Country Manager I Global Wound Care Leader
Exercising the strictest discretion and sensitivity, NGS Global successfully placed a new country manager for an established wound care business.
Background
Our client was a well-known global wound care business with a strong reputation for high-quality products and approximately 10,000 employees worldwide. The Japan business was a small to mid-size player in the domestic market with 55 FTE’s and revenues of USD $30 million. The company was introducing a new line of innovative products into the market and the newly transferred Head of Asia felt that the current Japan General Manager was not the dynamic, innovative commercial leader they needed to drive the business into its next phase of growth.
The Need
Our client required strict confidentiality as this was a direct replacement role for an established GM who had been with the business for more than five years. They sought someone that saw beyond the traditional “boots-on-the-ground” domestic sales model and could conceptualize the business in a broader context – and set a new pathway to success that could re-energize what was seen to be a stagnating local operation. Additionally, the client began their search just before the COVID-19 outbreak began, and had to create a totally virtual interview process with no involvement from the domestic subsidiary.
Our Search Process
Commissioned by the Asia Pacific Head in Singapore, NGS Global's Japan office scouted out an extensive talent map of senior commercial leaders within the wound care, infection prevention and orthopedics sectors from our existing network of contacts built over the past 15 years in market and new research through our in-house resources. The candidates were approached and met in person with NGS Global's Japan representatives and were only informed of the company details once they were determined to be a strong match that was presently open to new opportunities – and had signed an NDA. The client sought someone that had a strong mix of commercial P&L leadership but a history of implementing strategic change into a Japanese organization whilst working closely with global.
NGS Global presented a shortlist of five priority candidates to the client after four weeks and all were accepted to interview. The client settled on two lead candidates that went through a series of Zoom interviews (facilitated by NGS Global) and the final candidate accepted the offer of employment 11 weeks from project commencement. To better assist the client’s decision making (and confidence given the inability to meet face-to-face), NGS Global recommended a 3rd party assessment tool that could be employed in the process. We also conducted extensive references on the final two candidates (both official referees that were provided by the candidates, and non-official referees that were sourced privately through NGS Global's consultants' personal network).
Our NGS Global Value-Add
• Discretion and a trusted reputation that permitted candidates to meet with NGS Global representatives prior to releasing details of the company into the wider candidate pool.
• Deep networks of trusted sources that could provide background information on candidates to allow our client greater confidence when making hiring decisions.
Our Executive Search Methodology