WHEN THE RECOVERY COMES – AND THE WRONG PEOPLE ARE IN PLACE.
Why your Sales Manager and your COO should not go to the same headhunter.
There are four situations in which a company suddenly finds itself without the right leadership layer.
Restructuring. Insolvency with a new investor. Acquisition by a foreign market player. Or the internal promotion: the best Sales Manager becomes Head of Sales. The second tier disappears.
In all four cases, the same result: the new structure exists on paper. The foundation does not.
THREE PATTERNS. ONE INDUSTRY. RIGHT NOW.
Anyone who has followed the European cycling industry over the past twelve months is watching all four situations play out simultaneously.
The first pattern: promotion creates a gap. A company promotes its Sales Director to CEO. The CSO position is now open. No successor named. No process started. This is happening at several manufacturers and outdoor groups at the same time. The gap is inevitable. And nobody has advertised it.
The second pattern: interim is not a solution. A specialist retailer in restructuring has been running its CFO position on an interim basis for months. A leasing company is bridging its CEO vacancy with its holding management. An outdoor platform provider has not filled a newly created CFO role. Interim bridges hold for six to nine months. Then the pressure becomes large enough.
The third pattern: new leadership rebuilds. A well-known manufacturer brought in a new CEO in May. We are now in month five. The rebuilding of the second tier typically follows between month six and twelve. Three leadership changes at another premium manufacturer within six weeks. The second row is the next question there too.
And then there is the fourth pattern. The most complex one.
A holding investor acquires a well-known e-bike brand from insolvency. The founder has left. Operational leadership is gone. At the same time, a new premium brand is to be built. There too, the original managing director has departed.
The task: find a CEO who can lead both brands simultaneously. One in restructuring. One in a new build. Two completely different phases. Two completely different requirement profiles. In one person.
That is not a standard mandate. That is a substance mandate.
THE BOTTLENECK IS NOT THE MARKET
Anyone who thinks: the market is recovering, candidates are available – is mistaken.
The industry cut headcount. Deeply. Especially in sales, operations and middle management. Many experienced profiles have left the industry. Others have settled into new positions.
A Sales Manager who knows the pre-order logic, understands OEM structures, can hold retailer conversations at eye level and simultaneously build a new territory – that person is not on the market. They are in a network.
Whoever starts searching now competes with everyone else who had the same realisation two quarters too late.
Large insolvency proceedings are creating a particular situation right now. When one process produces several independent units, each one needs a leadership team. Quickly. Whoever calls after the buyer is confirmed stands behind five others.
THE GENERALIST PROBLEM
Here comes the second problem. It concerns the choice of headhunter.
A headhunter who fills everything – from workshop staff to managing directors – does not truly know any position. He compares CVs. He checks whether the keywords on the document match the keywords in the job description.
What he does not check: whether a candidate has actually taken a restructuring through to completion at operational level. Whether he knows what building a brand in its early phase actually costs – not on a slide, but on the ground. Whether the difference between an OEM customer and an IBD retailer is something he has lived, not just read about.
Those questions can only be asked by someone who has worked in this market themselves.
For a Sales Manager who needs to know the industry before day one, a generalist headhunter is the wrong partner. For a COO tasked with rebuilding an insolvent brand, even more so.
WHAT IT COSTS
A wrong hire in sales during the recovery: one season lost. New territories not built. Retailers not won. Revenue potential gone.
A wrong hire at managing director level during a restructuring: months lost. Structures set up incorrectly. In the worst case: the same search a year later. With a year's deficit to overcome.
The fee of a specialist headhunter is not a cost question. It is a risk question.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU
If your company is currently in a restructuring, digesting an acquisition, emerging from insolvency, or internally rebuilding a leadership layer – you do not need a consultant who enters your job description into a database.
You need someone who knows what this position actually demands. Who knows the industry. Who has the network. And who asks the questions that separate a candidate from a suitable one.
That is our Substanz Interview. And that is why we accept a maximum of twenty mandates per year.
Which of the four patterns – restructuring, insolvency, acquisition or internal promotion – is the most pressing in your environment right now?
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