Business case
CCO Chief Commercial Officer
Industrial Products
SCENARIO
Our Client was a private industrial group, backed by a leading international Private Equity.
The company is a leading B2B producer of technologically advanced industrial machines and software solutions for several industries. The company technology is underpinned by a unique combination of 1) the internally developed and patented software, and 2) high-quality products and platforms, able to enhance production efficiency.
They operate within a high potential industrial segment, and sell their products in Italy and abroad, across several international markets reached through a combination of subsidiaries, rep offices, and distributors.
Their top line is steadily growing, thanks to their strong competitive edge encompassing: a broad product offering, unique production and innovation processes, as well as best-in-class R&D capabilities.
CHALLENGE
The Client had come to a point where further growth and complexity need to be supported by a reinforced organisation, to push their commercial footprint further and make the new growth cycle rooted on solid foundations and leadership.
In this context, the onboarding of the new role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) was consistently required.
The CCO had on one side to be ideally skilled in the industrial niche of relevance (or closely adjacent sectors); and on the other had to take the leadership of the commercial organization at global level, elevating the commercial mindset from product selling into value selling, into reference selling. A journey from good to great, in the direction of innovation.
STRATEGY
Our mandate aimed at exploring leadership profiles within and beyond the market niche, tracing a long list of leaders either in the commercial function, or in their respective business arena, who presented the readiness for taking ownership of the new role.
A close relationship with both the Client and the PE fund, and consistent market intelligence presented throughout the search process, provided evidence of the addressable market and strengthened the Client’s conviction to open the door to potential non-Italian individuals.
This widened the hunting ground and brought in interesting people. On the one hand, this also brought an additional element of assessment in terms of cultural fit; on the other, it ignited the ambition to push the boundaries of new markets with a commercial leader who would be perceived as not only competent, yet also truly international.
RESULTS
Identifying a profile that demonstrated the readiness for the role, the thought leadership required, and the knowledge of the specific products, competitors and market dynamics within the preferred market niche added value to a strong shortlist and ultimately “broke the banks”.
The decision was taken to invite the foreign candidate on board: not the easiest choice in relative terms, given the quality of the shortlist, yet the right decision in terms of rapid value creation.
Throughout the process, we worked with both the Client and both final candidates to explore outstanding issues and prepare for each step further, managing expectations and helping identifying the right fit. This required specific calibration with the expatriate candidate to ensure a thorough understanding of the Client’s culture, professional history and expectations.
Last but not least, we completed the process with a thorough 360 Referencing for the two final candidates to gain an independent view of both. The design of the reference check aimed to provide a true and fair view on specific dimensions agreed in advance with the client, and to present a symmetric view of the responses received to reinforce the relevance of each answer.