Global Talent Hub: Executive Search

Great organizations are built by exceptional people.

How do organizations find the people who will shape their future? Not by filling a vacancy, but by identifying the judgment, character, and direction a business will need long before it knows it needs them.

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Diagram 001: Leadership pathways

Many paths in. One leader out.

We don't run a single track from job description to hire. We open the aperture wide, market, networks, adjacent industries, then narrow deliberately, at each waypoint, until every path leads to the same person.

Search processCandidate volumeSRC: sourcing originM.0X: process milestone

Sourced and evaluated with

LinkedIn RecruiterBoolean/X-ray sourcingGreenhouseSHL leadership assessments

Before the search

Understanding the role before beginning the search

Most searches start with a job description. The right ones start with a business problem that a person, not a posting, is meant to solve.

U.1

We ask what the business will need this leader to be true for, not just what the last one did.

U.2

We separate the role on paper from the mandate the business actually needs executed.

U.3

We define success before we define the candidate profile.

Method

Executive search as relationship building

The leaders worth placing are rarely looking. They're known to us long before a mandate exists, through years of conversation, not a database query the week a role opens. A search that starts from a cold list starts from a disadvantage.

First conversation
Ongoing dialogue
Introduction
Years later

Assessment

Assessment beyond experience and qualifications

A record of past titles tells you what someone was permitted to do. It rarely tells you how they'll decide when no one hands them the answer.

The CV shows

Titles held

What matters

Judgment under ambiguity

The CV shows

Years of tenure

What matters

How they make decisions with incomplete information

The CV shows

Company logos

What matters

How they behave when a plan fails

The CV shows

Reported outcomes

What matters

What they take responsibility for

Fit

Cultural and strategic alignment

Fit isn't measured against where a company has been, its existing habits, its comfortable patterns. It's measured against where the company is trying to go, which is a different, harder question, and the one that actually predicts whether a leader lasts.

Philosophy

Building organizations through people

An organization is not its strategy document. It's the accumulated judgment of everyone deciding on its behalf, starting at the top. Place the right leader and you don't just fill a seat, you change what the whole structure beneath it is capable of.

How the search runs

From mandate to a leader in place

Most searches complete within twelve weeks, though the timeline flexes with how specialized the mandate is.

M.1

Mandate Definition

Weeks 1–2

The role, the business problem behind it, and what success actually looks like, agreed before sourcing starts.

M.2

Market Mapping & Outreach

Weeks 2–6

Candidates identified through existing relationships and targeted search, not a database keyword match.

M.3

Evaluation & Shortlist

Weeks 6–9

Structured assessment against the mandate, narrowed to a shortlist presented with the reasoning behind it.

M.4

Close & Onboarding Support

Weeks 9–12

Offer negotiation and a structured first-90-days plan, so the placement is set up to last.

Before you commit

Questions worth answering before we start.

Q.1

How long does an executive search take?

Most searches complete within twelve weeks from mandate to close, though highly specialized or niche roles can extend that timeline. You'll get a realistic estimate once the mandate is defined.

Q.2

How is this priced?

Executive search is typically priced as a percentage of the role's total first-year compensation, agreed upfront as part of the mandate. There are no surprises once the search begins.

Q.3

Can you search across multiple countries or regions?

Yes. Searches draw on relationships and market knowledge specific to each region, so candidates are sourced and evaluated within the context of the market they actually operate in.

Q.4

What if the placement doesn't work out?

Most engagements include a replacement guarantee within a defined window after placement. The specifics are agreed as part of the mandate, before the search begins.

Q.5

Do you only search from a existing candidate database?

No. The strongest candidates for a leadership role are rarely already looking, so most of the search draws on direct outreach and existing relationships, not a passive database.

Q.6

How involved will our team be in the process?

As involved as the mandate requires. Typically that means alignment on the mandate upfront, review at the shortlist stage, and final interviews, not day-to-day sourcing decisions.

Still have a question specific to your search?

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Find the leader who will shape what comes next.

If your organization is facing a decision about who leads it next, we'd value a conversation about where you're headed before we talk about who fits.

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