Challenge: Recruiting a
Global Partner to a Consulting Turnaround.
Situation
A new client, a private equity firm, acquired the
applications consulting arm of a major Internet Services Provider which had slid
into bankruptcy. They recapitalized the firm, cleaned up the balance sheet, and
were looking at the current economy (Q4 2002) as an opportunity to build a
national consulting firm through an acquisition strategy. They established a
software development facility in Asia, to take advantage off offshore
outsourcing trend, rather than fight it. They wished to pursue a consulting
strategy focused on adding value on the Commerce Chain, rather than software
package or website implementation. Additionally, they need to migrate the bulk
of the practice from staff augmentation to business solution project consulting.
The client retained
us to help them hire a Chief Consulting Officer with a national reputation in
solutions consulting, who could build a first class sales and delivery
organization, revive the organization’s culture, and do so in the current
atmosphere of turbulence and change in solutions consulting.
What
We Did
The client had high operational standards based on
success in other industries. We met with the client for several half-day
sessions to translate those expectations into an optimal job specification. We
worked with the client to specify what the role would entail organizationally,
and what terms like “C level contacts” and “global reputation translated into at
the ground level.
We recruited
first-rate candidates who had a track record of success in the dotcom era and
the previous economy as well. They had all built successful consultancies, but
were also strategists with the ability to adjust to the changing business
landscape in consulting.
To attract major
league candidates to a relatively small turnaround, we sold the caliber and
track record of the lead investor, and the health of the company’s balance
sheet.
Results
We submitted five candidates to the client within
three weeks of initiating the search. The client interviewed four of them, and
seriously considered all four of them for the role.
The client hired two
of the candidates, one for the original Chief Consulting Officer search, who had
previously been a global partner for a Big Five Solutions Consultancy, and a
second to be VP Sales and Marketing.
