Four stages, a small number of mandates at a time. Retained or contingent, depending on the role and the relationship.
Executive search isn't a numbers game. The best appointments come from depth — knowing the sector, knowing the people, and knowing why a particular person fits a particular role at a particular time.
We run a small number of mandates at any one time. That's deliberate. It lets us do the work properly and stay close to the people involved, on both sides of the table.
Most of our briefs start with a conversation, not a job spec. We want to understand the strategic context: what's broken or scaling, who needs to be in the room, what kind of person closes the gap. We bring sector intelligence to that conversation — we know what the comparable companies are doing and what good has looked like for them.
We work from a long list, not a pipeline. Every relevant person at every relevant company gets evaluated against the brief — not just the ones who've raised their hand. The output is a market map you can hold in your head: tiers of candidates, who's in motion, who'd be a stretch, who's adjacent and worth approaching.
Every candidate on the shortlist has been spoken to, scoped against your specific requirements, and pressure-tested on motivation. We share a written brief on each — strengths, gaps, sector context, why-now — so you walk into first conversations already half-briefed. Process is typically 4 to 8 weeks from kick-off.
Once you've chosen, we negotiate the offer and stay engaged through notice periods and first 90 days. We've seen the patterns that cause early exits — and the ones that don't — and we coach both sides through them. Replacement guarantee applies on retained searches; talk to us about contingent terms.
Tell us the role, the sector, and what good looks like. We'll tell you what the market can deliver.