Case Studies

Country CEO 

Client: Pan-European Healthcare Services Leader

Assignment mission: The organization was analyzing its performance in one of its largest and most critical markets. Following several large-scale acquisitions and an on-going restructuring, the existing CEO was struggling to create a strong sense of employee engagement and cultural alignment. Moreover, being a patient-centric business, it was imperative to provide an exceptional level of customer experience, beyond the delivery of fundamental medical care.

Process and outcomes: The applied strategic consultative approach and executive search methodology helped uncover that in order to solve our client’s challenge and position them well for success beyond the current market environment, we needed to look outside of their immediate competitive space. We presented a shortlist of talent from diverse industries, ultimately resulting in the decision to attract a progressive, dynamic CEO from one of the largest global hospitality chains.

Group Director M&A

Client: Provider of Integrated Care Services

Mission: International Expansion

Assignment: 

Process and outcomes: 

Multi-placement

Client: Start-up in Renewables

Assignment mission: The aspiration of the business was to quickly position itself as a best-in-class solar micro-grid provider in the B2B market across the US and then expand towards Europe. We supported them with multiple critical placements, including CHRO, Strategic Sourcing Director, Chief Solar Engineer, Chief Sales.

Process and outcomes: The strong ambition to quickly penetrate the US market and then grow and internationalize the business presented challenges when it comes to efficiency in the search process.

The timeline from securing the funding to becoming operational was 2 months, therefore swift identification and attraction of leaders across direct market competitors was critical. Additional complexity came from the need to attract top performers from well-established global industry players into a start-up setting, while ensuring diversity across the executives.

Through close collaboration with the client we managed to ensure the successful selection of the first 3 leaders within 6 weeks. Over the course of the following month they attracted several other senior managers to complete the leadership team.

Chief Information Officer

Client: Start-up in Biotech

Assignment mission: The company has been investing in the development of an open-source platform that allows clients and partnering organizations to benefit from the unparalleled scientific library. As the process generates huge amount of data, the organization realized the need to attract a an IT leader who could create the necessary infrastructure for and manage the continuously increasing volume of Intellectual Property. 

The challenge was to identify a leader who could combine knowledge of the Biotech industry with advanced understanding of AI and Machine Learning. More importantly, we had to assess their capabilities of building a Lab 4.0. 

Process and outcomes: In close collaboration with the client, we conducted an extensive research across Europe and we identified a range of niche specialists and recognized leaders in the relevant fields by focusing on their direct competitors, the wider Biotech space and innovative market players in the fields of Data Science, Robotics, Bioinformatics, and 4.0 automation.

After several rounds of meetings, internal discussions and Board sessions, the process culminated with the attraction of an exceptional leader who relocated to the UK from the Nordics.

Head of Procurement

Client: Global Utility and Renewables Generation Company

Assignment mission: The client had decided to expand their reach on the market for renewable projects. As a result, they had brought on board a new VP for Global Supply Chain to revamp their whole Supply Chain Department when it comes to renewables.

Our task was to assist the leader in attracting their right-hand in transforming and leading Procurement for the company in the USA. 

Process and outcomes: We carried out a thorough market research on the top professionals in the field of Renewable Procurement for the Utility Scale solar/wind project development. Going through the biggest renewable development companies in the USA, we managed to engage all of the Procurement and Sourcing leaders of the top 50 companies in the field. This resulted in creating a comprehensive roadmap of leadership talent across the industry.

Working together with our client, we selected 8 top talents and coordinated interviews with multiple interfaces within the company in order to facilitate an informed decision on who they would want to bring on board. After the right professional was selected, we were involved in the salary negotiations, making sure that both sides were aligned on the outcome and that no altercations would occur.

Portfolio Expansion 

Client: Pan-European Healthcare Services Leader

Strategy: Portfolio Expansion and Diversification

Rationale: the client was in advanced discussions to acquire a top-three industry participant in one of their international geographies. The deal would allow the company to enter new market segments and would more than double their annual revenue.

Assignment: assess organizational and cultural fit with the client and with their existing platform in the country; evaluate the prospects for integrating and creating synergies across the two businesses; conduct a comparative analysis of leaders and identify the true “value drivers” that should be retained.

Process and key findings: we carried out a thorough assessment of the seven members of the Executive Board and discovered an experienced, cohesive, very well balanced team that would fit well culturally and would bring significant professional and business value to the merged organization; we flagged the specific risk factors that could hamper the integration, and proposed solutions to mitigate them; we identified several areas that could produce immediate synergies in the post-close stages; four out of the seven leaders were recognized as critical to retain, which resulted in recommendations for alternative organograms and proposed structures for Management Incentive Plans.

Integration Planning

Client: International Healthcare Conglomerate

Strategy: Market Growth and Diversification

Rationale: our client was in exclusive negotiations to acquire a highly reputable PE-owned business as part of their growth strategy. The acquisition would complement the market proposition of our client in terms of specific industry knowledge, strong brand recognition and substantial territorial coverage.

Assignment: conduct Leadership Due Diligence of the target company Senior Management and their fit with the client; identify the key revenue generators and assess their potential to transfer to a different ownership and governance structure, and their capacity to lead a multi-sector growth strategy; prepare a roadmap for integration and ensure contingencies to mitigate retention-related risks and cultural clash.

Process and key findings: the assessment of the five executive leaders within the target organization produced evidence on their functional capacity and leadership style, the impact they have triggered since joining the business, and their propensity to stay in the transformed structure; in addition to the LDD findings, we took into account the respective size of the to-be-merged organizations and presented two alternative integration roadmaps that entailed different governance structures and reassignment of roles; following the agreed milestones, all of the leaders from the acquired company were retained and we worked with the merging management teams by organizing a series of workshops and open discussions to support the selected integration trajectory and to ensure swift transition to the new environment.

Leadership in Transformation

Client: Global Building Automation Company

Strategy: Sustainable Profitable Growth

Rationale: the business was in a time of transformation, looking to attract and enable the future leaders who could drive profitable and sustainable growth.

Assignment: design and deliver a comprehensive Leadership Succession program for six roles within the most profitable division of the organization.

Process and outcomes: After extensive discussions with the internal stakeholders, we understood the strategic direction of the organization and identified the best-performing companies for each of the targeted functional roles.

Through the application of Executive Search methodology on a large scale, we endeavored to uncover and assess a broad base of relevant talent. Over the course of three months we engaged more than 300 individuals across 42 countries, of whom we recommended ten leaders for each role.

The intensive process culminated in the presentation of a finalized Strategic Leadership Succession. Four of the introduced leaders were placed within the first 12 months following the presentation, three more were attracted in the consequent year.

Extended Support

Client: Multinational Stock-listed Services Organization

Strategy: Market Entry

Rationale: the client was considering entering a new international territory through the acquisition of a niche private business. The foothold would give flexibility in implementing a growth strategy while building reputation as a provider of choice.

Assignment: provide extensive insight on the overall industry Leadership in the country; conduct a thorough analysis of target company leaders and their fit with the client; design Leadership Succession blueprint to underpin different development scenarios.

Process and key findings: we assessed over 300 senior executives from a wide variety of industry competitors, including CEO, CFO, COO, CHRO, and M&A leaders, and provided a robust framework of leadership competencies and compensation benchmarks per function; we carried out a multi-step assessment of the composition and the capabilities of the C-suite, their fit within our client’s culture & DNA and their potential to meet the ambitions for future growth in the market; we worked on three main development scenarios and presented a selection of best-in-class leaders who could replace the Senior Management of the target company accordingly; ultimately, our recommendation to keep the CEO in a moderate-growth scenario triggered a replacement of the CFO, CHRO and the COO. Through our Executive Search practice, we attracted the right leaders ensuring a successful team composition around the CEO.

Multi-level Succession

Client: Leading International MedTech company

Strategy: Ensure business continuity

Rationale: our client wanted to have a comprehensive overview of the market and address any potential future need by getting to know top performers preemptively.

Assignment: support with the attraction of leaders across seven business-critical positions; lead a curated process from start to finish focusing on understanding the organization’s pain points when it comes to talent – niche market specialization coupled with the likelihood of moving to a remote HQ location.

Process and key findings:  over the course of three months we engaged over 500 individuals, of whom long lists of up to ten individuals for each role were presented. Each long list was ranked in order of capabilities and fit, with a shortlist making up the top three professionals for each role.

This approach resulted in several quick hires and a sustainable pipeline of talent.