CEO Recruiters, CEO Staffing, CEO Executive Search Firm

CEO Search is an executive search firm that specializes in sourcing exceptional CEO candidates for companies across the country.

Our recruiters are experts in CEO Search and have many years experience working closely with top company executives. We recruit in every industry and for companies of all size – both public and private. We provide exclusive contingency based CEO recruiting solutions to companies that need to fill the top executive spot.

experienced ceo RECRUITERS

hiring the right chief executive is the single most important decision a company will make

There is no greater decision that a company will face than hiring or replacing their CEO. It’s fairly cut and dry – hiring a great CEO will make a company very likely to succeed and a hiring a less than stellar one will have the opposite effect.

The decision is critical and has the potential to alter the foundation of your business. That is why it is so important to pick the right person for the job. That’s why it is imperative to find to most experienced, most talented, most accomplished, most intelligent and most polished CEO that a company can possibly find.

The CEO is the driving force behind any business. They are the strategic visionary that sets the company on it’s course. They create the overall company structure and implement change within the organization. They are the ultimate and final decision maker behind operations, finance, technology, systems and processes. A CEO’s job description is constantly changing and their duties and responsibilities are endless.

The is not a decision that we take lightly. We understand how important this is to your company and we consider it a great honor to be the firm chosen to help with this important decision. Our recruiters are the best in the business and we will do everything within our power to accomplish this task for you.

Succession Process

One lesson that has emerged from our research and observations is that strong boards that are not afraid to challenge and prod the CEO when necessary will also take a major role in crafting and maintaining momentum for well-thought-out succession planning processes. At any successful company, of course, the board and CEO must work together effectively as a team, but as representatives of the shareholders and overseers of management, it is essential that boards play more than a reactive role in the succession process and keep the CEO on track. As with estate planning, there is a natural tendency for people to avoid planning for their own obsolescence. Because planning for continuity of leadership is so critical to the long-term health of an organization, it is, therefore, the board's responsibility to hold the CEO's feet to the fire on succession issues.

There are practices that boards should be wary of because of their potential to undermine the succession process. For example, we think boards should carefully assess all alternatives before appointing one of their own outside directors as CEO. Having directors on a board who are aspiring CEOs can create unnecessary conflict and politicize the process, and we believe that appointing directors as CEO should be considered a practice of last resort. Mergers and acquisitions can also disrupt the succession process.

CEO designates can be dislodged from their next-in-line position when a top executive from the merger partner becomes a serious contender for the CEO spot, as occurred with the Bell Atlantic/Nynex and ABC/Disney mergers. Though there is some evidence to suggest that companies may look to mergers and acquisitions as a way of addressing succession issues; clearly, in this regard, these transactions may create as many problems as they solve.

Succession Planning

Succession planning should not be viewed as a phenomenon that occurs only at the very top of an organization. Limiting the objective of succession planning merely to designating a replacement from among the CEO's direct reports is a little like a ship's captain seeing only the tip of the iceberg. An integral part of any succession plan is an organizational development process that continually emphasizes identifying high potential executives and provides them with opportunities to grow and develop. Companies that are successful in doing this do not have to worry about the leadership well running dry, as they are constantly renewing the source.

It is important to note that the succession process is not merely a means to end the proper selection of a new CEO. The process itself, not just the ultimate outcome, is important for the following reasons:

Cleansing the organization. If undertaken in an open and objective manner, and with the input of global intelligence (an ongoing inventory and assessment of management resources both inside and outside the company), the process can free the organization from much of the inevitable infighting and politics.

Legitimizing outcome. A process that is perceived by all in the company to be fair lends legitimacy to the winner and makes it possible for him or her to lead if the general feeling is that all major constituencies had a voice in the process.

Identifying the Candidtes

The common misconception is that this is the most difficult step, and some search consultants sell their ability to find the one perfect CEO out of millions of possibilities. But not only is the concept that there is one perfect CEO flawed, but the actual number of potential candidates for any CEO position are fewer than you might expect. Only about twenty thousand people occupy CEO, COO, group executive, or division president positions in the United States (the pool from which most CEOs are chosen).

When you limit the search to executives with specific experience or in a certain industry, you often are dealing with a pool of hundreds rather than thousands. Typically, I'll look at anywhere from one hundred to three hundred potential candidates at the start of a CEO search. For the CEO successor search for Citicorp (before the Travelers merger), We started with a global list of 1,550 people in fifteen business sectors, the most We've ever looked at.

The fewest We've looked at was thirty people for Ambrosia Chocolate Company's CEO search, since the candidate had to be a CEO or COO with experience in a specific industry, and there were only fifteen companies in this industry. In most cases, narrowing down the field is not a particularly difficult assignment

Approaching Candidates

At this point, the search consultant's actions depend on whether the search is confidential. If it's not, the client company can and should be identified up-front. Most prospective candidates for CEO positions are wary of "cold calls." For this reason, I typically ship a package of client information overnight, including the specs, to the prospect's home and follow up with a phone call. In the majority of instances, however, the searches are confidential, and search consultants can't disclose client identity. Again, the following steps are written with confidentiality in mind.

The initial contact with a candidate involves sending him a position prospectus as well as information about the consultant. It's wise to send this information to the candidate's home rather than his office and call a few days later to determine interest. Sometimes I'll ask prospective candidates an open-ended question such as: Is there any company that you're interested in more than others? or Are there any companies you wouldn't be interested in talking to?! Though the odds are against them naming the client company, it's a question that often yields informative answers.

After this initial contact, some prospects will drop out of the running. As the search consultant and client review the remaining prospects, they will determine who the consultant calls back and discloses the client to. If they are interested, I send them a hefty package with financial and strategic information about the company and then arrange to meet with them.

Meet Candidates

Although different search consultants have various approaches to initial meetings, I recommend in-depth, face-to-face meetings with the prospective candidates of up to three hours at a secure location. During this meeting, search consultants should share their knowledge about the client company, the personalities involved, and the requirements of the position. They should also assess motivation why the prospect is interested and whether he's qualified. Good search consultants view these initial meetings as a two-way street; they're not just thinking about assessment but also considering what it might take to convince a given individual to accept an offer.

After presenting the results of these interviews to clients, some consultants may conduct second interviews with some or all of the candidates. Part of the reason for the second interview is validation; questions often arise when clients and consultants review the results of the first interview, and this second session provides the opportunity to get these questions answered. In addition, consultants can use the second interview to set up the first meeting with the client, held usually at an off-campus location.

C-level recruiting experts

Vast Experience: At CEO Search, our CEO recruiters have been sourcing exceptional candidates for over a decade. Our recruiters are highly talented professionals that vast experience in executive search.
Passive Candidates: Our candidates are typically passive candidates who are currently employed but open to hearing about their next great opportunity. They are highly selective -with outstanding backgrounds and exceptional credentials and typically have their choice on where they go to work. To use a commonly used cliche they are simply the “best of the best.”
Contingency Services: Unlike most experienced search firms, our services are 100% contingency based. We can only offer our services on a contingency basis because we have such a high fill rate. Succinctly put, our clients love our candidates. They are highly impressed with the level of talent that our CEO candidates possess. That’s why we are able to offer our services on a “no hire no pay” basis.
Satisfied Clients: Our clients are extremely satisfied with our services. Over the years we have received hundreds of compliments and client testimonials thanking us for the outstanding work that we performed. We believe that our performance can be accurately gauged by the level of client satisfaction and the results that we have seen indicate that we are performing at an extremely high level.
Nationwide Service: Our recruiters source CEO candidates on a nationwide basis, in every industry and at companies of every size!