This client needed to recruit a Supply Chain Director with the potential to develop into an Operations Director role in due course. They needed someone with specialist technical knowledge and strong leadership potential, but having had poor experiences of “executive search” and lacking confidence both in local agencies or their own capacity to find the right person, they were uncertain of how to proceed.

We put their mind at rest and set about identifying potential candidates for this assignment. We produced an assignment brief written from our perspective and shared it with the Chairman and the CFO so that they knew that we understood the brief that we were working to.

We sent weekly progress reports that contained analysis of our approaches, the conversations that we had had, a brief account of the individuals that we had interviewed and our summary with regard to challenges faced and outcomes anticipated.

We built a shortlist of five candidates, each of whom was adjudged as being capable of fulfilling the role, but one candidate stood out as someone who could be Operations Director from day one. He had a final interview with the whole of the Main Board, but a potential culture clash was highlighted at the end of the interview and he wasn’t appointed. Instead the second-choice candidate was appointed as Interim Head of Supply Chain whilst the company took time to decide their long-term strategy. However, the Chairman declared that the whole process was so impressive and such an education that they would use it every time they need to recruit into any senior posts.

True to their word, we have subsequently recruited into three permanent posts – Chief Operating Officer, Director of Procurement and HR Lead for the Czech Republic – as the company looks to the future, all using the same thorough methodology.