31 DAYS
Brief to accepted offer
2
Prior firms who had failed the search
3
Candidates shortlisted by TalentSmiths
3 YEARS
EA still in post
THE SITUATION
A PE-backed business in London had been running an EA search for four months across two specialist firms. Eight candidates had been presented. Not one had reached offer stage. The Managing Director had begun to accept that the search might need to be paused entirely.
The problem was not the market. The problem was the brief. The two previous firms had accepted it without challenge. The brief described the role as it had existed under a previous EA who had left eighteen months earlier. The business had changed significantly since then. The brief had not.
A connection in the principal's investor network referred them to TalentSmiths. The call was arranged for the following morning.
WHAT WE DID
James spent the first fifteen minutes of the brief not on the role, but on the principal. How did they work? What had they tried to delegate and failed? What had the previous EA done that they had not realised they would miss? What had the four months of failed searching cost them in operational capacity?
By the end of the call, the brief had been rewritten. The role was not the same role it had been. The compensation had been adjusted upward to reflect current market rates. The profile had shifted from administrative competence to operational judgment.
The Circle was searched the same afternoon. Three candidates were presented at the end of week two. All three had been personally briefed by James on the mandate before the introductions were made.
The principal met all three in a single interview day. An offer was made to the first candidate at the end of that week. It was accepted within 24 hours. The placement completed in 31 days from the initial brief.
The EA is still in post three years later.
“I had been told for four months that the market was difficult. TalentSmiths placed the right person in 31 days.”
FOUNDER, PE-BACKED BUSINESS · LONDON