by Dennis Schroeder

For fifteen years, Robert* had risen through the ranks to head all European, African and Middle Eastern operations for a $20 billion technology and defense company. Robert had saved two significant operations from the junk heap and was considered to be one of the four successors for the President /COO of the corporation. In fact, Robert had been told the expatriate assignment would give him a competitive advantage for the post. When another candidate was chosen, Robert was devastated and negotiated a severance package out of the organization.

A trusted colleague in Human Resources suggested including outplacement in his separation agreement from the company. Robert was given his choice of any firm in the world. The Center for Executive Performance kept surfacing as the company for senior executives. After careful research, Robert elected to work with us even though after he repatriated he lived several hundred miles away.

We initially asked Robert to identify what he had accomplished in his career, the types of organizations he thrived in as opposed to just survived in, and his values. Over the next two days, Robert zipped out sixty pages of dictation to one of our administrative assistants. From this treatise we developed a marketing and search campaign.

By the end of the second week of the campaign, we had spent more than 40 hours behind closed doors with Robert. We had completed a resume, a one-page biography, interview strategies and introduced Robert to more than 300 retained search firms, via email, letter, fax and personal phone calls. During the course of the campaign, Robert had several significant interviews and had zeroed in on one specific opportunity as the perfect fit, Chairman of a small ($250 million) technology company. Robert had already sailed through the first round of interviews and was a finalist. The next round of interviews was with the Board of Directors.

Robert’s consultant, the CEO of the Center for Executive Performance, was concerned about the next step. Even though he had operated successfully in a much larger environment, our research showed the Board was composed of mostly chairmen from other billion dollar companies in the area, therefore, we knew this was going to be a challenging set of interviews.

To prepare Robert, we created a Board of Directors composed of executives from most of the disciplines represented in the company. In Robert’s first Board interview with us, he was grilled mercilessly on issues surrounding finance, engineering/new products,operations, human resources and strategy. For four hours, six top executives, in each of their respective fields, hammered away at Robert. At the end of this session, only two of the six executives thought Robert’s performance was close to a passing level. For the following three days, Robert studied the suggestions his “Board of Directors” had made. Robert returned for two more “board sessions.” Only after the third session was concurrence achieved that Robert was ready for the real Board of Directors.

Robert was successful in his bid for chairmanship of the company. We advised him as he negotiated his executive compensation package and even provided a creative solution for an issue that was a potential deal breaker. We have counseled Robert as he assimilated into his new position.

After five years, Robert and the company are doing very well. The $250 million company has grown to over $600 million in revenue. Robert reports that the last five years have been the most fun he has ever had in his career.

Robert selected the Center for Executive Performance, because of our prominent record with senior executives. At the end of the assignment, Robert reported that we had far surpassed his expectations for intensity and advice that was right on target.

*Names and identifying details have been changed to protect our clients