Case Study: CEO hired for emerging company

Often I am asked by prospective CEO's how does one transition into another leadership role after working as a management consultant for a few years?

This week I concluded a search assignment for a CEO of an emerging company
that is in a related to the cleantech sector. The selected individual had wealth of professional experience directly related to the search parameters requested by client which was essential for him to be initially considered as a viable candidate.

(Note: Over the last decade industry and/or technology experience in a certain field is becoming as essential for CEO's and CFO's as with qualifications for other senior or mid-management positions. Meaning vertical market knowledge is as important as hozizontal or management experience, expecially in emerging or rapid growth business models.)

He was able to draw upon his experience as a consultant developing relationships and defining the position and business opportunity, but it was his management experience that provided him the credibility to compete for the position. That experience coupled with his ability to seek out investors who were comfortable and even highly interested in the business because of his participation is what carried the day.

This is important to understand for a prospective CEO should have a network of investors, either angels or a Private Equity firm already established, so they can to be an active player in this kind of business opportunity.

It is no different than developing a supportive Board of Directors in a publicly-held company where in fact the investors will be sitting on the Board. Furthermore in this case the prospective CEO had to make a leap of faith in actually developing the business plan that would be presented to the new and old investors (who were also active founders) currently engaged in parts of the management. They were seeking further capitalize their business model but had to come around that to do so required a new professional and accomplished management team that the new investors were actually backing, not merely the exciting emerging new technology. For the prospective CEO developing the business plan was a double sided edge, since there was no flushed out working plan previously he could be inviting competition but he also had developed his plan and was able to present to willing investors who quickly backed him.

Each week I am going to attempt to outline successful completed searches in this arena...