Key Lessons for Building Product Manufacturers when going to market with a Niche Leadership Search

Finding the right leader for a building products manufacturer is rarely straightforward.

However, our latest completed assignment stretched everyone involved.

The parent business demanded an individual with an operational / production background, and a proven track record at MD level; all within a niche part of the industry (manufacturers within fenestration) and who lived close to the UK businesses main facility in the Midlands.

From the off, this was going to be a needle-in-haystacks headhunt. In our experience, many MDs within fenestration – especially those who are operationally led – part or fully own the business they work for. They’re not receptive to a change in employer!

The stakes were extremely high for the parent business. This was a turnaround opportunity for someone. The UK business had been bought by them a decade ago. Historically a heritage brand, this business has been losing money for the past two years.

Having assessed the business, the parent company had concluded that the major bottleneck was in the three production facilities in the UK. They lacked direction and leadership. The business needed a senior leader who would take ownership of future strategy, with the aim to growing revenues by one-third inside five years.

Given all of this, it was imperative that we worked closely with the SVPs from the parent company to genuinely consult and advise. Taking gut feel and guess work out of this recruitment process was essential.

There are numerous takeouts from this search and why it led to the optimum conclusion. Our top advice to companies who’re going to market with a hard-to-find leadership hire are:

Tight criteria create a brutally small candidate pool. Be honest about this from day one, work together to understand the numbers.

Once the parameters were set, we began with a regional search: fabricators and system houses within commuting distance of the business’s Midlands sites. The numbers were stark.

Regional fabricators and system houses identified:  37

Of these, those who housed operationally led MDs:  4

Comparison: Commercial led MDs within the radius:  30+ targets

Estimated UK-wide pool for this specific brief:  ~20 individuals

For context, a similarly tight search we managed previously (technical director who had to come from a system house rather than a fabricator) produced 27 viable individuals across the entire UK. This search looked comparable.

The lesson is not that niche searches are impossible. However, stakeholders need to understand the numbers before the search begins. Or they need to understand early into the process that their expectations may have to change.

When you genuinely know the pool is small, you can make better decisions: about whether every criteria is truly non-negotiable, about timelines, about the relocation question (which we’ll come to), and about how quickly you move when a strong candidate emerges.

False expectations about candidate volume are one of the most common causes of unnecessary frustration on both sides of a senior search. Share the data. Have the conversation early.

Geography is a hidden disqualifier. Don’t be tempted just because the talent pool is limited

Many of the headhunts we lead are location sensitive. Some of these prove to be extremely challenging to identify and attract to the right audience.

In such cases, it is (understandably) tempting to turn a blind eye to those who will need to travel one hour plus into the office. Another sacrifice decision makers are often tempted by are candidates who will ‘hotel it’ from Monday until Thursday night. Don’t do it! It hardly ever ends up well.

Typical relocation expectation for senior appointments:  £15,000 – £20,000

That figure covers initial rental costs near the business, followed by the costs of physically relocating. Structured well – with a clawback clause if the individual leaves within two years, for example – it’s a sensible investment in getting the right person in the door and keeping them there.

Candidate engagement tells you something; pay attention to it early

One candidate in this search had a compelling CV and strong early interest from the client. But when he became difficult to reach at a critical juncture it created a period of uncertainty that consumed time across the entire process.

Clearly, a limited number of strong candidates could have dictated that both me and the client pursue this candidate.

Headhunting is always a balancing act when it comes to client interviews. We advise that it’s a courting exercise, with the client needing to impress upon the candidate as much as the other way round.

However, it’s important that the client doesn’t become subservient to the candidate. Move on when you sense it’s sliding too much in their favour. In our experience, a non-committal attitude predominantly ends one way – lost time and frustration.

At early approaching stage, our task is to plant the seed. Good candidates aren’t going to rip up their contracts and move straight away. However, it’s important that any headhunter can latch onto what potential motivation there is to move – be this from their current role, or what appeals about the prospective position.

Not extracting these early, especially in a niche search, can set the whole process back by weeks.

First impressions can be misleading. Build in time to let candidates settle

The candidate who ultimately emerged as the early frontrunner initially came across as cold and corporate in his opening exchanges. Both Collingwood and the SVP picked this up independently. Had either of the associated interviews ended after twenty minutes, he would very likely have been passed over.

Given more time, he became noticeably warmer, more self-aware, and considerably more impressive. His opening ‘address’ was the product of years in a large corporate environment. Underneath it was someone thoughtful, humble, and genuinely excited by the opportunity.

And specific to this search, operationally led candidates – engineers, plant managers, operations directors – are often more comfortable in substance than in presentation. They have spent careers being judged on what they deliver, not on how they pitch themselves. A tight, structured interview may not give them the room they need to show who they actually are.

A practical implication: A 90-minute conversation with a well thought out set of questions will tell you far more than a polished 45-minute pitch. If assessments are part of the process – and in a turnaround operational leadership appointment, they should be – ensure you allow for a site tour, with a follow up on their technical observations. How they interact, the questions they ask and information they retain, will tell you far more about their technical aptitude and level of leadership engagement, than purely a sterile boardroom discussion.

A Final Thought

The most important decision a parent business or private equity-backed group will make for a struggling building products manufacturer is who leads it next. Get it right, and the investment in a proper search process (time, cost, honesty about the candidate pool) looks modest in retrospect. Get it wrong, and the cost of a repeat search, combined with the compounding losses during another transitional period, dwarfs everything you might have saved by cutting corners.

Niche searches reward rigour. They reward transparency about the data. They reward clients and recruiters who trust each other enough to have the difficult conversations early and, if necessary, allow the client to adjust their expectations accordingly.

If you’re facing a senior leadership appointment in building products and would like a candid, no obligation conversation, contact us today.