One of the most interesting parts of executive search is understanding what the client actually needs, as opposed to simply following the brief that has been given to you.
I remember working on a senior leadership search for a manufacturing company. The business was growing and they needed someone to take responsibility for a fairly large mandate. The brief looked very clear. They wanted someone from the same industry, who had handled a business of a similar size, had strong commercial and operational experience and had already managed a very similar business.
It sounded reasonable.
We went into the market and found some very good people. But every time we came back with a candidate, there was something that was not quite right.
One had the right industry experience but had not handled a business of the required size. Another had handled a larger business but came from an adjacent industry. Someone else had excellent functional experience but had not managed the complete business.
So we went back to the market.
After a few weeks, it became quite clear that we were looking for someone who had already done almost everything that the company wanted this person to do.
The problem was that such people were very few. And the ones who existed were already in very senior positions, doing well and had little reason to move unless the opportunity was significantly better.
Meanwhile, the position remained vacant.
This is the part of senior hiring that is sometimes not fully appreciated. The business does not stop because a position is vacant. Someone else takes on the additional responsibility. A decision takes a little longer. A customer opportunity may not get the attention it should. A senior person spends time on something that was supposed to be handled by the person being hired.
Over time, the organisation starts adjusting around the vacancy.
And once that happens, it is very easy to underestimate the cost of not making the hire.
In this particular search, we eventually had a fairly open conversation with the client. We discussed what was genuinely essential and what could be learnt. We also looked at people from adjacent industries and people who had handled a smaller business but had demonstrated the ability to take on a larger one.
One of those candidates was eventually hired.
The person did not meet every point in the original brief.
But there was something important that the original brief had not captured. The candidate had the capability and the ambition to grow into the role.
For the candidate, this was a significant career opportunity. For the company, it was an opportunity to bring in someone who could grow with the business.
I think this is where both internal and external recruiters have an important role to play.
The internal recruiter should not just take a brief from the business head and turn it into a checklist. They should be able to ask questions and, where necessary, help senior management think through what is really required.
The external search partner has a responsibility too. If the market is telling us that a particular combination of experience is extremely difficult to find, that needs to be explained honestly. Sometimes the answer is to change the brief. Sometimes it is to look at an adjacent industry. Sometimes it is to hire someone who has done 70 or 80 percent of the job and has the ability to learn the rest.
This does not mean compromising on an important requirement. Some things genuinely cannot be compromised on.
But not every line in a job description carries the same importance.
There is another point I think companies sometimes overlook. A person who has already done everything that the role requires may not necessarily see the role as a significant opportunity. Someone who is ready for the next step may have much more to learn and much more to build.
That can matter for retention as well.
People often stay when they feel they are learning, growing and taking on something meaningful.
The perfect candidate may exist. But if we spend six months looking for someone who ticks every box, we should also ask ourselves what the business has lost during those six months.
Senior hiring is ultimately about judgement.
The job of the recruiter, whether internal or external, is not simply to find someone who matches a specification. It is also to help the business understand where it needs to be exact, where it can be flexible and where it may be better to hire for potential.
The senior management needs to be able to evaluate candidates on potential and not just past performance. Else we will keep searching for the proverbial pink panthers that can fly...
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