Case Study: Procurement Consulting Senior Management Appointment

Why did our client need us?

They are a niche middle tier procurement consultancy requiring a very high calibre board level appointment to drive forward their business development activities. The position is critical to enable the business to move on the next stage in their growth plan. Good wasn’t good enough, the business needed an outstanding candidate

How did we approach the assignment?

To ensure a very high quality shortlist we needed to make sure the best talent wasn’t overlooked so we compiled an extensive long list of competitor companies.

Using our comprehensive market knowledge we identified over 20 relevant organisations where the strongest candidates were likely to be found within 24 hours of campaign sign off.

We then used our network and outstanding research capability to identify and assess the most relevant people in each of those organisations.

In a particularly competitive sector, we needed to make sure we sold the opportunity to the strongest candidates so we met  each of the key decision makers in the business to cover every detail ranging from culture fit to the key factors required to attract the best available talent.

Time was of the essence as the client was eager to appoint to help move the business forward. Our specialist procurement knowledge enabled us to get the client from sign off to shortlist in 23 working days by getting quickly to the relevant candidate pool.

What was the outcome?

Initial shortlist interviews were successful producing the desired number of candidates (2) for 2nd interview stage.  The overall quality of the shortlist was noted by the client and provided strong evidence that we had conducted a thorough assessment of the defined target companies.

Our client successfully appointed a candidate with a wealth of consultancy experience from a larger competitor. The entire process took just 12 weeks from inception to completion despite busy diaries for all concerned. The majority of our fee was contingent upon successful completion of the assignment.