Finding 3 Asia marketing heads for a major tech MNC within 2 months

A US-based provider of next generation networking solutions to corporate customers had been just recently acquired by a major enterprise technology and services firm. It was understood that our client’s global leadership team would take over management of the acquirer’s enterprise business division so that it might rejuvenate its conservative business culture with a more aggressive and venture-styled corporate DNA.

We had just placed their new APJ Senior Marketing Director with whom they were extremely happy. This Senior Director in turn retained us to fill out the rest of their regional marketing requirements which included a China Marketing Manager, an APJ Channel Marketing Manager, and an ASEAN Field Marketing Manager in Singapore.

The hiring manager wished to fill all roles within two months as these would be key drivers supporting the sales operation as well as all partner organizations during a time of significant change. They wanted young and high performing marketers capable of managing and influencing the dynamic change inside and outside the organization. The hiring manager set a high bar for the roles demanding highly focused specialists for each in a market that offered mainly generalists.

In addition to our lead Consultant, we put together a team of 3 researchers to map the market and identify potential candidates within key targets in the Networking and Enterprise HW companies.

In parallel, we pulled together data based on new and historical market research we had done to show the client what a normal compensation package looked like for candidates in roles of this level. Based on this the client agreed that further flexibility might be required to bring in superior candidates.

We also placed great emphasis throughout the search on framing effectively the story and future of the newly merged organization. Although the acquisition clearly offered certain advantages of scale and synergies, for anyone considering a role within it, it also clearly represented potential uncertainty and problems in the coming months.

That said, there were challenges inherent in the role that would attract candidates with a desire to do something difficult and become a key part of a major company’s business transformation. With each candidate we focused on what the client would become over the coming five years and its positive career implications.

For each assignment our shortlist contained 6-8 candidates of which the client selected the 3 strongest candidate for each. Each candidate they preferred were successfully offered and on-boarded. Each of them met all primary expectations for the assigned roles.

Due to the acquisition there were back office delays that slowed the issuance of offers. We were able to keep the candidates warm despite competing offers in a very fast and active labor market.

In the end, we successfully closed all positions within 60 days of the contract signing date, including one of the roles within the first month.