Background
The newly appointed CEO of a market-leading provider of RF amplification products for space, military, medical, and industrial end markets reached out to Dinte to assist in their search for new executive talent. Previously introduced to Dinte as a candidate during an executive search process at another firm, the CEO recognized a unique quality in Dinte’s work and remained in close contact with them throughout an extensive career within the aerospace industry.
“I ended up not being selected for the role, but I was very impressed with how they conducted their search and the degree of detail they went into with candidates and their process. The way they treated candidates was really unique, and they were a group I kept in touch with after the search. When I took over, I knew I needed a different kind of executive talent, and they were the first people I thought of to reach out for help filling several roles.”
The Problem
Specializing in turning around underperforming divisions, the CEO was appointed to carry out broad strategic changes and cultural shifts within the organization to improve operations and create sustainable revenue growth. Originally a division of a larger firm in the aerospace industry, the company had recently been spun off as a standalone enterprise, leaving it with significant gaps in leadership and a slew of organizational issues.
“My specialty is doing business turnarounds, and what I inherited was a major turnaround. The division was hard broke. When they spun us off, we didn’t have any leadership in it that was worth a darn, so I had to hire a new VP and replace the entire executive team.”
A lack of innovation and complacency bred from adherence to long-established philosophies in the aerospace market had significantly contributed to the division’s decline. In pursuit of leadership that could support the organizational overhaul the company required, the CEO identified a need for candidates with business acumen that extended beyond the aerospace industry.
“I knew that Dinte could find unique candidates in this particular case. I instructed them to go and find people outside of the industry to serve as a fresh set of alternatives. They knew how to go out to other industries and find people who had the right leadership experience without the baggage that came with coming out of our industry.”
US Chief Executive Officer
The Approach
The foundation of Dinte’s search process was a holistic understanding of the requirements candidates would need to meet to succeed in the sensitive circumstances of the company.
“They had multiple sessions for getting the scope right. There was one session where we talked about what kind of candidates we were thinking of, and in the next, they brought back a whole list of benchmark candidates. That allowed us to see what certain values or qualities looked like in an actual person, so we could say ‘more of this and less of that’ until they had things exactly right. I even had specific personal guidelines for selection, and Dinte took them to heart.”
A key factor in establishing this initial understanding and successfully conducting the remainder of the search was the degree of communication Dinte afforded the client. While setting initial parameters for candidate selection, Dinte maintained open communication and vigilant responsiveness to adjust their search to the company’s shifting needs.
“The last search was challenging because of the constraints placed on us by our comp committee. There was a lot of back and forth and cycles of ‘get this, don’t look for that’ and ‘okay, we can’t get this, we’ll have to look for that.’ Dinte’s constant responsiveness made it so much easier for us, especially compared to what we’d seen from other executive search firms.”
Later in the process, comprehensive candidate reports were supported by a continuous line of communication between the hiring team and Dinte staff, providing the client with easy access to additional information and points of clarification for more informed evaluation.
“I always knew exactly where we were finding people and why they were being pulled from there. Other executive search firms would take down information; then it’s radio silence for a few weeks, then we get a stack of candidate reports with no follow-up. I’m very deliberate about giving feedback, but I knew it was being ignored by those guys. With Dinte, they’re very responsive to our feedback and great about talking us through the decision-making process. If we were headed down a bad road of thinking, they’d be there to call it out to use and work back to a better line of thought.”
Through iterative ideation and adherence to changing standards outlined by the client, Dinte was able to conduct an agile search process and produce a full set of successful placements for the company.