EXECUTIVE SEARCH | We strengthened the Governing Body of an industrial SME, setting up an Advisory Council with two external members

Recently, from Saltor Talent, we have worked on the project of setting up an Advisory Council for a Spanish SME company in the industrial sector.

1. What was the challenge?

It is a professionalized and internationalized family-owned company, with subsidiaries in different countries and with a strategic focus on international growth.

Due to this moment of expansion, the owners become aware that the organization must make a leap in quality in different aspects, such as providing greater empowering teams, eliminating silos and making it work in a collaborative and transversal way and achieving strategic objectives for growth and development in some key countries, and so on. be more competitive globally.

After analyzing the situation, it was decided to set up an Advisory Council made up of the members of the Council plus two external directors , to professionalize that governing body and provide external strategic vision.

2. What We did and how did we do it?

We needed to find profiles that provide knowledge and solid experience as top-level executives in internationalized companies and with processes productive similar to that of our client; with experience in any of the strategic countries where you are or wants to become our client; and, the most important if possible, that their intrinsic motivators, values and way of being fit with the purpose of the Company and the culture and way of doing of the human group that forms the Board of Directors.

After an in-depth analysis of the market, several interviews with different executives with interesting experiences that at a functional level fit the definition of the required profile, we presented a group of five possible candidates. All of them had diverse experiences and different profiles, but they were united by their willingness to contribute to a project of this type, their ability to provide strategic vision in different sectors and situations, and their knowledge of different markets and countries.

Some of the candidates presented provided in-depth knowledge in the area of ​​“compliance” and in organizing and professionalizing Boards of Directors in family companies; Someone else contributed experience in leading cultural changes and transformations in international companies; Others brought us powerful experiences as leaders in some of the target markets. What everyone agreed on, as we placed a lot of emphasis on this aspect during the evaluation, was its fit with the purpose and values of the Company.

3. The final solution

The Board of Directors, after interviewing the five profiles and conducting a second interview with four of them, decided by two finalists.

The decision process was not easy as the four candidates brought very interesting aspects and the Council members liked them very much, but they had to decide on two. A Council with more than 8 members can be difficult to manage.

One of the executives is a professional who brings more than twenty years of experience in a multinational company, forming part of the board of directors and leading the operation in one of the star markets for our client. And it also brings a vision and an approach to people that are very interesting and appropriate for the moment that the Company lives.

The other chosen candidate is a senior executive with experience in leading changes in different Companies of different sizes and sectors, and in two Continents.

As we usually do in these processes, we are continuously monitoring the operation of the new Advisory Council and the satisfaction on the part of the client and incorporated advisory advisers is total.

The key is (as always in this type of executive search and selection process), beyond the competence and functional fit with respect to a typical profile, the search for the best fit between people. It is achieved in the best of environments, being critical and ambitious to take the Company to a new stage.