The Basics We believe successful search assignments result from absolute concentration on a few basics. As consultants, we work closely with our client throughout the assignment to ensure process understanding, precise targeting and accurate representation of the company and job opportunity.   Our client and we must understand the search in terms of the state and condition of the organization, the required candidate resume qualifications and style/personality fit.   We must be painstakingly thorough in our work. Attention to the details of organization assessment, job profiling, source research, candidate evaluation and communication are essential.   We must retain our principal business objectives: Ethical, high-value performance measured by client satisfaction; and long-term, continuing client relationships.  Steps in the Process Our client search assignments usually take 60 to 90 days and include these primary activities: Organization Assessment. We strive to understand the organization in terms of its condition and needs, specifically as they relate to the search position. When practical, we begin the search by spending up to two days in the organization gathering information via interviews, corporate documents, plans, etc. Position and Organization Profiling. Our assessment work provides information with which to prepare detailed Position and Organization Profiles. The Position Profile explains job responsibilities, organizational relationships, and the full range of required professional and personal qualifications. The Position Profile helps ensure our mutual understanding of client requirements and our search efforts. It also communicates critical information to candidates and other interested parties. The Organization Profile is a background piece that provides an overview of the organization to candidates. Both Profiles must be client approved before we proceed. We take the additional step of making sure we understand the style and fit of the executive immediately superior to the sought after hire. Achieving a good fit requires understanding both sides of the match. Depending on the client desire circumstances, we sometimes utilize our assessment tool to assist with gathering this information. Depending on the clients desire and cercumstances, we sometimes utilize our assessment tool to assist with gathering this information. Candidate Identification. Candidates are proactively sought from pre-determined sources thought to be the most likely to produce results. We target industries, companies and advertising media appropriate to the search. Over the years we have developed an extensive data base from which we may begin our search. We take care to represent our client professionally and with discretion. Candidates are contacted directly by letter, telephone and sometimes via intermediaries who can provide an introduction. Our purpose at this step is to create a long working list of candidates from which we distill a short list of qualified individuals. Candidate Assessment. We assess candidates by resume review, telephone interviews, and for those best qualified, in-person interviews. The candidates who appear to meet our criteria are subjected to reference investigations and confirmation of all professional credentials. Our reference contacts focus on past and present supervisors since job performance is of prime interest. Certain factors are constant in our assessment process. We give high importance to stability in an executive's background, properly balanced with diverse experience. Good performers stay in a position/company long enough to prove the quality of their judgment in taking the job and in their performance and results. People who move at one or two year intervals with no logical explanation usually fail our scrutiny. We also value a record of success. For senior executive positions, successful experience is a must. We look for evidence of leadership, extraordinary results, and personal and business values consistent with our clients requirements. Finally, we make available to clients the opportunity to perform a psychological assessment of final candidates through the Birkman Assessment Profile. This assessment provides additional insights into matters of intellect, motivation, leadership style, values, interpersonal skills, and other matters pertinent to the "style and fit" issue mentioned earlier. Presentation and Interviewing of Final Candidates We typically present from three to five final candidates, although this number can be changed at our client's direction. In some cases, our client chooses to review resume material for a larger number of candidates as a means of identifying finalists. We are flexible in this regard and give first priority to client comfort with their decisions. We are available to participate with clients in the initial interviews with final candidates. We can contribute to thorough interviews and assist our client in their evaluation of finalists.