A highly successful global market leader with a track record of excellence in brand marketing required a new Marketing Director for the U.K. With a strong training and development focus, the company had several internal candidates but wanted to look outside in order to further strengthen it's cadre of high calibre marketers who had the potential to move into general management.

Operating a well-developed matrix structure, the client's company had a strong focus on global management of key brand equities. For the UK Marketing Director, the challenge would be to operate within this matrix, leveraging core central marketing activity and adapting it for the local market. A well-rounded marketer with excellent strategic skills but also world class implementation capabilities was required.

It was considered that the best approach would be to use Executive Search, focusing on targetted approaches to a limited number of individuals with successful records in well-respected consumer businesses. This was supplemented with the use of an extensive referral network to identify candidates who would not otherwise have been approached. Advertising was considered but thought to be an expensive addition to the process which might not help to access the best candidates who were in good careers and would require real one-to-one effort to engage them in the process.

Competency based interviews focused on challenging strategic capability as well as exploring canddiates' records of practical delivery. Candidates' questions were probing and often challengng in their own right, necessitating real depth of understanding of global FMCG marketing in the recruiter. Separating the best candidates from the simply good was very difficult.

The shortlist contained very high calibre individuals with the right paper credentials but also the motivation to want to take on the challenges of the role.


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