The human resources executive, of a NYSE global provider of integrated mail, messaging, and document management solutions, was searching for Facilities Management/Sales Managers for territories throughout the United States. He gave us a list of 20 competitors in various cities and requested that we research several, per week, so that his recruiting staff could have a steady flow of candidates to call and could concentrate on presenting and interviewing. Each week, we identified 50-100 target candidates, based on their requirements and provided their names, titles, telephone numbers and reporting relationships. 

The Vice President of Development and the Chief Technology Officer, of a publicly traded designer, manufacturer, and marketer of lightweight communication headset systems and accessories, wanted to hire a Senior Director of Corporate Design. This type of individual is typically embedded within the organization and difficult to locate, requiring extensive cold calling to identify potential candidates. We developed a list of 50 consumer and commercial electronics manufacturers of products that contained human factor or ergonomic qualities. We then researched each company, to determine the person responsible for industrial design management, and presented a list of 40 candidates to the Vice President, that included their names, titles and telephone numbers. After review, the Vice President had his recruiting staff contact each candidate directly.

An international, power-engineering firm needed Civil, Electrical, and Line Transmission Engineers for client projects in multiple locations. Because of the rapid rise in energy prices, the market to build new facilities was hot and the competition for talent was fierce. We generated a list of 20 of the largest power engineering and utilities firms, that were not their clients and then conducted extensive research to find the location and contact information for 100 engineers. Their recruiting staff was prohibited from making recruiting calls into companies, so they could only find candidates who answered ads or were on the job boards. We were able to access the more lucrative, passive candidate pool. The project took us 4 days and their in-house recruiting staff took over from there. 

A publicly traded software company, which helps Fortune 1000 companies develop, deploy, and integrate software applications and deliver best-in-class solutions dedicated to interoperability, needed a Director of World Wide Licensing. We assisted the client in developing a target list of companies that we penetrated to ascertain potential candidates, finding their names, titles and telephone numbers. We identified 60 individuals, contacted these prospects and assessed their qualifications, as well as, their interest in the position, generating 12 candidates. The client received our qualifications analysis on each of the individuals, as well as their resume. We kept detailed records of what occurred on all calls with the 60 initial prospects, as well as the 12 final candidates. From our research and pre-screening process, the client used our information to hire the optimal candidate. The project took us approximately 40 hours, and resulted in our client hiring the best possible candidate, rather than the most available, for about a tenth of the average search fee.

The largest and most respected publicly traded distributor of industrial carbon, alloy and specialty metals needed to fill several sales and management positions for a number of their 52 branch locations. They hired us to conduct research on industrial competitors in the areas surrounding all of their sales offices. We then submitted a competitor list to the Vice President, Human Resources to evaluate relevance and proprietary issues. After review, we conducted phone research on each target company to ascertain names, titles, and direct phone numbers of potential candidates for the client’s open positions. After the candidate list was perfected, we spoke with each potential candidate and if interested, elicited their resume and sent them a position specification, describing our client’s business and the available opportunities. Each remote location search took us approximately 20 hours and we provided 10 resumes of viable candidates, per position, along with salary histories, which resulted in several hires.

A $50 million global contract manufacturer of custom cable and electromechanical assemblies had an established Human Resources department that liked to do their own recruiting and company presentations to potential candidates for open positions. The President of the company had also had bad experiences with executive recruiters and prohibited Human Resources from paying search fees. They hired us to develop target lists for all of their open salary positions, conduct phone research to develop prospects from the target companies and then call each prospect and elicit their resume. On average, we would spend 20 hours per search, contact approximately 125 viable candidates and generate 25 resumes of qualified candidates for them to contact. The total cost was a fraction of executive search fees.

The world’s largest privately owned mosquito control product and Service Company needed to find a Chief Information Officer. Due to the epidemic spread of encephalitis and the West Nile Virus, this firm evolved from a pest control and chemical distribution company to a world-wide health services and mosquito abatement organization. The firm did not have an internal recruiter and due to rapid expansion, their Human Resources staff was overwhelmed. It was important that they find a CIO quickly and that the person selected have experience with rapid growth organizations and similar technologies, as well as with relevant business application, process control, and global positioning systems. We met with the Director of HR and the CEO to get all the relevant information. Within 24 hours, a position description was approved. We compressed the entire market of qualified and within 72 hours, identified 120 potential prospects.

We contacted each prospect and discussed highlights from the “Position Description and Client Profile” with them, which yielded 20 interested and qualified candidates. We conducted phone interviews with each and then arranged face-to-face interviews with seven. After conducting reference checks, we presented four candidates for final interviews. The client asked us to discuss salary expectations with these candidates and remain in contact with the selected candidate to ensure an orderly transition. The entire process took four weeks. Management’s involvement was restricted to final interviews and the cost was about one third of the fee charged by executive search firms.

An Australian-based, publicly traded firm, that manufactures and supplies quality agricultural products, as well as industrial performance and specialty chemicals, was in need of an IT Director for their North American Operations. Since the firm’s HR staff was in Australia and the position was going to report to the Chief Financial Officer in the U.S., they asked us to undertake the search and present final candidates to the CFO. The CFO’s time was limited so we were commissioned to handle all of the calls, follow-up correspondence, and interview arrangements. We had a conference call meeting with the Vice President, Human Resources in Australia, the CFO in the U.S., and the Global CIO in Europe to gather information on the position. Within 24 hours, we emailed each individual, from the meeting, a position description and began the search. We compressed the specialty chemical market for potential candidates and identified 130 prospects. We contacted each prospect and discussed highlights from the “Position Description and Client Profile” with them, which yielded 25 viable candidates. After conducting phone interviews, we arranged face-to-face interviews with eight qualified candidates. We then conducted reference checks before presenting five candidates for a final interview by the North American CFO. He asked us to discuss salary expectations with these candidates and remain in contact with the selected candidate to ensure an orderly transition. The entire process took three and a half weeks. The CFO’s involvement was limited to just the interviews, while the time of the Vice President, Human Resources and the Global CIO was only required, via telephone, for the final two interviews.