Key Take-aways

• Interviewed 6% of prospects, recommended 50%, client interviewed 100% of those
• Search completed in 75 days. The industry average is 90 days
• The final slate was two-thirds deiverse both in terms of race and genders

Snapshot

A change communications agency based in Toronto and Chicago that has worked with Fortune 1000-sized organizations for over 25 years to help leaders inform, engage, and inspire their employees.

Problem

The company retained Felix to search for a Managing Director of their Chicago office.  They had moved an employee from Toronto to Chicago to open the office 4 years earlier and she now wanted to return.  The Chicago office only had 3 junior level employees so essentially this was a startup opportunity for an agency with a 25-year track record.

The role of the Managing Director focused on 4 critical elements: 1) business development, 2) expanding client relationships and ensuring delivery, 3) leaderships skills, recruiting talent, developing the team, and 4) operational oversight for the office, managing a P&L.

The client’s deep industry knowledge helped identify target firms however his reliance on evaluating candidates based on degrees of separation from his own network was a challenge.  Additionally, there weren’t a lot of agencies that specialize in change/internal communications so the pool of prospects with direct experience was limited.  Early in the search the client identified business development as key to the job which helped focus our attention on the differentiating skillset that was critical to the successful candidate.  Business development is not a skill that is well developed at most agencies and the compensation of existing Managing Directors or Principals at agencies and consulting firms was out of our reach.

Impact & Results 

With nearly 100 original prospects identified, 6 candidates went through multiple rounds of Felix interviews and assessments.  We then recommended the 3 top candidates to the client to interview.  The successful candidate was veteran communicator, and industry leader of more than 20 years, with a wealth of corporate communications experience, and former Founder/CEO of several public relations agencies.   The search was completed in 10 weeks. The efficiency of the project was a result of open and timely communication and a sense of urgency on both sides.