Case Study: Innovative Leader for a Venture Capital-Infused Business

2/6/2013 by Ed Bradstreet

Challenge:

A venture capital-infused business had absorbed acquisitions and centralized core functions, but was not being innovative or responsive to customer needs. The VP of Engineering & Product Development wanted to bring in a new leader to manage and stimulate a group of talented engineers and product designers. Four months after initiating the search, there had been two turn-downs and no new candidates on the horizon. The COO called Bohan & Bradstreet (B&B).

Solution:

B&B visited the company, met with the senior leadership team, and learned about their history, organization structure, culture, and strategy. In addition, B&B was provided with a detailed description of the opportunity and reviewed the frustrations of not securing the right talent. It became obvious to B&B that the level of the search was too low and that something was broken in the interviewing and evaluation process. B&B made recommendations to alter the title, compensation, and reporting structure of the role. B&B interviewed individually all executives included in the candidate evaluation process and identified the differences in the vision and expectancies of the role. Corrections were made, B&B defined the search process, and within three weeks had three candidates competing on final interviews.

Result:

The selected applicant started 46 days after B&B was originally contacted.