Magellan was retained by our client, a specialty water purification company venture owned by DeBeers (now Anglo American) to find a chemicals CTO with both technical and commercial expertise
CHALLENGE
The COE retained us directly to quickly find a CTO with deep expertise water treatment using advanced electro chemistry and oxidationTo hire three partners at the same time we needed a unique recruiting and hiring process.
APPROACH
Leveraging our long relationship with our client reduced the learning curve and greatly shortened the time to completionFocused research in this highly specialized and narrow area enabled us to develop a short list quickly. By focusing on asking the right questions we were able to engage candidates in a deep discussion of an area for which they had passion. This made the screening conversation go very smoothly.
Focus sourcing in technical journals and societiesBy advertising for the role in highly specialized journals and in the society magazine our team was able to get to the real CTO visionaries we needed for our client. Managing referral sources discretely and in confidence was instrumental to finding just the right set of qualified candidates.
Ask technical questions, but focus on cultural fitBy focusing our input on the on the cultural fit variables and asking the technical questions only and reporting out we were able to objectively help the client get to the short list smoothly. We were also able to separate the technical selection issues form the cultural fit issues.
The Magellan Difference
- Upfront research was used to build preliminary candidate profiles and ensure productive and rapport building meetings with candidates.
- Behavioral interviewing skills proved valuable to get at the relevant cultural fit questions for each candidate.
- Acting as a business partner with the CEO allowed us to make the candidates feel special and to streamline the hiring process.
RESULTS
Successful placement madeMagellan’s team found that by preparing in depth before each candidate meeting made the candidate’s realize the critical nature of the search. This allowed us to shepherd each through the interview process quickly once they were identified and ultimately lead to a successful long term hire for our client.
Follow on work for three new rolesAfter the success of this assignment we were awarded three follow on searches which were also successful.
“Magellan took the time to understand our business and the needs of our customers, so they could effectively represent us to the candidates we needed to hire in a timely fashion.”
