The question
The business wanted to grow sales and needed a commercial and bid management capability it did not have: a Commercial Director and a Head of Bids, both with defence sector experience, both able to operate inside the sector's regulatory environment.
The approach
We mapped competitors and related sectors to find the people who had done this before, approached them directly and assessed against the agreed criteria with in-depth interviews. For the Head of Bids role there was a credible internal candidate. Rather than run a full external search, we benchmarked that person against the external market so the business could see the comparison.
The outcome
An experienced Commercial Director was appointed from outside. The Head of Bids was appointed internally, with the external benchmark as the evidence for the decision. The business now has the bid capability it set out to build, and it paid for one search rather than two.