A defined problem. An independent answer.
Clarity on your leadership team, before you make the next people decision.
What decision are you trying to make?
We help Boards, CEOs and People leaders define what they need, assess what they have and understand what the external market can offer. Each piece of work has a fixed scope and a written output.
Executive team review
Is your leadership structure right for what comes next? We review roles, accountabilities and capability across the team and tell you where the gaps and overlaps are.
Succession review
Do you already have the answer internally? We assess named successors against the future role and the external market, so an internal appointment is a decision rather than a default.
External talent benchmark
What does good look like outside? We map the credible people in the market for a role, their availability and what it would take to move them, before you commit to a search.
Executive reward benchmark
Are you positioned correctly? We compare executive salary, incentives and total reward against relevant comparators and give you the numbers, not a range.
Executive assessment
Independent evidence for an important decision. Structured interviews, psychometrics and 360 feedback where appropriate, reported against the criteria you agreed.
A clear recommendation
Fixed scope. Agreed outputs. Advice you can act on, including "do not hire" when that is what the evidence says.
How an advisory project runs
Define the question
One or two conversations with the CEO, Chair or CPO to agree what decision the work has to support and what evidence would settle it.
Gather the evidence
Interviews, role review, market mapping, reward data and assessment as scoped. Typically two to six weeks depending on the question.
Make the decision
A written report and a session with the decision-makers. If the answer is a search, the brief is already written. If it is not, you have saved a fee.
James Cumming or Carl Hinett leads each assignment, supported by specialist advisers when needed.
Assessing a global HR team before restructuring it
A newly appointed Chief People Officer at a global professional services firm needed to move from a federated HR structure to a central model. We assessed HR leaders in every region, ran psychometrics, and reported which roles suited the new structure and where external hires were needed. Internal leaders were retained and developed where the evidence supported it.
Read the case study →“Carl quickly understood the business and an initial shortlist was produced within 3 weeks, with a final group of talented candidates coming through within the next couple of weeks, all this during the July and August holiday season. The talent pool proved to be strong, with the cultural and personality diversity expected. Following a couple of additional rounds we made an offer and are delighted with the individual appointed.”
Chief People Officer, hospitality group