When the Stakes are High

The Challenge Fres-co Systems, a leading packaging solutions company based in Telford, was on the hunt for a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The stakes were high: they needed someone who could not only elevate their finance function but also manage the nitty-gritty...

The Brief When we take on the task of finding a great leader for a client, we know there will be more than one party involved. In this instance, our client was three-headed: the private equity investor, the CEO of their portfolio company and a minority shareholder....

There are times in business when ‘no’ ultimately means ‘yes’. More times than one might imagine, in fact. Particularly when it comes to hiring people who don’t tick all the boxes on the job spec. The job spec itself requires a case study all on its own. But, to...

The Brief We are occasionally approached by potential clients who leave us wondering whether we actually want to partner with them or not. And sometimes, we turn them down. Here is an example of one where we made the right call, despite some real concerns: The...

The Brief We were mandated by our global financial services client to source an MD for their insurance subsidiary in Mozambique. Sounds straight-forward? Turns out – it was not. Because our client wanted it all (of course): an executive - preferably Mozambican...

The Brief We support a major FMCG and food processing business with searching for leaders and BEE talent acquisition. Operating in a highly regulated field, the listed organisation needed to hire at Divisional MD level , with consideration for the longer-term...

The Brief The roll out of new banking products and services that our retail banking client had ambitiously planned, was dependent on key tech skills in specific disciplines at Architect, Analyst Developer and Developer levels. What they faced was a massive skills...

The Brief Our client, headquartered in Singapore, is Asia’s leading agribusiness group. Ranked amongst the largest listed companies on the Singapore Exchange, they employ 90,000 people globally and have a substantial presence in Africa. The range of African currencies...

The Brief Who wouldn’t want to work for one of the top global reinsurers operating in more than 25 countries globally? The South African operation is given solid support by the parent company and is perceived to be one of the strongest technical reinsurers in the MEA...

The Brief Take an industry leader in the fish and seafood market exporting 70% of their goods to Europe from Southern Africa. Add a pending business restructure to position their growth strategy. What they needed: a big fish, to be based in a small pond (Namibia)....

The Brief Our client, a listed Top 40 retailer, was starting to think about a succession plan for their executive team. In particular, someone to take over as Chief Information Officer because the incumbent was considering early retirement. When we’re called in to...

The Brief The big dilemma for our client: should they appoint someone internally or externally to a key role? They wanted sight of the competitor landscape to explore: To whom they should compare their internal people? How well would their internal candidates stack up...