Company Life Stage - Transition, build and scale stage of rapidly growing leader in food and beverage distribution. Recently acquired part of a national Foodservice distributor in the months prior to the onslaught of COVID.

Situation - Maintain leadership and cultural continuity amidst upcoming exit of highly trusted and beloved President (self-directed early retirement moving to part-time strategic advisory role within the parent company). Recover from negative business impact of COVID. Build and fortify in preparation for aggressive future growth.

Challenges & Opportunities

• Leadership and Cultural Continuity - Identifying and engaging a unique and special leader who would assimilate quickly, build credibility and trust as well as relentlessly pursue growth goals.
• Location and Cost of Living - Securing candidates willing to relocate to high cost of living geography with priority focus on finding candidates familiar with the unique nuances of the market.
• Company Size Dynamic - Compelling top talent from large corporate Foodservice distributors to explore an opportunity with a newly formed regional distributor player.

Optimal Fit Factors

• Values centric: genuine, motivated, resourceful and friendly
• Culture and customer fanatic
• Contemporary business approach: no room for old school traditional Foodservice distribution methodology, and future forward thinking and innovation focused
• Inspirational, visionary leader who could lead a combined company into a new era of growth
• High EQ, proven resiliency and strategic problem solver

Approach

• Deployed a dual target candidate strategy and market approach focused on identifying President-ready candidates as well as incumbent President level candidates to test and compare outstanding emerging leaders to ‘been there, done that’ seasoned leaders. Scoured the industry for diversity candidates.
• Conducted extensive ‘referral-based’ research and outreach to identify optimal fit candidates who stood out as contemporary leaders bringing an innovative, visionary and growth mindset.
• Conducted a series of behind-the-scenes unofficial reference checks on short list of candidates to validate our assessment for the optimal fit.