Background: RSMR was selected by the owners of a small, privately held client to conduct the most significant executive search it had ever undertaken. The owners, three brothers who founded the company decades ago, were all either in or near retirement. They needed someone they could trust to run their business, increase revenues exponentially, and maintain the company culture they had fostered for decades.
Challenge: From our initial conversations, it was very clear that the executives had developed a unique, family-oriented culture built on trust, respect, and integrity. They would only hire someone with the ability to grow the business while also maintaining the unique culture they had worked so hard to create and maintain over half a century. The prevailing feeling was that there were no family members or executives in the company with the breadth of experience and personal drive to take this slow-growing company to the next level, so it was unlikely that it would be an internal hire.
Action: After extensive recruiting and behavioral interviewing of a slate of finalists – which included complex, in-depth psychological testing – and working in close consultation with the owners, RSMR helped to negotiate an appropriate compensation structure and employment contract with the chosen finalist – who happened to live within ten miles of the company.
Resolution: Fast forward five years. The president has weathered the economic slowdown and the particularly sharp decline in their market segments. Despite this, he has driven profitable, organic growth of the business. And most importantly, he has maintained the ingrained family culture that the owners so ardently sought to preserve.
