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Centrica Case Study

Three clients, 20 same-day interviews, one high-quality CFO hired  

Managing expectations is all part of the job in executive search but once in a while a brief arrives that tests a search firm’s ability in this respect. Such was the case in November 2010 when Archer Mathieson was contacted by Centrica executive Tom Hinton.

Referred by Centrica’s internal recruitment team, and having had a positive past experience of working with Catherine Turner, Hinton briefed her colleague Richard Morris to find him a new CFO for GLID Windfarms, a joint-venture business under his responsibility as finance director of Centrica’s Power Generation Business Unit.       

In many respects, Hinton’s brief was no different to what every client expects from a search consultancy:  a high quality, on-brief candidate shortlist, administrative efficiency and speed. But where it differed was that there were effectively three clients, with three varying requirements for Richard Morris to satisfy, as Hinton explains:

“In many respects this was a difficult role for Richard to fill. We needed someone senior who was happy to work flexibly; the job is not a five days a week, office-based role. The ideal candidate had to be comfortable working autonomously, cope with indirect finance and legal support, and have the personality to manage multiple stakeholders.

“We sought consensus on the right candidate on three fronts: GLID’s general manager, private equity firm EIG – our joint-venture partner – and Centrica itself. EIG is cash and debt focussed, Centrica is profit and operationally-focussed and GLID’s general manager needed someone with the gravitas to command respect from all stakeholders, including the consortium of 14 investment banks backing the joint-venture.”

By the second week of December, Archer Mathieson delivered its shortlist of candidates and by mid-January Richard Morris had pulled off a major logistical challenge: four interviews for the five-strong shortlist – 20 interviews in total – all on the same day. Hinton acknowledges the effort involved in this:

“Archer Mathieson’s ability to make this happen was impressive. It meant we could get this important but potentially time-consuming aspect of the hiring process over and done with quickly. I think it also meant we made a fairer and ultimately better hiring decision as each candidate was fresh in everyone’s minds.”   

The result was an offer being accepted by one of the shortlist, concluding a challenging but ultimately successful CFO search assignment.

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