The
engagement described below is unique yet the core company challenges and
the desired outcome is consistent with the types of situations we run
across in clients of all sizes, industry areas and stages of existence.
The need for the services outlined below is often stimulated by
management transitions which have been mandated by a significant change
in business strategy or are a more "natural" result of a company
evolving from one stage to another.

In 1999, the Company was a high-growth wireless telecom service provider
still managed by its founders. It was acquired that year by two private
equity firms with the goal of fueling its rapid growth. Immediately,
Hamilton Partners was engaged to recruit a CFO having the potential to
become CEO if needed. Given the Company’s doubling in its subscriber
base and employee population that year, as well as the setting of
aggressive milestones for 2001, the then-CFO assumed the role of CEO
late in 2000, meeting the Board’s requirement for more sophisticated
leadership. Having made a significant contribution to that successful
leadership transition, HP was then enlisted to address the next wave of
critical leadership and talent issues.

The project began as all HP projects do - with an up-front diagnostic to
establish an in-depth understanding of the client company’s strategy,
competitive context and culture. After gaining a thorough understanding
in these areas, HP focused on working with the Leadership Team — from
the CEO to two levels down in the Company — to identify the Leadership
Competencies required for the organization to meet its objectives and to
then Assess the Leadership Team in each of
these competency areas. This activity created the framework to build the
Leadership Team and the foundation for Professional Development
activities to be undertaken by the Management Team.
Concurrent to these activities, Hamilton Partners undertook Talent Acquisition (Executive Search) projects
for two critical senior level Executives for the Company: a new CFO and
a Vice President of Marketing; and assisted in the final selection of a
new CTO. The foundation for each of these searches was established by
the creation of specific expectations for these new hires including the
definition of key "Must Achieves" (metrics) for their respective roles
and a complete understanding of the Company’s strategy, competitive
context and culture. HP created and conveyed a thoughtful and in-depth
client "story" to ensure the hiring of highly talented executives in a
particularly tight labor market.
These new Executives came into an environment where their ability to
contribute in a timely fashion was absolutely critical. Through New Executive Transition workshops with each of
the CFO, VP of Marketing, and VP of Human Resources and the members of
their respective teams, these leaders were able to establish an
immediately strong rapport with their teams and a mutual understanding
of operating styles and expectations. Each Leader was able to quickly
share his or her vision for their team’s role in meeting the Company’s
objectives and to mitigate anxiety as concerns and questions were
voiced, discussed, and answered. Thus, the Leaders were able to hit the
ground running with a fully-engaged and supportive team. HP continues to
act as an external sounding board to those executives in their
respective team members when needed.

Our client activity begins and ends with business strategy, and we take
great pride in helping our clients achieve desired outcomes and
competitive advantage. The client relationship described above clearly
benefited from our intimate knowledge of their business strategy and the
leadership changes needed to achieve it. As a result of its
stronger organization and leadership team, this client accomplished the
growth needed to successfully merge with a similarly sized company in
its industry, the essence of the Board’s investment strategy.
As specific testimony, our client’s CEO states:
"Hamilton Partners’ commitment to understanding our strategy and our
culture was invaluable throughout all of the activities we undertook
together — the impact of the firm’s in-depth, highly thoughtful approach
was significant.
"This intimate knowledge of our Company helped throughout the
recruitment process of our new leaders — both in cycle time (both
projects were completed in less than 60 days) and in HP’s ability to
tell our story from an insider’s perspective.
"The integration activities allowed for a much faster ramp-up for
these Executives — what would have been a three to six month transition
wound up taking only about one month.
"In sum, I would never work with anyone else." |