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Executive Search Case Studies

Executive Search Case Studies

The Good Search makes it a practice to conduct executive search case studies. We track metrics and measure the results of our executive search engagements. We use that information to up our game.  

To ensure a concierge-like experience for our clients, we also invite their candid feedback after search assignments. Client feedback helps us innovate to align with evolving needs.

In fact, the reason The Good Search exists is that we stopped and listened to the needs of executive search buyers. We concluded that you deserved something better — a more transparent, informed, collaborative retained search firm model you can trust. We keep on listening to create the ultimate client experience.

The Challenge

Executive Search Case Study

A global advertising agency headquartered in New York City needs to hire a top-performing president to lead its Detroit, Michigan office. The senior executive needs to be capable of heading a cross-agency digital team of more than 200 professionals. The ideal executive candidate must also be capable of providing a distressed U.S. automaker with the necessary vision to turn its struggling business around. But what earns this particular engagement a starring role in our executive search case studies is its level of difficulty.

Our ad agency client suspects this particular search might prove impossible to fill due to the location. Advertising executives are much more drawn to work on Madison Avenue in New York City, the advertising capital of the world. However, in this case, the advertising agency requires a top executive who is willing to relocate to Detroit. Furthermore, they must be willing to make that move at a time when the city is going bankrupt. With companies and their senior leadership teams leaving the Motor City in droves, we have to find a senior executive with the courage to do just the opposite.

The Solution

Executive Search Case Study

The Good Search uncovers a critical piece of intelligence for the Detroit President search: a hot national agency that is growing too fast. Executives are under-resourced, overworked, and motivated to leave. The Good Search then asks, “Which executives from the target company might be more willing to make a move to Detroit?” The answer? An executive who grew up in a similar industrial city: Buffalo, New York.

The Results

Executive Search Case Study

Just 16 business days after launch, The Good Search presents the candidate who was hired as President, one of six screened, qualified and interested candidates that we developed. The client then hires a second candidate, at no additional cost, to serve as a successor to the president.

  • 2 Business Days: Target candidate profiles
  • 5 Business Days: Presented the first candidate
  • 16 business Days: Presented winning candidate hired as President
  • Value-Add: 130 senior executive profiles
  • Bonus Hire: Recruitment of 2nd in-command successor at no additional cost

    (For more on the cost of executive search, check out our Guide to Executive Search Pricing.)

The ROI

Executive Search Case Study

  • He leads the team that saves the $25 million luxury automotive account.
  • He delivers a 2-year, $30 million project for the Big 3 automaker on time and on budget.
  • The project is heralded as a key contributing factor in the automaker’s turnaround.
  • He implements a new Delivery Services Department responsible for taking the agency’s net profitability from 15% to 22%+ during a 2-year period and delivering $8+ million in new service-line revenue (Social CRM).
  • After 3 years as President, he is promoted to Country President.

Got Questions? Let’s talk.

No search firm is the right firm for every search every time. Yet we make it a practice to listen to what you’re trying to accomplish and we try to help, regardless.