The Firm
The most important hire in your company deserves the person, not the org chart.
Twenty years assessing leaders. One accountable partner on every engagement. No layer between you and the judgment you are paying for.
Before founding CNA Search, I spent more than fifteen years inside two of the largest staffing firms in the country, and I was almost always handed the same assignment. Take an office that was failing, or one that did not exist yet, and turn it into a market leader.
At Robert Half I took Greenville from a $375,000 office to $7.5 million and a team of twelve, then ran the same playbook in Baltimore and across Florida. None of it came from working a process. It came from finding the few people who could actually change a number, and backing them before anyone else saw it.
That track record is what a $500 million staffing company hired me for when it launched its technology division. In Houston I helped build one of its flagship technology offices from nothing to nearly $1 million in its first eleven months and a number two national ranking.
Eleven months in, that result earned a move to Atlanta to fix an office that was not working. Within six months it was the company’s number one technology branch, with net revenue up more than five hundred percent. The story is the progression, not the line items. Build Houston, prove it, get handed the harder problem, and fix that one too.
That is how I approach executive search now. The hire that decides a company is never found by working a long list or running a tidy process. It is found by understanding the business, recognizing who can move the outcome, and acting before the rest of the market does. That judgment is the only thing CNA Search sells.
Beyond the Resume
How I Evaluate a Leader
A resume tells you what someone was in the room for. It does not tell you whether they caused the outcome.
Did they own it, or were they near it?
Most failures trace to a leader who was present for success but never accountable for it. I separate the two on the record.
Have they done it at your stage?
Scaling from thirty to a hundred is a different job than running an established team. I match the leader to the inflection you are at.
Will the team follow them?
The best technical mind who cannot hold a team is a liability. Retention starts with whether people want to work for this person.
Do they fit the pressure you are under?
A leader who thrives in calm can break under board pressure. I assess for the specific pressure your business carries now.
Most searches do not fail at the offer. They fail at the definition.
The wrong problem
The firm solves the job description instead of the business outcome. The hire matches the spec and misses the point.
Volume over judgment
A long list of available people replaces a short list of the right ones. Activity stands in for accountability.
No one who can tell
The people running the search cannot separate signal from a strong interview. Charisma gets hired. Capability is missed.
How I Reduce the Risk
An Engagement Run Like an Investment Decision
Define the outcome
We start with what this leader has to change and the cost of getting it wrong.
Reach the unavailable
The right people are not looking. They are approached directly, through relationships.
Assess on the record
A short list, vetted face to face, before your time is spent on anyone.
To accepted offer
One point of accountability through offer and start. Most complete in under ten days.
If this hire decides the year, talk to the person who will run it.
Not an associate. Not an account manager. Me, from the first conversation to the accepted offer.
Discuss a Critical Hire