Practical perspectives on executive search, leadership hiring, and the modern workplace.
"Cultural fit" is the phrase that gets used when an executive search fails and nobody wants to say what really went wrong. The candidate had the right experience. The references checked out. The…
There is an asymmetry at the heart of executive hiring that most companies don't fully internalise. The candidates a company most wants — the ones who would make the biggest difference, who would…
CEO transitions are among the most disruptive events a company can go through. Even when planned, even when expected, even when widely supported internally, the moment the change becomes public…
There's a story the large search firms tell about speed. It goes like this: serious executive search takes time. Three to six months. Sometimes longer. The research is deep. The market is…
Predictions about hiring trends in any given year are usually wrong in their specifics and right in their direction. The exact mix of skills that will be in demand, the precise compensation bands,…
Most executive searches are not particularly confidential. The role is posted, the search is announced, candidates can ask questions openly, and the company is comfortable being known to be…
The retained-versus-contingent question gets debated as if it were a question about fees. It isn't. The fee structure is the visible part — the part that ends up in the contract, the part finance…
The failure of an executive search rarely announces itself. There's no moment where someone declares the search broken. There's just a slow drift — calls that don't happen, candidates who go…
When companies talk about the cost of a failed executive hire, they usually point to the same number: salary plus severance plus the recruiter's fee. That number is wrong. It is wrong in the same…
Hiring a senior technology leader is the most expensive single decision most growing companies make. The salary is the smallest part of it. The real cost shows up later — in the team that quietly…