The Client

A venture capital backed business, our client had a long history of leading a sector with complex components and packaging solutions for respiratory products. End customers included the likes of GSK and Sanofi Aventis in addition to a portfolio of generic pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Based in Northern England, the company was engineering led with sales c. £30 million and had gained a reputation for quality and excellent customer service. 

The Business Challenge and The Role

As part of the VC’s ambitious growth plans, a new role for a Business Development Director was created. The company dominated the UK market but was weak internationally.

The role provided a “blank canvas” for the right individual, using their experience and market expertise to identify and exploit opportunities for our client’s engineering excellence.

Reporting to the Global Commercial Director, the Business Development Director was a newly created position provided with a “blank canvas” to drive international sales. Our client sought a high calibre individual who had a proven record of success driving sales for medical devices packaging solutions internationally.

Candidates needed to have new business acquisition experience and a strong network in the OEM and generic pharmaceuticals market. They also needed to embrace innovative business development and marketing tools in order to raise the company’s profile in the international arena.

Whilst our client were a leader in their own market, they were a humble company, had never really blown their own trumpet and so had a low profile. The challenge was to create an employer brand that high calibre candidates would align with and be excited by. 

The Solution

Collingwood’s Medical Devices Practice invested a lot of time with our client’s Managing Director to really understand the company, their culture and competitive landscape and, of course, Business Development Director Role.

We developed an in-depth Assignment Specification providing detail around the company, its employer branding, the job specification, candidate profile including behaviours and core competencies and lastly a recommended remuneration package aimed at enticing an extremely high calibre appointment.

We delivered a proactive Headhunting solution which required us to build and leverage a network in the medical devices packaging environment.

We arrived at a candidate long list consisting of 5 individuals from the targeted sector.

We consulted with our client to discuss each individual in detail before agreeing a select long list that we then met face to face to present our client, details on the role and to conduct an in-depth competency and behaviourally based interview.

After an in-depth assessment, Collingwood presented a shortlist of 3 candidates.

The client interviewed these 3 fully qualified candidates and in preparation were presented with detailed interview notes, 3^rdparty psychometric assessments and our expert opinion based on our 15 years delivering senior roles for medical devices organisations. 

The Result

The client was delighted with the candidate shortlist and successfully appointed a very high calibre individual from a key competitor.