Our client is an international leader in the field of communications, investor and corporate campaigns and professional services. They are based in London but with global clout, especially in the US and Washington.
With a culture and style that is most emphatically progressive and dynamic but also warm and friendly it is a non-hierarchical, entrepreneurial, fast-paced organisation. Maintaining and strengthening a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace are pillars of our client’s culture and recognised as key to their future success.
Continued growth had led to the new job of Corporate Development and Strategy Director being created, reporting to the Chief Operations Officer and working closely with the CEO and the founder Chairman.
The function of the role was to provide strategic insight with a focus on strategy and business development, identifying and implementing growth initiatives and delivering on key corporate objectives through a wide variety of special projects and assignments. This involved working across the global organisation, with the operational business leaders throughout the firm.
This role was seen as a springboard for accelerated career development.
Because it was a new role there was internal debate about the exact responsibilities and job specification and therefore about the level and profile of the potential applicant. However they thought it highly likely that the candidate would be an experienced strategy consultant.
While the organisation didn’t want a flood of CVs, they were keen to see (within reason) a range of profiles indicative of what they might be able to hire at varying salary and candidate experience points.
They sought an experienced management consultant, with strategy consulting but also practical experience of taking a strategy and overseeing the implementation and business transformation.
Because of the critical importance of the role, Prism worked on an exclusive basis with the Group HR Director.
As we already had several strong candidates “on file”, we were able (with the individuals’ permission) to send through several “benchmark” CVs of strategy consulting candidates before commencing the assignment.
As a result of Prism’s contribution to the internal debate about level, based on the CVs we shared and our extensive market experience, the role moved from being “Strategy Associate” to ”Strategy Director” with an uplift in the salary on offer and the level of experience sought.
Prism undertook a broad survey of the potential candidate market, sourcing candidates from our database, advertising response, LinkedIn, direct headhunting approaches and business school alumni.
In our screening and selection, we met with fourteen candidates with a range of backgrounds including strategy consultants and applicants within corporate strategy. We subsequently discussed seven profiles with the client, of which they wished to meet five.
Job advertismentGiven the calibre of the candidates who were all in high demand, one found a role that they accepted soon afterwards. With the remaining four we were able to facilitate a swift three stage process (HR Director, then Chief Operating Officer and finally a panel presentation with two Divisional MDs). The firm were taken with the capabilities of all the candidates and identified one they wished to hire.
Prism built a strong relationship with all parties which enabled ensuring that
a) an acceptable offer was made to the candidate
b) a complicated situation involving notice period, house move and holiday was successfully navigated!
Contact us to discuss how Prism can help with your talent aquisition