“I really appreciated the willingness to reframe this position and the sophisticated approach to negotiating for both the client’s and candidate’s best outcome.” Technology Firm’s Vice President of Strategy, placed by Acumen.
The Situation
The placement of a Vice President of Strategy at an Oregon-born Technology Consulting & Professional Services firm did not follow the usual path.
With rapid growth, the Technology Firm’s CEO envisioned a new role that would support their high-level customer relationships as well as serve as a technical sales leader. Suzanne Hanifin, founder of Acumen Executive Search, was retained to find the right candidate to fill this role. Starting with a thorough Needs Analysis process, Suzanne understood the company and this new role beyond what a simple job description can communicate.
After a broad search, one candidate stood out for her experience and leadership skills, yet she was not looking for a sales role. Suzanne knew that a person with the experience, cultural fit, and specific leadership skills was more important to the company CEO’s vision than a specific job description, so she was able to encourage the candidate and company leadership to meet. After this meeting, everyone agreed that this was a fit worth pursuing, yet there was still lots of work to do to bring the two parties together. Acumen worked with both the client and candidate to refine the position and negotiate salary, goals and the job responsibilities to everyone’s satisfaction.
The Result
In less than a year this new hire has:
- Launched several big client projects with clear scopes, plans, and budgets
- Addressed project scope issues for existing clients to set clear expectations and gain agreement on benchmarks
- Increased business with existing clients
- Streamlined staffing by eliminating third party agents in offshore relationships
- Set-up scorecard/KPIs
- Helped the CEO with workflow processes, strategic planning, evaluating financial data, and updated their playbook
Bringing in this new Vice President of Strategy role was still the key leader the Technology Firm needed, and her work freed up others’ time to continue to seek new customer relationships. Many companies are challenged to find candidates in highly competitive industries. Understanding that the right experience and cultural fit might outrank the specific job duties can sometimes get you what you need.