Executive Search

Finding your future leaders, facilitating your long-term growth

Leathwaite is an award-winning executive and retained search specialist for senior, niche, sensitive or business-critical positions. Headquartered in London, Leathwaite has a network of offices in Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, Zurich and Hong Kong, providing the international coverage required to deliver global executive search and leadership talent projects.

Leathwaite’s executive search solutions provide clients with over 20 years’ dedicated experience in finding C-Suite level permanent leadership solutions. Working on a retained search basis, clients partner with an experienced and dedicated team who are experts within their functional practice area.

Our goal is to connect you with a richer and more diverse pool of senior talent, that you would be unable to access through traditional search approaches, enabling you to deliver on your human capital strategy.

With circa 100 staff, spread throughout 6 international office locations, you will receive local service delivered on a global scale.

Leathwaite Executive Search – Finding your future leaders and facilitating your long-term growth.

Our Approach

Leathwaite's approach to an executive search assignment ensures a quality outcome for the candidate and the client:

  1. Executive Search Briefing

    It’s vital to dedicate sufficient time and energy to the briefing stage of an executive search / retained search assignment. This allows our consultant team to understand why you feel the required leadership talent does not currently reside within your firm, what the new hire needs to bring, and what criteria they must meet to be judged a success in their first year.

    Where possible, Leathwaite advocates spending time with as many stakeholders as possible during this stage, to build a true picture of your soft and hard skill requirements, company culture, and the qualities a successful candidate would possess.

    Talent Diversity is playing an increasing role within the agenda of our clients and to that end, Leathwaite has a leading reputation for being able to connect with a diverse senior leadership network.

  2. Market Research & Candidate Identification

    The ability to combine speed with depth of research is a Leathwaite hallmark. Having agreed a selection of target organisations and geographies, we deploy our research function to build a picture of where the desired senior / C-Suite Leadership talent lies.

    Rather than taking a traditional longlist/shortlist approach, we prefer to introduce two “benchmark” candidates after 2-3 weeks. Both should be capable of performing the role to a high standard.

  3. LCAM Assessment Model

    To assess candidate suitability, Leathwaite utilizes its own proprietary assessment framework: the Clarity Assessment Model, or LCAM. The LCAM is a 4-part assessment designed to test: Competency | Compatibility | Culture | Confidence & Leadership.

    Unlike other assessment frameworks that depend upon input from short online assessments, Leathwaite’s Assessment Framework is fed by our H360 model: H360 is the Human 360 degree input model, one that develops assessment input based on knowledge of the candidate, knowledge of the candidate’s environment and deep referencing executed per Leathwaite’s unique Due Diligence process.

  4. Interviews & Feedback

    We will move candidates that fit the brief and benchmark feedback through the process as swiftly as possible. Our competency-based interviews and careful matching to the culture of your organisation ensure that you find the perfect candidate for the role.

    We can advise on interview panel composition, and are happy to form part of this should you feel it appropriate for your executive search.

  5. Offer Management & Resignation

    Once you have identified a preferred candidate, we will do our utmost to bring them into your organisation. Our track record of success in closing senior candidates is second to none.

    However, to insure against the possibility of not securing a candidate, we also line up strong candidates as second and third choices, who would also be capable of performing the role to a high standard.

  6. 90-Day Review

    We know that a candidate’s first 90 days within a new role and organisation are critical to their integration and success. To help mitigate any potential “transition risk,” we have developed the 90-day review.

    This allows the candidate an opportunity to give feedback on all aspects of their new role to a third party. Coupled with our own written assessment of their speed of integration, this review offers an invaluable tool to help you manage their early-stage career.

Executive Search Case Study

Leathwaite was retained by one of the world's leading global banks, which was navigating a period of significant business and structural change, whilst also experiencing increasing pressure amongst shareholders to reduce costs.

In light of this, they identified a need to consolidate inefficient operations and technology functions into a single global utility.

Lacking the change skills and seniority internally to lead a combined function of this scale, the organisation came to Leathwaite for their executive search. They recognised we could deliver a discreet and professional service, give a global market overview, and ultimately secure a head who would define the strategy, implement a new model and manage a consolidated function.

We leveraged our global network and in-house research function to map the market across financial and non-financial services firms, while also providing market intelligence about operations models at competitor organisations.

Using our “benchmarking” methodology, we were able to introduce candidates from a range of sectors, allowing the client to refine their need and determine their preferred skillset. Through meeting non-financial services candidates, the client concluded that industry experience was essential for success in the role, and thus on-going research was refined to focus purely on the financial services sector.

Within eight weeks, the client identified a preferred candidate who matched the role and company culture, with two back-up possibilities. The client was able to offer the preferred candidate, who accepted, and began a highly successful process of structural change and cost saving.

Within eight weeks of retaining Leathwaite, we had secured our first choice candidate. Leathwaite’s approach was clear, down to earth and delivered the results we needed.
Multinational Investment Bank

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Our Offices

T: +852 3695 5002

Suite 2002,
Ruttonjee House,
Ruttonjee Centre,
11 Duddell Street,
Central,
Hong Kong

HK Agency Licence Number 69216

Key contact:
James Lawrence-Brown, Partner

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