Moving Sideways to Move Up
The General Manager of a large public company announced he would be moving into a Senior Vice President position within 18 months.

Rather than waiting until his promotion, the General Manager wisely decided to recruit his successor immediately; however, he would bring the new GM on board in a newly-created number two role as his understudy.

Our challenge was to attract a very niche industry senior manager with General Manager experience to what initially would be a lesser responsible role; someone who would appreciate the benefits of being thoroughly indoctrinated into their business through an 18-month grooming process before assuming the lead role. Following an extensive search, we were successful in attracting an outstanding individual who matched these criteria; the succession is currently unfolding well on schedule.

Working in Partnership with a Search Committee
A major US hospital was seeking a CIO, and a Search Committee had been formed. Our role was to research the medical field and potential similar industries in the U.S. to identify the "field" of possible candidates. We agreed with our client that this might be no more than 20 candidates. But, in fact, working with leads provided by the committee, and through our own contacts, referrals and research, over 50 possible candidates were identified. Through regular conference discussion with the committee we reviewed the curriculum vitae of those candidates of greatest interest. We were, in effect, the research and data gathering arm of the committee, ensuring that all possible candidates were identified, and bringing to the committee all relevant data on each candidate's clinical, teaching, and research interests. The result was a successful recruitment of a top CIO from the healthcare industry.

 

Seeing Beyond the Resume
Even very good candidates sometimes fail at resume writing, particularly when in a hurry. An experienced search consultant will have the knowledge of a wide variety of industries and be able to spot the small details that can mean the difference between passing over a resume and giving it extra attention. Because of its remote location, we were having difficulty filling a Plant Manager position in a narrowly focused consumer products industry sector. The resume in question, at first and even second glance, lacked the details of specific experience that we were looking for, except there was one company name - a very large company that had a small business sector in that industry - that signaled experience we were looking for. We re-interviewed the candidate and identified that he lead that division of interest. The candidate was interviewed and was selected. Now years later he is a star performer in this multi-division U.S. corporation - and he and his family are enjoying the location!

 

That Fresh Look At the Market
We were retained to locate a top candidate from a competitor in a very niche industry with only a potential candidate pool of no larger than seven persons and they had to be fluent in German and currently reside in the US which immediately eliminated all possible candidates. Working closely with the President and educating him on other similar industries we began contacting top talent with the key skill sets that that have achieved great success within their industries and could bring new technologies and strategies to our client. Within a few short months we successfully located their new Vice President of Manufacturing and has brought in technologies and cost reduction strategies that have improved output and reduced cost per product by 9% saving the company 3mm annually.

Our firm was well connected in this company's specialty area, and immediately identified the lack of potential candidates helping save months of frivolous searching and were able to identify a key contributor for our client. We brought a fresh look - a custom designed search, and some ongoing guidance, from a consultant whose judgment they trusted. And that's what they received.

 

It's Never Over Till It's Over
A large division of a very large Food company hired us to recruit a Quality Leader. Due to this being a critical position they required someone ASAP. It was a very difficult search since they needed to identify the candidate within one week and it was during the Christmas holidays, but we presented a short list and an offer was soon extended. The candidate was about to accept the offer when she was diagnosed with cancer. She regretfully declined the opportunity. We continued the search with numerous qualified candidates but the GM was not as comfortable as with the previous candidate. We worked with the GM closely and offered a Quality leader on a 6 month contract until the top choice went through chemotherapy and recovery.

We are very pleased to say that she is now the Quality Leader with our client and is very happy and a full recovery.  The commitment our client made to the candidate and our ability to offer top talent on contract turned out to be a great asset for all parties involved.