Hunting Season

The name itself conjures some exotic and shadowy images. But what’s the reality and how do these hunters go about capturing their prey? HRM tracked down two international professionals, Ulrich Ackermann of Transearch International and Sylvain Dhenin of CTPartners. Here’s what they had to say.

HRM. What are the most important qualities you look for when finding candidates? Does this vary between different industries and markets?

Ulrich Ackermann. True excellence goes beyond industries. Great leaders need empathy, the quality to energize others. They must be consistent. They have to walk the talk and they must show a clear and proven track record of delivery. All this should ideally be done in an open and honest way.

Sylvain Dhenin. I mainly work for large international groups, and obviously there are some differences between our clients. We are looking for people who have the drive, energy, and charisma to understand the business and be good from a technical point of view but also lead teams, drive people and be transformation agents. I don't think this varies so much from an industry to another one. Our clients are always looking for transformation agents, people who are able to lead the business and drive teams and make decisions.

The word ‘international’ makes a lot of sense, and the international experience is now more and more typical because firms are becoming more and more global; and that they need really is international profile that has the ability to understand different cultures, to spell into an international environment, to manage people with different origins. So that's crucial now for leaders in order to move up into their own organization. Quite often, when you've worked in different countries, it's now a significant advantage to take larger responsibilities.

HRM. Can you talk me through the process of your work? How does the process unfold from when a client approaches you looking for a particular candidate?

SD. When clients approach us, we define the qualities and skills that are required for their particular position: strategy, what the candidate will have to bring to the table to be successful and so on. In agreement with the client we define a list of companies where we might target potential candidates. Our research team will do that with new technologies – mainly the internet, databases, etc. At the same time, we will source the market, which means approaching people we know and asking them who they would recommend for the role. After all that research, usually a number of names will come a number of times, as a result of being recommended either by the market or being well-known. Then we approach those people directly.

We contact them by phone and then we meet them in person to discuss the opportunity and their skills. After that, we introduce a short list of about four candidates to our clients for them to consider. We drive the interview process and also discuss the offer we made at the end of the process. At the same time will obviously take references on the different profiles in order to give the right advice to our clients. We do reference checks and verify the regular information like the educational background, and so on.

In the meantime, during the search process or after 40 days we do an audit of the assignments, or a partner from another office will call our client in order to make sure he's happy. This is quite specific to our firm. We'll ask if the communication is right, if the resources are right, if the candidate's online with his expectation and so on. The client will give us a rating between one and ten for those criteria, and team will be paid accordingly.

UA. We immediately dig into the question about what kind of tasks has the ideal candidate to tackle, what kind of results is he supposed to reach during the next three to five years. What is the state of the company, what kind of challenges is the company facing? Which are the immediate changes he has to kick off, what should the company look like after three to five years? Once this picture is clear, we deal with the question of what kind of personality is most likely to deliver such kind of results. This set of information gives us the base to confidentially contact the right level of candidates. In intense individual discussions we will find out whether they qualify for this set of requested qualifications and challenges and whether they can develop a passion to deliver such kind of results.

HRM. Do you think leaders are born or made?

SD. That's a big, philosophical question! There are some qualities that are very personal: either you have them or you don’t. Of those qualities, it's the drive, energy, charisma and ambition that are things you cannot learn. I think you can learn how to lead people and manage efficiently, so there are some things you can learn, some you can’t.

UA. Without a huge portion of talent you will never get the chance to be a great leader. Likewise, without good coaching, mentoring and being given chances to excel you won’t get there. Finally, without dedication, passion and a commitment for true and long-term delivery you will not stay for long on top of the leadership ladder.

HRM. Have the qualities valued in C-suite candidates changed over the past decade? If so, how and why do you think this is?

UA. I think that next to the aforementioned qualities some additional personal traits play an ever-growing role. These are qualities of forming and motivating great teams, understand the firm’s role in corporate social responsibility, relish change and truly care about people. People today are smarter, better educated, more demanding, and the best people have a lot of offers. This means that a great leader has to push and to pull at the same time, and present demanding objectives for his people.

SD. Companies now need leaders that are loyal and that they can trust. Risk management in business is becoming critical as businesses are becoming more global and complex, which means there is a need for faithful and trustworthy leaders. Another point with businesses becoming more global is that a good leader needs to be able to work with different cultures. That’s key for C-suite candidates, as well as having international experience.

HRM. What kinds of challenges are posed when you are searching for talent on an international level?

UA. The fundamental question is whether the new executive is able and willing to really understand the culture of the firm, assess the need for change and energetically drive this change. He certainly needs a good level of respect for the culture and the heritage of the firm. He has to link up with country and people and show that people do matter to him. Quite often, this boils down to the question whether he is able to communicate with the people in their native language, a problem, which is often underestimated especially in countries outside of Europe.

SD. The executive search market is a global market. It was not the same 20 years ago. Today, the right candidate for a CEO position or a CFO position could be a British guy based in Singapore or San Francisco. This means the search market is now a global market. That's what is more complex.

HRM. Do you think most executives are worth the money they are paid?

SD. It's a question of supply and demand. For 99 percent of the executives, yes, the compensation is justified because they work very hard. They work 70 hours a week, they travel extensively, and the amount they travel is increasing due to the global nature of business. These people will be traveling for 100 days per year, maybe more: that’s a tough condition of a job that not everyone is cut out for. Those people are also under a high level of pressure because the nature of business is tough today; and on top of that, they are juggling that risk every day. So yes, they certainly deserve to be paid a lot of money. Now, there is obviously a question when you see multi-million level of compensation, which is certainly for something like 0.1 percent of these top executives. Then it's usually decision of the board. So it's a question I have no answer for!

UA. I strongly believe that the variable portion of the salaries should be equally linked to short, mid and long-term objectives. Only if there is a bigger focus on the mid and long-term development of the company, you can expect good results for good money. Despite a small number of exceptionally high salaries which are difficult to be justified I think the vast majority of executives with high variable pay systems is correctly paid.

HRM. Are the industries you cover seeing any shortage of talent, or are they over-subscribed?

UA. Most of the industries I serve are seeing a shortage of talent due to the demographical factors and the need for mobile and global thinking leaders.

SD. There is a clear war for talent, and the scarcity of resources at eye level is quite obvious; so it's becoming a challenging market, basically.

Ulrich Ackermann
Ackerman is Managing Partner of TRANSEARCH International Deutschland GmbH, Managing Partner of TRANSEARCH CETRA Consulting GmbH and Member of the Board of Directors of TRANSEARCH International Partners PLC, London. Since 2001 Ulrich serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of AESC (Association of Executive Search Consultants), New York and since 2007 he is also the Chairman of AESC Deutschland.

• Sector specialization: Consumer goods, financial services, IT and professional services, auto industry, board services
  
• Job function specialization: C-suite, consulting firm partners
  
• Clients: Adidas, JPMorgan Chase, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Sylvain Dhenin
Dhenin is Managing Partner of Paris and Geneva offices, Vice Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee with CTPartners, the performance-based executive search firm committed to performance, quality and results. Sylvain has a 10-year track record of serving clients in the technology, professional services and private equity industries, and is active throughout Europe. He has recruited CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and other senior-level executives. He has also assisted private equity firms in management due diligence.

• Sector specialization: Professional and IT services, manufacturing and energy, private equity, technology, telecommunications
  
• Job function specialization: CEOs, business unit managers, HR, partners, CIOs
  
• Clients: Capgemini, Alstom, Areva, IBM, Thomson