The world's largest privately owned mosquito control product and service company retained MMI to find a Chief Information Officer. Due to the epidemic spread of encephalitis and the West Nile Virus, this firm evolved from a pest control and chemical distribution company to a world-wide health services and mosquito abatement organization. The firm did not have an internal recruiter, and due to rapid expansion, their Human Resources staff was overwhelmed. It was important that they find a CIO quickly and that the person selected have experience with rapid growth organizations and similar technologies, as well as with relevant business application, process control, and global positioning systems. We met with the Director of HR and the CEO to get all relevant information. Within 24 hours, a position description was approved. We compressed the entire market of qualified candidates, and within 72 hours, identified 120 potential prospects. We contacted each prospect and discussed highlights from the "Position Description and Client Profile" with them, which yielded 20 interested and qualified candidates. We conducted phone interviews with each, and then arranged face-to-face interviews with seven. After conducting reference checks, we presented four candidates for final interviews. The client asked us to discuss salary expectations with these candidates and remain in contact with the selected candidate to ensure an orderly transition. The entire process took four weeks. Management's involvement was restricted to final interviews and the cost was about one third of the fees charged by executive search firms. Back
An Australian-based publicly traded firm that manufactures and supplies quality agricultural products as well as industrial performance and specialty chemicals was in need of an IT Director for their North American Operations. Since the firm’s HR staff was in Australia and the position was going to report to the Chief Financial Officer in the U.S., they asked us to undertake the search and present final candidates to the CFO. The CFO’s time was limited so we were commissioned to handle all of the calls, follow-up correspondence, and interview arrangements. We had a conference call meeting with the Vice President, Human Resources in Australia, the CFO in the U.S., and the Global CIO in Europe to gather information on the position. Within 24 hours, we emailed each individual from the meeting a position description and began the search. We compressed the specialty chemical market for potential candidates and identified 130 prospects. We contacted each prospect and discussed highlights from the “Position Description and Client Profile” with them, which yielded 25 viable candidates. After conducting phone interviews, we arranged face-to-face interviews with eight qualified candidates. We then conducted reference checks before presenting five candidates for a final interview by the North American CFO. The CFO asked us to discuss salary expectations with these candidates and remain in contact with the selected candidate to ensure an orderly transition. The entire process took three and a half weeks. The CFO’s involvement was limited to just the interviews, while the time of the Vice President, Human Resources and the Global CIO was only required via telephone for the final two interviews. Back
The Highway Safety and Reflective Films division of a NYSE-listed Fortune 500 company needed a Director of Engineering for their Technology and New Ventures business. They wanted to tap into their competitors, but needed to keep their search confidential, because they had just hired a person for the job who was not working out. We met with the Vice President, Human Resources and the General Manager of the business unit off-premises and received all of the relevant details for the position. We agreed to use email for both internal and external correspondence to protect anonymity until they picked a new candidate and terminated the current employee. Within 24 hours, we emailed the principals a position description and list of target companies that we wanted to generate leads from. They gave us the go-ahead and we quickly identified 140 potential prospects. We contacted each prospect and discussed the highlights of the position with them without mentioning the name or location of our client. We were able to elicit resumes and interest from 20 qualified candidates and sent them a copy of the job description without the company profile. After conducting phone interviews, we arranged face-to-face interviews with six candidates and presented four of them for final off-site interviews with our client. Because we had to keep the position undisclosed, we conducted the reference checks after they selected the final candidate and made her an offer. The entire process took just over four weeks and we successfully kept the search confidential until the final interviews. Back