Sales Management Case Study
Vice President, Business Development
Project Overview
A Toronto based emerging technology firm in the OLED space which develops advanced materials for large display manufacturers.
Challenge
With ‘Series A’ funding behind them, the company needed a sales leader with the relationships, specialized industry insight and a successful track record bringing display related technology into mass production in partnership with major display manufacturers. With their target clients headquartered internationally, especially in Asian markets like Korea, China and Japan, they needed someone multilingual who had exposure to working in and understanding of the cultural differences of both Asian and North American markets.
Another challenge would be finding someone with the above experience and exposure who would also fit into a small fast paced start-up.
Solution
We partnered with our client to develop a deep understanding of their culture, including interviewing and assessing several members from their leadership team.The discovery uncovered past and current challenges, their vision for the future and growth potential for the new VP.
We also discovered the priority markets and geographical preferences for their new hire. Then, we went to work head hunting for a suitable candidate.
Results
We reached out to 84 potential candidates around the world, conducted 29 interviews using our 23 step proprietary Placer© process, 10 psychometric assessments, including 6 from our client’s senior leadership team, and presented a short list of 4 fully vetted candidates.
Our evaluation process uncovered a candidate who is the perfect fit for our client’s culture. The successful candidate was an expat from Korea who relocated to Toronto just as he started with our client. His expertise allowed him to hit the ground running. Within 6-months, he was able to remove barriers into a major account, resulting in a Joint Development Agreement, which is moving toward a mass production agreement.
Our executive search completion ratio is THREE TIMES the industry average in North America.
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