PREVIEW · ILLUSTRATIVE CONTENT, NOT YET FILMED
TEN CHAIRS THE EXECUTIVE SEARCH 2026 ALMANAC VOLUME ONE
THE TWENTY

Twenty more, in writing.

The ten chairs answer on camera. The Twenty answer the same twelve questions in writing, and their answers are published alongside the ten, attributed, in the volume and here. Open a name to read theirs.

Marcus BellinghamManaging Director · Bellingham TalentExecutive search for consumer and B2B brands across the Midlands.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Cultural mismatch, nine times in ten. The skills question is settled before the final interview.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The tools flattened the field between the global companies and the rest of us. Nobody misses the database advantage.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Decisiveness. Half the damage I see was done quickly and confidently.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
Mostly an excuse, and I say that as someone who has used it.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who can say “I don’t know yet” in a boardroom and survive it.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They wait for a vacancy to think about it.
Is the market for senior people rational?
No. It is a confidence market with a salary survey attached.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the answer is already inside the building and everybody knows it.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The conversation changed completely. The shortlists changed somewhat. The appointments changed least.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Seventy per cent the company. I have seen too many good people fail in bad businesses to believe otherwise.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A candidate who had been made redundant twice in three years. Wrong luck, not wrong ability. Placed, promoted, still there.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What would make you turn down a fee?” A brief I don’t believe in. It took me fifteen years to afford that answer.
Ruth IanelliCo-founder & Partner · Coplin IanelliSenior appointments and onboarding advisory, London.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether the business has ever successfully absorbed an outsider before. Some never have.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Candidates use it too. The polished CV is free now, which makes the conversation matter more.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Experience. It tells you what someone did, not what they learned.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
A real thing, lazily measured.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
Somebody who can integrate people faster than the market can poach them.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They plan the appointment and ignore the landing. The first hundred days are where successions actually fail.
Is the market for senior people rational?
Rational in aggregate, absurd in every individual case.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When they cannot describe the job in one paragraph. No search fixes an unwritten brief.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Entry-level intakes transformed. Boardrooms improved. The layer between them is where it stalls.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty-forty the company, and the forty is mostly the first year.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A returner after six years out raising children. The gap was all anyone saw. She runs the division now.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What happens in the first week?” Because almost everything that matters does.
Oliver NkemdirimManaging Partner · Sterling & NkemdirimBoard and C-suite search for financial and professional services.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Clarity of mandate. If you can’t write the first six months down in a paragraph, the appointment is a coin toss.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Speed. A three-week long-list takes a day. Clients now expect the judgement at the same speed, which is the real pressure.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Gravitas. Usually a tall voice in a good suit.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
An excuse wearing an assessment’s clothes.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who can make a decision with sixty per cent of the information and own it at a hundred.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They choose a successor who resembles the incumbent, then wonder why nothing changes.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It prices certainty. Nothing about leadership is certain.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When speed matters more than proof. Six weeks is a network job, not a search.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The pipeline argument died. The people exist. What remains is the appointing habit.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Fifty-fifty, and the halves are not independent: good companies make people better.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A chief operating officer everyone called abrasive. She was precise. The board learned the difference inside a quarter.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What did you get wrong this year?” Ask me annually. Publish it.
Hannah FerreiraFounder · Ferreira ExecutiveLeadership search for founder-led and family businesses.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
The ones who last are curious about the parts of the business that aren’t theirs.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The people we place are being asked to lead functions they can no longer personally do. Most were not trained for that.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Charisma. It recruits followers and hides problems.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
Real, when it means how decisions get made. An excuse the rest of the time.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
A genuine listener. It was always valuable. It is now rare enough to be a differentiator.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They treat it as a person question. It is a design question about the top three jobs.
Is the market for senior people rational?
No market that prices people annually against work that pays back over five years can be called rational.
When should a company not use a search firm?
For any role where the best candidate would ring you back the same day.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
What changed is who feels entitled to apply. That is real, and it is not enough.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
I’d say sixty-five per cent the company. Context eats talent’s breakfast.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
An internal candidate the board had stopped seeing. Familiarity reads as smallness. It shouldn’t.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“Who taught you the job?” Because gratitude tells you more about a leader than strategy does.
James ArdaghSenior Partner · Ardagh KerrExecutive search across private equity portfolio companies.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Money, more often than anyone admits. Someone who took the job mainly for the package rarely survives the first difficult quarter.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Fees will follow the value, and the value now sits at the start and the end of the process. The middle has quietly disappeared.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Vision. It is a slide word. Payroll is a Tuesday word.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
An excuse with a straight face.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who has personally delivered bad news and stayed in the room afterwards.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They confuse loyalty with capability and reward the wrong one with the top job.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It is exactly as rational as the fear in the room when the decision is made.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the budget for the search is bigger than the conviction behind the role.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Progress you can count at the table, less than you can feel in the corridor.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty the company, forty the person, and the person’s forty is mostly timing.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A finance director with a failed startup on his CV. Cheapest lesson my client never had to pay for.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What is the fee actually for?” Judgement, nerve, and telling you what your own people won’t.
Nadia SalloumManaging Director · Brightwater SearchC-suite search for technology and media businesses.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether their predecessor is still in the building in some form. That single fact predicts more than anything on a CV.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Less than everyone claims. Senior appointments were never won on research. They are won on trust, and there is no model for that.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Toughness. Mostly it is fear with a firm handshake.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
A real question asked lazily. “Will this person be heard here?” is the honest version.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
Someone comfortable being the least expert person in most of their meetings.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They run it in secret, which guarantees the two best internal people leave during it.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It runs on stories. Change the story and the same person doubles in price.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When trust already exists. Search is for when it has to be built from nothing.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The excuses got shorter. The lists got broader. The last yard, the actual yes, moved less.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Seventy per cent the situation. We flatter individuals because individuals are who we can invoice.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A quiet candidate in a market that worships noise. Clients kept saying “more presence”. Presence is loud absence, sometimes.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What do you owe your candidates?” The truth about the job, early, even when it costs the placement.
Peter VoightFounder · Voight & HaleIndustrial and engineering leadership search, established 1987.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Stamina. The job is longer than the honeymoon.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The typing got faster. The listening didn’t.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Polish. It photographs well and manages badly.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
Forty years in: it is an excuse.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
Same as ever. Somebody who does what they said they would.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They start too late and stop too early.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It is a market. Markets are moods with numbers.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When you already know. Paying for permission is not a search.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The room looks different. The agenda is catching up.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty company, forty person. Was ever thus.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A sixty-two-year-old for a growth business. Grey hair reads as risk now, apparently. He delivered in eighteen months.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“When will you retire?” When someone answers a phone better than I do.
Amira HaddadFounder & Principal · Haddad LeadershipSearch and leadership development for growth companies.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether anyone develops them after arrival. We buy leaders finished and are surprised they aren’t.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The routine parts of my work went first, which returned me to the part I started for: the conversations.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Certainty. The best leaders I meet hold their views on approval, not on deposit.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
An assessment nobody writes down, which is what excuses look like.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who grows successors on purpose rather than by accident.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They pick the destination and skip the journey. Succession is a development plan or it is a raffle.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It undervalues potential and overpays for proof. That gap is my whole business.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When what is needed is a coach, not a replacement. Half of briefs, honestly.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Mentoring became infrastructure rather than favour. That is the quiet revolution nobody counts.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Half and half. But the company owns the half that is fixable.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A first-time chief executive over two proven ones. Proven can mean finished. Potential compounds.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“Who did you last promote too early, and what happened?” The honest answer is usually: they grew.
Simon PetriePartner · Petrie RoweData-led executive search and assessment.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
The data says tenure of the hiring manager. Nobody wants that answer, so nobody uses it.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Our predictions got better and our excuses got worse. Both are progress.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Intuition, unaudited. Everyone remembers their hits.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
It is a variable. Unmeasured variables become prejudices.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
Numerate enough to challenge a model, humble enough to be corrected by one.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They sample from people they had dinner with. Small samples, warm biases.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It is a market with almost no feedback loop. Appointments are rarely scored, so nothing corrects.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the base rate answers the question. Most roles are more predictable than the mystique suggests.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Measured: meaningful movement. Unmeasured: the informal networks where the real appointing happens.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
The best study I trust says roughly sixty per cent context. My files agree.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
The candidate the psychometrics loved and the panel didn’t. I trusted the instrument. So far, so good.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“How would you know if you were wrong?” It is the only question that separates judgement from opinion.
Claire AshworthManaging Partner · Ashworth GreyChair, non-executive and governance appointments.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether the chair and chief executive agreed on the job before the search began. Most of my failures trace to that gap.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Committee papers are drafted by machine now. Judgement of people, thankfully, is not.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Independence, as boards define it. Absence of history is not presence of courage.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
In governance it has a real name: composition. The rest is preference.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
A chair who can run a disagreement without running a feud.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They appoint a successor and keep the predecessor’s court. New leader, old weather.
Is the market for senior people rational?
The governed market is more rational than the executive one. Scrutiny does that.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the nominations committee has already met the person three times socially. Save the fee.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Board composition genuinely changed. Committee chairs less. The chair’s chair, least of all.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty per cent structure. A good board makes an average executive look good, and the reverse is crueller.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A candidate who had publicly disagreed with my client’s strategy. That was the qualification.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What should this board stop doing?” Meetings would halve and matter twice as much.
David OkonkwoManaging Director · Meridian ExecutiveCross-border executive search, EMEA and beyond.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether they can read a room in a culture that is not theirs. Everything else can be taught faster.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The translation layer went. What remains is knowing which markets a reputation actually travels to.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Global experience, as a phrase. Four airports is not four markets.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
Real across borders, where the word culture means something specific. An excuse within them.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who can hold a global standard and a local truth in the same sentence.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They plan succession for headquarters and improvise it everywhere else.
Is the market for senior people rational?
Each market is rational alone. The exchange rate between reputations is not.
When should a company not use a search firm?
In a market where you have no map. Bad local advice costs more than no advice.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Depends which board, on which continent. The question assumes one answer. There are forty.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty-five the company, and rising the further the leader lands from home.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A candidate whose English was careful and whose thinking was not. Panels mistake fluency for depth everywhere.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“Where does this business think the world ends?” Every company has an edge to its map. Leaders inherit it.
Laura BrennanFounder · Brennan PartnersLeadership for venture and growth-stage companies.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether they have seen the next stage before. Scale-ups fail leaders by asking them to imagine what others have lived.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Founders now arrive with a machine-made shortlist and pay me to disagree with it. Good trade.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Founder instinct, in anyone who is not the founder.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
At thirty people, everything is culture. At three hundred, fit is usually nostalgia.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who can professionalise a company without embalming it.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
In founder companies succession is grief management before it is anything else. Boards skip the grief.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It swings between euphoria and amnesia on an eighteen-month cycle.
When should a company not use a search firm?
Before product-market fit. Your investors’ network is faster and free.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Startups were supposed to be the fresh start. They imported the old defaults with the funding.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
At a scale-up, eighty per cent company. The rocket matters more than the passenger.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
An operator into a founder-led business after two others had been ejected. The trick was scoping the founder, not the role.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What breaks first when you double?” If a leader can’t answer for their own function, they are the thing that breaks.
Iain StruthersSenior Partner · Struthers ColeManufacturing and engineering search, Glasgow and Leeds.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Weather. Whether they have led through any. A career of fair winds tells you nothing.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The paperwork evaporated. The pit visits remain. Right things went.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Strategy. Every failing business I visit has a good one on the wall.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
In heavy industry the culture is safety, and there it is not an excuse, it is the law.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
Somebody who can close a thing with dignity. There will be closing.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They save it for the annual awayday. Succession is a Tuesday discipline.
Is the market for senior people rational?
The market for people who talk is rational. The market for people who deliver is thin and mispriced.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the job is grim and honest. Grim honest jobs fill by reputation, not process.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The sites changed slower than the head offices, and the head offices grade themselves.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty the company. Though up here we’d say it’s fifty the company and ten the weather.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A works manager with no English degree polish against three consultants. The workforce chose him by following him.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What’s the hardest thing you’ve shut?” The answer tells you if they’ve done the whole job.
Yasmin RahimCo-founder · Rahim & FieldingBrand, marketing and creative leadership search.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether they still shop. Leaders who stop being customers stop being right.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The brief-writing got instant. Knowing which creative leader can actually rebuild a brand did not.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Taste, claimed. Taste demonstrated is rare and priceless.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
In creative businesses the honest question is: can they lead people they don’t understand? The good ones can.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who can defend a brand from its own finance function, politely.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They promote the safe pair of hands and lose the pair that could draw.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It prices last year’s campaign. Reputation in my world has an eighteen-month half-life.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the founder’s taste is the product. You cannot recruit a palate.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The work in the portfolio changed more than the people in the room. The audience forced what policy asked.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty-forty company. A brilliant marketer with a bad product is a very well-lit failure.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A creative director from gaming into fashion. Everyone said sideways. The customers had already moved; the industry hadn’t.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What did you love that flopped?” If they can’t answer warmly, they’ve never risked anything.
Neil CavanaghFounder · Cavanagh SearchExecutive search for the built environment, established 1994.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
The spouse. Nobody puts it in the methodology, and it decides more relocations than money does.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
I still do the same job: telephone, kettle, honesty. The research my grandson automates.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Energy. Frantic is not fast.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
An excuse, usually deployed at the second interview, usually meaning “different”.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
Same as 1989: someone the staff believe. The tools change, the believing doesn’t.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They tell nobody, including the successor.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It is as rational as housing: sentiment with paperwork.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When a handshake would do. Half of my early career was billing for handshakes; I’ve repented.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The photographs of conferences changed a lot. The golf, less.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty company. Always was. We just didn’t used to measure our excuses.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A man everyone said was too old, for a business everyone said was too young. They matured each other.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“Who remembers you kindly?” It is the whole CV, properly read.
Beth LindqvistPrincipal · Lindqvist AdvisoryBoard advisory and non-executive search, London and Stockholm.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Calm. The failures I have seen were rarely wrong, mostly loud at the wrong moment.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Preparation became free, so preparation stopped impressing. Presence cannot be generated.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Consensus, oddly, coming from me. Agreement reached too easily is avoidance with minutes.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
A real thing that must be written down to stay honest.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who treats quiet as information, not absence.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They discuss it annually. It changes weekly.
Is the market for senior people rational?
The Nordic market is calmer, which only means the irrationality is better dressed.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the culture is so specific that only insiders can weigh it. Some firms are languages.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Quotas took the argument off the table so the work could start. The work is slower than the law.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Fifty-fifty, held in tension. A strong person changes the company; the company changes the next person.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A finance chief who paused before every answer. The panel read slowness. It was accuracy.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What do you refuse to hurry?” People, endings, and apologies.
Ravi MenonManaging Partner · Menon FraserChief financial officer and senior finance appointments.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether they understand the numbers or merely receive them. It shows within one bad month.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Reconciliation died quietly. Interpretation got a pay rise. My candidates are fine.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Commercial instinct, unpriced. It usually means comfortable guessing.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
In finance functions, fit means one thing: will they sign what they believe? Everything else is temperament.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
A finance leader who can say no to a chief executive who has stopped hearing it.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They plan for the CFO and forget the controller who actually knows where everything is.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It is anchored, like all markets, to the last public failure.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When an interim would answer the question. Permanence is sometimes just anxiety.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Finance moved faster than most functions. The profession’s exams did what pledges couldn’t.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Fifty-five the company. Though a great finance director shifts their own denominator.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
An auditor into a commercial role. “Too cautious.” Caution, deployed at speed, is called judgement.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What number do you not trust in your own company?” Every good CFO has one. The bad ones trust them all.
Sophie DuttonPartner · Dutton KirkDigital, product and technology leadership.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether they can ship. Digital is full of leaders fluent in everything but delivery.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
My market invented the disruption and is now surprised to be disrupted. The humility is overdue and useful.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Visionary, as a job requirement. I have placed three actual visionaries in fifteen years. The rest needed to be organised.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
At digital pace, fit means: can they disagree by Thursday? Politeness with a lag is a luxury.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who can tell the board which technology not to buy.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
In digital nobody stays long enough to be succeeded. That is the actual problem.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It overpays whatever was on stage at the last conference.
When should a company not use a search firm?
For roles the team should choose. Engineers follow people they’ve verified themselves.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
Tech’s numbers embarrassed its self-image, which was the most useful thing that could have happened.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Seventy the company. Platform beats person almost every time; ask anyone who left one.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A product leader with no degree and a portfolio of shipped things. The portfolio outvoted the paper.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“What have you switched off?” Killing things well is the rarest digital skill.
Andrew SelbyManaging Director · Selby MarchantExecutive search for public bodies and regulated sectors.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Whether they can carry an institution’s memory without being owned by it.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
Public appointments now arrive pre-researched by everyone. Transparency raised the floor and my blood pressure.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Charm. Committees hire it, then spend four years managing around it.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
In public service it means values, and there it is real and testable. Elsewhere I am less sure.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who can deliver with less and explain why honestly.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They confuse succession with reward for waiting.
Is the market for senior people rational?
The public market is rational about salary and irrational about risk, which is the exact reverse of the private one.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When public money could be public capability. Some searches should be a development programme.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The public sector led it, quietly, and rarely gets the credit it deserves.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty-five the institution. Institutions are heavier than companies; they bend leaders faster.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
A charity chief executive into a regulator. Sector snobbery ran against her. Rigour is portable.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“Who do you serve?” If the answer takes longer than a breath, keep interviewing.
Grace OforiFounder · Ofori ExecutiveExecutive search with a focus on first-time leaders.↓
What separates the executives who succeed from the ones who fail?
Who they hire in their first ninety days. Leaders reproduce themselves; the good ones do it on purpose.
AI is doing more of the work every year. What happens to the people you place?
The gatekeeping got weaker, which is the best thing the machines have done. Talent shows up in data it never showed in rooms.
What is the most overrated quality in a leader?
Track record. It is often just a record of being tracked. Potential leaves fewer fingerprints.
Is culture fit a real assessment, or an excuse?
An excuse, structurally: fit preserves whatever the room already is.
What kind of leader does a business need now that it did not five years ago?
One who is comfortable being somebody’s first. First woman, first black leader, first outsider. The pressure is a skill.
What do boards get wrong about succession?
They look for readiness, which is code for resemblance. Nobody is ready. Some people are close.
Is the market for senior people rational?
It is rational about credentials and superstitious about everything else.
When should a company not use a search firm?
When the search is really about legitimising an internal doubt. I ask now. It saves everyone months.
Twenty years of diversity targets. What has actually changed at board level?
The front doors opened. The middle floors are where careers still quietly end. That is the next twenty years’ work.
How much of a leader’s success is the person, and how much the company they land in?
Sixty the company, and for first-generation leaders, more. The net matters most to those without one.
Who did you back when everyone else thought you were wrong?
Everyone I back was somebody’s “too soon”. That is nearly the business model.
The question they wanted to be asked.
“Who gets to be average?” Some people can be ordinary and stay employed. Extending that privilege is what progress means.
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