ZD Executive Search

A Managing Director for…

A famous high street fashion brand
Salary band: £200k – £250k

The brand. The role.

This famous brand has been a staple of the British high street for more than half a century. But its owners had identified that the business needed a new approach. That meant bringing in a new leadership team, including a new Managing Director.

Why Zachary Daniels?

• We’d worked with the Chair of the company in their previous business and had built a trusted relationship.
• We’d been supporting the client in bringing in a new leadership team. Already, we had found the business’s new E-Commerce Director, Buying & Merchandising Director and Creative Director.
• This was the business owners’ second change of leadership in only a few years. Understandably, the client felt a little burnt by recent experiences. They needed a recruitment partner they felt they could trust – although we had to earn that trust.

The MD to get a business back on track

This was a business that was losing money. The market knew it, viewing the role as a ‘tough gig’. That created a specific challenge: this wasn’t just about finding a candidate capable of turning the business around. They also needed someone willing to accept the very public challenge – and risk – of taking on the role.

Working closely with the client, we reached two conclusions:

1. Rather than fashion, this might be a better fit for someone able to bring a fresh perspective, someone with experience in a more combative sector of retail, and who could drive real change.
2. This needed to be someone’s first MD role. They needed someone who, rather than protecting a personal legacy, would move heaven and earth to create one – someone willing to do the ‘heavy lifting’ required to turn the business around.

A candidate with grit

A full search incorporating open market job ads and some judicious headhunting resulted in a shortlist of seven candidates. The client whittled these down to two, one of whom was our frontrunner. This was a candidate who would be new to the MD position, but whose grit and determination had already demonstrated their suitability for the role.

How long did this take?

We completed the search, from instruction to offer, in just three months.

Recruitment partners

There’s a lot of chicken and egg about recruitment. A client needs to trust you before they’ll put their faith in you to deliver, but it’s only by delivering that you cement that trust. That’s especially true for clients who haven’t had great experiences elsewhere.

We built trust by really understanding the brief, understanding the challenges the business faced, and demonstrating to the client that we understood what that meant in terms of the right candidate. We met on more than one occasion, face-to-face, to build that understanding and discuss the strategy behind the appointment. Then we demonstrated real momentum and focus in meeting the business’s needs.

Exec search with ZD works

After almost a year in post, the successful candidate has turned a loss-making business into one that is now on track to turn a profit.

The ZD difference

This was never about finding a credible candidate. It was about finding the person who could deliver the big, impactful change the business needed and thrive under a glaring spotlight.

That meant placing the business’s best interests front and centre of our search. And it meant working closely with the owners to understand who the ‘right person’ would be.

Since our success, the owner has introduced us to other businesses within their portfolio, a measure of just how pleased they have been with the results.

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