Our Private Capital Executive Search team has deep expertise and experience within the following business verticals: Finance, People & Operations, Sales & Marketing and IT. We work with ambitious SME owner/founders to strengthen their leadership teams to deliver their growth plans.

Finance

A growth-oriented Finance function, headed up by a talented CFO drives business performance and decision-making.  Scale can only be achieved through a commitment to people, process and systems with finance at its heart.

 

Our Finance experts work with the Owner/Founder to analyse and optimise the SME’s CFO and wider finance function as part of the evaluation of the wider leadership team. We use our proprietary ‘Leadership Dynamics’ product suite to evaluate individual behaviours and benchmark a leadership team against competitors.

 

We appoint CFOs that drive growth, and we also work with CFOs to appoint Finance Directors – the finance leaders of the future. This is typically with a large Private Equity transaction on the horizon, where the FD will be expected to step up to CFO-level after primary investment.

People

The ‘People’ function drives culture, and we understand how this underpins commitment, and ultimately business performance.

We appoint Chief People Officers that can effect change and enhance SME leadership, and drive positive culture change and ESG initiatives. We also appoint HR Directors, and senior Head of HR professionals.

 

Creating and sustaining a harmonious, and productive culture that motivates a workforce  is rightly being recognised as a critical skill in its own right. It’s no surprise then that it has led to an ever-increasing preference for Chief People Officers and HR Directors to sit on the SME’s leadership team. Attracting and retaining a diverse workforce needs Chief People Officers and HR Directors that take an active role in defining and driving SME leadership and cultural change.

Operations

Top-line growth is meaningless if margin remains the same. We work with SMEs to understand their key KPIs and profit drivers before looking at the people, systems and processes that support them.

Our Operations experts understand that Operations drives profitability, and we work with growth-minded senior candidates to develop their careers in the right SME environment.

We work with SME leaders to appoint COOs that have the gravitas, experience and ability to drive change and real operational efficiencies.  We also work with Operations Directors, Procurement Directors and Commercial Directors with the potential to step up to Executive level in the future.

Marketing & Sales

The blurring of the lines between traditional and digital marketing has enabled businesses to build customer engagement and drive brand loyalty. It has  led to the need for a sales and marketing function capable of a diverse output. Whether it be marketing-led sales strategies or sales-led marketing strategies,  tech-led functions are driving the need for an ever-expanding range of skill sets within a marketing team.

We work closely with SME leaders to appoint CMOs and CSOs that understand and demonstrate this approach, while complementing the existing senior leadership team. We also have a strong track record in working with Sales and Marketing leaders to appoint Director-level candidates , many of whom have gone on to become business leaders in their own right.

IT & Technology

It is a business imperative to recognise that technology underpins SME operations.

As a tech-enabled consultancy, we have an intimate understanding of the need to use the right information, technology and systems, to enable a business to keep pace within its own evolving sector.

We appoint CTOs and IT Directors that are proven, and have demonstrated their ability to change and adapt to their sector needs and advancing technologies as a whole.

Chair & NED

Chairs and Non-Execs play a critical role in the strategic direction and growth of an SME. They can deliver the situational experience necessary to support an owner/founder-led business on its value creation journey.

The appointment of a Chair or non-executive in a high-growth business is often event-led and therefore highly time-sensitive.

They bring to the business the ability to analyse the strength of an SME’s leadership team, highlighting the improvements required to deliver the value creation plan and meet the SME leader’s ambition. We work closely with clients to understand what they are trying to achieve on their unique business journey and the role a Chair or non-executive can play.  We utilise both our network to identify senior NEDs with the background and experience needed to deliver the Owner/Founder’s vision for their business.