more nuanced approach to recruitment. One that considers not just what someone knows, but how they think and how they operate under pressure.

The most effective programmes we’ve seen take a strategic approach to hiring, especially around legacy. That means:

• Blending legacy expertise with forward-looking transformation talent
• Bringing in analysts and architects who can act as translators between old and new
• Hiring delivery leads who know how to plan realistically and manage stakeholder expectations
• Finding candidates with both technical credibility and interpersonal skills
• Building resilience into teams by thinking ahead about succession and support

This is where a good recruitment partner earns their place. Not just by filling gaps quickly, but by helping you shape the roles in the first place. By understanding the challenges behind the job title and offering practical, experience-based advice on how to attract the right people.

At Malikshaw, we’ve worked with public sector teams across local government, health, housing and education. We’ve seen how legacy systems frustrate even the most well-resourced programmes — and how the right interim or project hire can help unblock progress.

We don’t claim to have all the answers. But we do understand the real-world pressures hiring managers are under. And we know how to find people who thrive in that space.

So if you’re facing a digital delivery challenge and legacy systems are part of the equation, let’s talk. Whether you need an interim to steady the ship or a team to deliver real change, we’ll help you find the right people to keep things moving.

Talk to Malikshaw. Let’s see how we can help.

Working throughout the UK supporting the social housing, public sector and private sector.

Hiring in the public sector comes with its own unique challenges. Between frameworks, compliance requirements, and multiple layers of governance, getting the right person into the right role isn’t always straightforward.

That’s why the difference between a good recruitment agency and a great one is rarely about ticking procedural boxes. It’s about how well they understand the system, how quickly they can move within it, and how effectively they can align recruitment with real-world outcomes.

Here’s a look at what that difference really looks like across each stage of the process.

Stage 1: Getting onto Frameworks

Frameworks are essential to public sector hiring. They allow organisations to work with pre-approved suppliers who meet defined standards, without needing to run a full procurement each time. But getting onto a framework is no small task. It requires financial transparency, evidence of service delivery, and increasingly, clear commitments to social value, diversity, and sustainability.

What sets great agencies apart here is the depth of preparation. They don’t just meet the requirements, they build their delivery models around them — ensuring the standards are more than just compliance, but embedded into every part of their recruitment process.

Stage 2: Receiving Role Briefs

Once a supplier is on a framework, they begin to receive role requests directly — often before roles go to market. At this stage, it's not just about what's written in the brief. It's about reading between the lines and understanding the transformation behind the role title.

Great agencies know how to ask the right questions. They understand the difference between needing someone to "lead" and someone to "fix." They spot where a role requires deep sector knowledge, or where a fresh external perspective could make all the difference. And when urgency hits, they’re ready — not scrambling.

Stage 3: Sourcing the Right Talent

Public sector roles often demand a blend of rare skills, relevant experience, and the ability to operate in complex, highly structured environments. Some require clearance, others need niche technical capabilities, and most come with tight budget parameters.

The agencies that consistently deliver in this space do more than just search a database. They cultivate trusted talent pools over time. They stay close to their networks. And they headhunt with precision when the brief calls for it. Most importantly, they understand that success isn’t just about a CV match — it’s about cultural fit, resilience, and the ability to navigate public sector challenges.

Stage 4: Compliance and Vetting

This is often where momentum is lost. Vetting processes in the public sector can be extensive, covering DBS, BPSS, SC or DV clearance, references, and qualification checks. When managed poorly, these steps slow everything down.

What makes a difference is anticipation. Great agencies don’t wait until the offer stage to begin compliance. They run processes in parallel, gather documentation early, and keep all parties informed. The result is a smoother, faster route to onboarding — without cutting corners.

Stage 5: Placement and Onboarding

Getting someone into post isn't just about finalising paperwork. There are stakeholders to coordinate, expectations to align, and organisational cultures to prepare for.

This is where recruitment becomes more than just logistics. The best agencies act as partners — guiding candidates through onboarding, managing communication between teams, and ensuring that when someone starts, they’re ready to deliver from day one.

Bringing It All Together

At a glance, the process seems linear: Tender → Role Request → Sourcing → Compliance → Placement. But in practice, it’s anything but simple.

The agencies that stand out are the ones that bring agility, experience, and insight to every stage. They’re responsive without being reactive. They understand the system, but never lose sight of the people within it. And they focus on outcomes, not just activity.

That’s the approach Malikshaw brings to public sector recruitment. After two decades supporting transformation across central and local government, health, justice, and beyond, we’ve learned how to make the frameworks work — not just for hiring managers, but for the people delivering change on the ground.

If you're looking for a partner who understands how to turn process into progress, we’d be happy to talk.

Big public sector programmes are under huge pressure. In defence, national security, and central government, transformation isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s urgent, complex, and constantly under the microscope. Whether you’re leading digital modernisation, strengthening cyber resilience or overhauling outdated systems, delivery depends on one thing: the team.

And not just any team. You need the right people, in the right roles, at the right time. Often, you also need them to hold the right security clearance—SC, DV or both. That’s where things start to get complicated.

There’s plenty of discussion about the best resourcing model for delivery. Some organisations try to build permanent teams from the outset. Others lean on contractors to move fast. Interims bring immediate leadership, particularly in challenging or unstable environments. And fractional experts offer focused senior support without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.

In reality, successful programmes rarely rely on just one of these. The best results come from a carefully considered mix. A programme might start with a fractional CIO to set the vision and align stakeholders. As delivery ramps up, cleared contractors come in to build capability and execute fast. Then permanent hires are phased in to support continuity, governance and handover. The mix evolves alongside the programme’s needs.

But secure environments add another layer of complexity. Clearance can’t be an afterthought. It affects who you can hire, how fast they can start, and what roles they can take on. We’ve seen entire programmes grind to a halt because the team structure was sound on paper—but didn’t account for clearance availability or vetting timelines.

Here are some of the key challenges you could face when designing your talent mix in secure delivery:

• Clearance takes time. Vetting can stretch over months, delaying start dates.
• Not all skilled professionals hold active clearance, especially for DV.
• Clearance portability between departments or projects isn’t guaranteed.
• IR35 and compliance considerations affect contractor engagement.
• Permanent hires require long lead times for clearance and onboarding.
• Interim and fractional roles can provide fast, flexible leadership without full-time commitment.
• Contractors with clearance can accelerate delivery but need clear governance.

We’ve seen this play out in programmes like the MOD’s Digital Backbone initiative, which combined civil service governance, interim leadership, and SC-cleared delivery squads to maintain momentum and control. HMRC used a similar approach, bringing in interim leadership to stabilise a struggling programme and deploying cleared analysts to rebuild pace.

This is why working with a specialist transformation recruitment partner can make all the difference. A partner who understands the nuances of security clearance, government delivery, and transformation means you can design and deploy the right team from day one. Malikshaw combines deep experience with access to a network of vetted professionals across delivery, cyber, digital, and data roles. We also provide guidance on vetting timelines, IR35 compliance, and workforce transition planning to ensure your team is compliant, capable, and ready to deliver.

If you’re at the start of a new programme, or mid-flight and feeling the strain, now is the time to get your talent mix right. The earlier you involve a specialist partner, the smoother your delivery will be.

Learn more about our security clearance services here:

Or head straight to our contact page to book a strategy call:

Your programme is mission critical.  Let’s make sure the team behind it is too.

Commercial Services Group is ideally positioned to provide support and guidance on a range of business models across a variety of industry sectors.

What Executive Teams Can Learn from Start-Up Thinking (Even in Legacy Organisations)

It’s easy to assume that start-up culture and legacy organisations live on opposite ends of the business spectrum. One moves fast and breaks things. The other follows process and protects reputation. But as more transformation projects stall, stretch or miss their targets, it’s worth asking: are we missing a trick?

Because when we talk to senior leaders in both public and private sectors, the appetite for change is clear. They know transformation isn’t optional anymore. It’s expected. What’s less clear is how to cut through the inertia that often surrounds large-scale change.

Here’s the good news. You don’t need to act like a start-up to think like one. And often, it’s executive teams who can lead the way by shifting how their organisations approach risk, delivery, and most importantly, people.

So, what does start-up thinking actually mean?

It’s not about beanbags or buzzwords. It’s a mindset. One that values agility over hierarchy, iteration over perfection, and rapid learning over drawn-out planning. Start-ups build quickly, test with real users, and adjust as they go. They get things wrong all the time, but they learn fast and get to what works faster.

For legacy organisations, especially those leading complex transformation programmes, there’s a lot to take from this.

The reality in most established organisations — whether that’s a government department or a decades-old FTSE company — is that change is hard. Bureaucracy, siloed teams, and a fear of failure can all slow things down. Add rigid hiring structures and cautious governance, and even the most well-funded transformation programmes can lose momentum.

Start-ups don’t have the luxury of slow. That’s why they rely on small, cross-functional teams. They launch minimum viable products instead of waiting for a polished final version. They keep customer feedback front and centre. And they allow teams to make decisions without waiting for layers of approval.

That may sound impossible in a large, risk-sensitive organisation, but it isn’t. We’ve seen public sector teams make it work. The UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS) is a great example. They changed how digital services are designed and delivered by introducing agile methods, bringing in digital and design talent from outside government, and making user needs the focus from day one.

We’ve seen this thinking in action in the private sector too. One of our clients, a traditional financial institution, launched an internal digital venture to compete with newer players. They gave the new team autonomy and hired talent from outside the banking sector. The result was a customer-first product delivered at start-up speed, but within the structure of a legacy organisation.

This isn’t about copying start-ups. It’s about adapting their mindset in a way that works for your organisation. That could mean giving teams more space to experiment. Or creating fast feedback loops so decisions are based on evidence, not assumptions. Or empowering leaders at all levels to act, not just escalate.

It also means rethinking how you bring people into your organisation. Start-ups thrive because they attract people who are comfortable with ambiguity, who move quickly, and who care deeply about solving problems. Legacy organisations can attract the same kind of talent — but it often requires a more flexible and strategic approach to hiring.

That’s where Malikshaw comes in.

We help organisations access the people who can drive transformation forward. From agile delivery managers and product leads to programme directors and digital specialists, we work with public and private sector clients to build teams that get results. Teams that bring in fresh thinking, challenge the status quo, and help legacy organisations move like modern ones.

If you're facing a big change programme or looking to inject new energy into your transformation team, let's talk. You don’t have to become a start-up to benefit from start-up thinking.

Need a partner who understands transformation and knows how to build the right team?
We’d love to help. Get in touch and let’s talk about what you’re building next.
Contact Malikshaw today.

A Recruitment services framework for the supply of Digital and Corporate staff to the NAO

It’s one of the most quoted lines in business: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Originally attributed to Peter Drucker, the phrase has since taken on a life of its own. Today, it’s often trotted out in meetings and boardrooms as a neat way of explaining why the best-laid plans so often unravel. But while many leaders agree with it in theory, far fewer act on it in practice.

When organisations embark on large-scale transformation programmes, their focus tends to gravitate towards the visible aspects of change: systems, structures, governance frameworks, timelines, KPIs. These are tangible, controllable, and in many ways, comforting. Culture, on the other hand, is harder to define. It lives in the day-to-day behaviours, the water-cooler conversations, the assumptions that people carry with them but rarely say out loud.

This is why so many transformations stall. The blueprint is sound, the funding is approved, the team is in place – but the organisation simply doesn't move. Or worse, it actively resists. Leaders find themselves in endless meetings trying to re-energise initiatives that never really took off. Employees quietly disengage. And a programme that once promised bold change becomes just another slide deck gathering dust.

The issue is not always strategy. More often than not, it’s a misalignment between the new direction and the prevailing culture.

You can introduce a cutting-edge digital platform, but if the dominant mindset rewards caution over innovation, adoption will lag. You can restructure your organisation to be more agile, but if collaboration hasn’t been built into the culture, silos will persist. Culture is what determines whether people lean into change or quietly undermine it. It’s the undercurrent that either accelerates transformation or drags it under.

So, what can leaders do?

The first step is to take culture seriously as part of transformation planning, not as an afterthought. That means engaging early with the informal networks that shape behaviour in an organisation – not just formal hierarchies. It means listening carefully to the mood and tone of the business, especially at the middle management level, where so much of the real influence sits. And it means being honest about which behaviours are celebrated versus which are simply written on posters.

Leadership also plays a pivotal role in modelling the cultural shift. That doesn’t always mean the existing leadership team must do it all themselves. In fact, bringing in interim executives or external transformation leaders can be one of the most effective ways to catalyse cultural change. These individuals often arrive without legacy baggage, able to ask the difficult questions and act as a bridge between strategy and lived experience. We've seen interim leaders enter complex, change-weary environments and provide the kind of neutral energy that helps unlock momentum.

Crucially, leaders must also understand that cultural alignment isn't a single milestone to be ticked off. It’s an ongoing effort – communicated repeatedly, demonstrated visibly, and reinforced consistently through actions, not just messaging. People rarely resist change because they dislike the outcome. More often, they resist because the process feels unclear, imposed, or misaligned with their lived reality.

Transformation without cultural alignment is like building a house on unstable ground. It might hold up for a while, but sooner or later, the cracks will show.

At Malikshaw, we work with organisations to ensure their change initiatives are not just well-planned, but well-received. That often involves placing senior interim leaders who can act as cultural translators – bridging the gap between strategy and delivery. But more broadly, it means helping clients see transformation as something deeper than process. When leaders treat culture as the real work, not the side issue, transformation becomes not only possible, but sustainable.

If your transformation programme is struggling to gain traction, culture could be the missing piece. Let’s talk.

Ready to unlock momentum in your transformation?

Speak to a Malikshaw leadership specialist about how the right interim or executive talent can help shift your organisation’s culture and deliver meaningful change.

We're proud to be approved suppliers on these leading frameworks, enabling us to deliver our services efficiently and compliantly to a wide range of clients.