A cold message that became a multi-year partnership

The challenge

Most of our partnerships begin through networks, referrals, or the Leadership Series. This one began with a cold message.

New private-equity ownership had brought in a new leadership team — a COO, then a CEO, then a CFO in quick succession — with a mandate to rebuild the business. Nearly every role they needed was newly created. The hard part wasn’t the number of seats. It was persuasion: how do you convince someone with ten years at a global brand-name company, or a leader at a large local retailer, to leave a name everyone knows for a PE-backed manufacturer they’ve never heard of?

The approach

We told the story straight — no overselling. At a company this size you wrap your arms around the whole business instead of owning a sliver of a large one. Real ownership, real growth, direct impact. That framing did the work. Our first placement was an S&OP Manager, followed quickly by a Procurement Manager, and then the finance team — including a 10-year veteran from a global company into the Director of Finance seat. Supply chain, finance, and production roles followed behind them.

Then it held. The relationship survived leadership turnover, a change of ownership, and stretches of uncertainty. After the original COO moved on, we kept placing — three controllers in succession, corporate accounting, and contract roles. What started as a single cold message became one of our longest and most productive partnerships.

The lesson we take into every search: great talent can be recruited to a company no one’s heard of — if the story is honest and the opportunity is real.