We have been the main search partner to a defence joint venture since its formation in 2019, through eight leadership appointments. When we started, it had two well-known parents, a major contract and no employer brand of its own. Here is what we learned about recruiting senior people into a business that did not exist the year before.
The questions come in a fixed order
First: what is the plan, and is it funded? Second: how committed are the parents, and for how long? Third: who will I report to, and have they done this before? Fourth: what does my role look like in three years if it works? Fifth: what happens to me if it does not?
Candidates at this level are not looking for reassurance. They are pricing risk. Give them the information and they will do it accurately.
The candidate pack
We write one for every search: the business, the contract, the plan, the principles, the full role description and the leadership behaviours. It is honest about what is not yet built. Senior people read the difficult paragraph first, and a pack without one is not trusted.
Use the parents, carefully
Well-known parent companies open doors and close them. They reassure on funding and commitment. They also raise the question of whether the new business is really independent or a department with a different logo. The answer has to be specific: what the new business decides for itself, and what it does not.
The people you have already appointed
By the third search the strongest asset was the first two appointments. Candidates want to speak to peers who took the same risk six months earlier. We arrange it, without a script.
What did not matter
Office, website, social media presence. Senior candidates for a new business assume those are unfinished. They ask about the plan and the people, and they judge the answers by whether anyone hesitates.