An e-commerce giant needed a regional Director for their PC & peripherals business

A major e-commerce company required a Regional Director to run their PC & Peripherals business. They were looking for someone with significant GM experience in either the hardware or semiconductor space, and with an equally strong P&L background to drive a $.5B business.

The candidate would need to manage a team of 100+ people and scale it significantly over his first 2 years. Most viable candidates would likely be carrying a President title already and driving a stand-alone business rather than a business line within a much larger organization. One key challenge would be to convince them to consider this opportunity.

The client had requirements that were exacting and inflexible. In addition, there was relatively little appetite in the market to work at the client as it was seen as a highly demanding and HQ-driven work environment.

It was clear we would need to explain carefully to each candidate that this opportunity was significantly bigger than the title represented.

Our team of 4 researchers focused on identifying potential candidates who had worked or were working outside of the region to ensure candidate cultural fit was suited to an aggressive Western organization in a fast-moving business space.

It was also clear that coaching candidates rigorously on the background of the company, its values, and its interview style and process would help us positively manage their expectations and ensure an optimally smooth discussion with the client. Because the pool of candidates was small, we advised the client to adjust interview protocol and allow for a more casual format for all preliminary interviews. We could thus more easily encourage candidates to enter the interview process regardless of any initial concerns they might have.

We identified 4 candidates who met all client requirements and were open to communicate with the client concerning the role and opportunity. We concluded the search by closing a candidate who had worked in both Europe and the US, and had been responsible for a $1.2B business unit handling a related product line within his previous company.