Case Study

CTO, Family Conglomerate, FMCG, UAE

The Mandate

Our client was a small to medium sized UAE based family FMCG company with an aggressive five year growth plan which included international expansion.  The CEO and owner recognised that they needed to upskill their senior management team and instill best practice and change.

Our remit was to conduct an international executive search to identify exceptional chief technical officers from highly structured organisations that have stong processes and best practice ideally from one of the leading FMCG global giants.  Our challenge was to source extremely motivated, and technically savvy individuals who could hit the gorund running and engage the existing team and in addition to incentivise them to relocate their families and move to the region to help build the organisation and play a more commercial role in the running of the business.

The Process

In partnership with the CEO and owner we defined the technical and personal attributes required of the ideal candidate.  Having mapped the market within Europe and identified the target organisations and then specifically the individuals, our dedicated research team made initial approaches and ascertained interest before we made the formal  introduction and assessments of their suitability  for the role.

Our broad, global search encompassed chief technical officers, technical directors, COO with a technical background and also general managers. From this, over 117 individuals were identified, researched and approached.  Further discussions narrowed this to a long list of 90 all of whom were rigorously interviewed and assessed by our lead delivery director.  Five were shortlisted and interviewed by the client.

The Outcome

The successful candidate was a seasoned international CTO whose broad experience included managing underperforming factories where a turnaround was required in order to keep the business cost effective.  We worked closely with the successful candidate, his family and our client throughout the joining process.  This included offering full support and advice on issues around schooling, housing and amenities at the new location.

After six months in the role the new CTO has made an immediate impact with the company, impressing the senior management team and his team.  He has attracted more talent to the company and successfully managed to increase production levels within the organisation as well as impove efficiency and performance of the entire team.