Executive Search

Defining, locating, assessing and recruiting outstanding leaders for senior level positions demands a unique combination of precise diagnosing, focused networking, experienced intuition, and judicious negotiation. At StoneWood Group, we add a unique understanding of organizational behavior and in-depth psychological assessment, ensuring the right fit for all parties. Our expertise and process are second to none. More importantly, our results are guaranteed. Here's a glimpse of how we work:

Profiling your specific requirements

Understanding your organization, people, culture, business issues and future aspirations serves as the starting point in executive search.

We engage with you in discussion of the critical business issues that the recruitment will address and the essential demands of the position. Our consultants then qualify the behavioral characteristics and competencies that the successful candidates will require to address the requirements of the role.

Strengthened by our proven, proprietary, technology-based methodology, our consultants distinguish themselves by their ability to discern the subtleties of organizational characteristics and the interplay of your issues. Their previous industry experience provides them with a real understanding of many aspects of the performance requirements and challenges of the role being recruited. As importantly, the same consultants that meet with you are involved with every aspect of the search through completion.

Research and Recruiting

Our consultants identify candidates from three primary sources: their own professional networks of contacts and relationships; those of their colleagues, and highly systematic research.

Our consultants' mine their knowledge of your sector or function along with their experience in executive search. We perform scores of searches per year and remain abreast of the movement and availability of high quality talent. This personal database of talent is supplemented by ideas flowing from other consultants within or between offices. Finally, the network is augmented by our various paper and electronic databases. StoneWood subscribes to and aggregates information from over 10 global sources of up-to-date electronic executive movement databases. Our in-house team filters and stores this information in such a way that it can be easily organized, accessed and leveraged for the benefit of our clients. We invest heavily in data to ensure that we are current and deep in our markets.

Contacting Potential Candidates

Effectively approaching candidates is key to a successful search and thus it is handled with extreme care by our senior consultants. It is those individuals who are directly working on the search who are best equipped to present your opportunity in a compelling manner, and who can best articulate the context and nuances of the position. Given the background and seniority of our consultants, most candidates feel the people approaching them are peers in the business world and are able to speak openly; the high quality of the ensuing dialogue between our consultants and candidates greatly increases the likelihood of gleaning useful insights and attracting the best candidates to our client organizations.

Assessing the candidates for fit

We strongly believe that the best predictor of future performance is past behavior. Thus, when assessing candidates, our consultants delve into the extent to which individuals have previously attended to, and succeeded in, addressing similar business and organizational challenges. They focus on 'how' the candidates addressed these challenges, why they were addressed in such as manner and how lessons learned inform current and future behavior. They explore patterns of behavior, evidence of learning, and level of self-awareness. Our consultants are particularly concerned with matters of culture fit and expend considerable time and effort mapping out candidates' personality preferences along with the contexts in which they have performed and succeeded in the past. Further validation through extensive referencing is the final step and a critical complement to the interview based assessments made by our consultants.

Managing the search process

Effectively managing the nuances of an executive search process can be as important to the success of a search as the candidates themselves. Our concerns are 'fit' for both our clients and candidates. Thus, we invest considerable time and effort to understanding the candidates' needs, interests and concerns and work hard to ensure that these are served throughout the process. At the same time, our consultants advise our clients of the procedural, timing, and even interpersonal issues which can impact a search. We remain closely involved in minimizing barriers throughout the process and in finding solutions to ongoing issues, adjusting as the search adjusts and working towards win-win solutions.

Our enduring responsibility

The StoneWood Executive search Process does not end with the hiring of the successful candidate. While our search process minimizes the likelihood of unanticipated 'surprises' we follow up with the successful candidate and client at regular intervals to check on performance and fit. Furthermore, we provide both parties with counsel and materials on how to optimize the transitional integration period for both parties.