THE CLIENT

Our client is a Medical Devices product design, development and engineering consultancy based in Cambridge. Having consistently grown their business over the past few decades the founders and fellow Directors were looking to strengthen the senior leadership team. There was a need to identify and hire an individual that would bring a strong business development capacity to help execute the strategy to further scale and grow the business.

THE ROLE AND ITS CHALLENGES

The main outcome of recruiting a new Associate director was to strengthen the organisation’s business development capability in Medical Devices and associated areas. It was essential that this new hire could contribute to new business generation, management and growth of existing accounts, and maintain a very high level of client satisfaction. It was also important that the individual had experience in markets or associated markets that the consultancy already operated in.

There were two main challenges. The first was identifying an individual that could demonstrate a successful background in business development, beyond account management in Medical Devices or Medical Technology. They would need to be strategic, organised and be capable of developing brand new relationships. In addition, whilst the company had started with an agile working policy, this recruit needed to be within commutable distance from the consultancy’s head office in Cambridge. Due to the nature of work it was necessary to collaborate face to face weekly.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITY

THE SOLUTION AND RESULT

The consultancy invited us to their head quarters to brief us. They invested a good amount of time to talk us through their journey, their capabilities, and their plans for the future. We were given a clear view of what was required in this new hire for them to be successful. We were shown around the offices, which further cemented the values that the consultancy stood for. It was clear from the time we spent there that they were very passionate about what they were doing and what they were looking to achieve.

Our first step was to map out direct competitor companies and then those that operated in associated areas. This gave us a firm base of target candidates. In all the research discovered a total of 124 potential candidates. The challenge from here was identifying candidates that had a demonstrable history of business development, and that aligned to the values and ambition of the organisation.

With our structured communication plan and with the use of tailored messaging and ‘presentation deck’ on the company and role we were able to generate a high level of interest. After conducting many discovery calls, we were able to focus in on 8 possible Candidates.

Having interviewed the 8 Candidates a total of 4 were presented to the Client. 2 were interviewed by the Director’s and 2 progressed to conversations with the remaining Directors and team. After careful deliberation one was identified, and an offer presented that was accepted.