You can transform your business, inserting the right people in the right positions. No company assembles a cast of A-players by chance.  It takes forethought, knowledge, orchestration and, above all, judgment.  It takes diligence, because there are no shortcuts.

Diligence means better hires and fewer mistakes.  Mis-hires are costly on multiple levels.  The higher the base compensation, the higher the cost.  In Bradford Smart’s book, Topgrading, research into hiring practices shows that the cost of a mis-hire or a mis-promotion is fifteen times base salary.   The cost of merely a typical B-/C-level midmanager who earns a base salary of $100,000 a year translates conservatively into a loss of $1.5 million. When a B-/C-player is responsible for a stalled multi-million dollar IT implementation, a failed marketing program, a dead end product launch or a stalled manufacturing transformation, to name but a few, the costs skyrocket.   CEO mis-hires are proportionately more serious.  Typical employers experience only a 25% success rate in hiring and promoting managers successfully, meaning their 75% majority of B-/C-hires are costing those companies dearly.  Smart’s cost analysis does not include such soft values as a hiring executive’s loss of political capital, wasted time and energy redeploying B-/C-players, or worse yet a company’s “death spiral” in which poor senior hires result in lower level A-players bailing out, leaving B-/C-players in their place who hire and promote still more B-/C-players.

Clients retain Diligent Partners to search for, develop or retain A-players, from CXO’s to VP’s to middle managers.  In all cases, we look only for talented candidates whose DNA enables them to connect with people.  To lead.  To influence.  To transform.  Our approach is methodical and our playbook long established, enabling search consultants to act crisply on each client’s behalf.  Our approach to all client engagements – search, advisory services, and organizational development – is consultative, collaborative and tailored to the needs of our clients.  We can be adaptive and flexible to most client requests except any which would diminish the quality of client outcomes.