Hiring a president or CEO is not a process taken lightly. Qualified candidates don’t just walk in off the street.
Responsible for running entire companies, the task of finding people to fill these executive-level positions has companies paying thousands of dollars to ensure it gets the best possible candidates.
Numerous Springfield-area entities have beat the pavement recently to fill their top slots. Evangel University President and CEO Carol Taylor was appointed in July 2013 after a nationwide search. Clif Smart took over as president at Missouri State University in October 2012, after MSU conducted a search internally. That same month, Drury University’s newly selected president, David Manuel, was formally installed after taking over the helm in June.
Alex Perwich filled the position of president and CEO of Enactus’ U.S. division, after the previous president left three months into the position.
Community Blood Center of the Ozarks began a search in October when the first and only executive director of CBCO, Don Thomson, announced his retirement. The CBCO Board of Directors commissioned a search firm to set about replacing him and eventually hired Springfield-native Anthony Roberts.
Charlyce Ruth took the title of CEO of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield on March 19. Springfield Public Schools contracted with a national executive search firm to find John Jungmann, the new superintendent for the Springfield school district.
The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is currently searching for a new president and CEO, and they too are using an executive search firm to look at the best possible candidates.
The Association of Executive Search Consultants lists thousands of worldwide search firms on its website. The AESC estimates 2010 revenue of about $9.8 billion.
A helping handIn the search for a new Springfield Public School superintendent, a process that began in November and concluded in early March when the SPS Board of Education selected Jungmann from a pool of 13 applicants, the district sought out the services of an executive search firm said, said Parker McKenna, the district’s chief human resources officer.
While other executive level positions within the district are determined internally, the position of superintendent is the only one in which a search firm is used, McKenna said.
“The process is very labor intensive because it needs input from so many groups – the community, stakeholders, the board of education – for this reason candidates for the position needed to be fully vetted, so we contracted with an executive search firm,” McKenna said of the $32,360 contract.
That firm, Omaha, Nebraska-based McPherson & Jacobson LLC that specializes in conducting superintendent searches as well as executive searches for nonprofit agencies, uses a formula to keep superintendent retention rates low.
Thomas Jacobson, the owner and co-founder of McPherson & Jacobson LLC, said in the last five years, almost 80 percent of executives placed by the firm were still in that position, noting that figure is nearly 60 percent for the past 10 years and around half for the past 15 years.
“Our process is what attributes to our success rates,” he said.
The formula comprises five phases, though Jacobson said the fifth phase is what really retains placement.
Part of phase five is providing the client with a guarantee. To back up that guarantee, Jacobson said his firm returns to their client after placement to work with the superintendent on reaching the desired goals and outcomes of the district. If anything should happen to the candidate, the firm has a one- to two-year guarantee to redo the search for only the cost of expenses.
With only three employees running the firm in the Cornhusker State, Jacobson said it is the work of around 100 consultants nationwide that vet potential candidates and work with districts across the country.
When it comes to choosing a new executive, McKenna said leadership qualities are a must and those qualities were made clear to the search firm at the beginning of the process, part of phase one in the formula to successful placement.
Sans search firmDespite their popularity, some entities choose to go it alone. Such was the case for Missouri State University President Clif Smart when he was hired in October 2012.
After the candidate brought to the university by a search firm jumped ship after only a year, Smart said the board of governors were disappointed with the results.
“He only lasted a year, and the university was not ready to start another search. To avoid any more instability, they asked me to be interim president,” Smart said.
Having been the MSU general council for four years and residing in Springfield for more than 20, Smart was no stranger to MSU or the community. After accepting and successfully fulfilling the interim duties for 16 months, Smart was selected from only one other candidate.
Even though his stint as interim president acted as a 16-month job interview, Smart said he still had to go through a rigorous interview process.
“The search at a university is different than a regular business,” Smart said. “There are so many constituents at a university that it makes the process long.”
Smart said a presidential search committee of about 20 faculty members from each college, deans, department heads, students, administrative staff and board members was set up in March 2012. The group narrowed down the applicants to Smart and Murray State University President Randy Dunn in September of that year.
After only two days of interaction with various constituents, an open forum, negotiations of pay and meetings with staff leadership, the board of governors and other constituents during the next month, Smart shed the interim title to become president.
Aside from MSU’s search, Smart has a part in another very public CEO search in the Queen City.
After 26 years of service to the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, Jim Anderson stepped down as president and CEO of the chamber, officially leaving June 30.
Smart, who serves on the search committee, said the cost of search firms can be steep.
“It is often necessary to use a search firm to get the candidate you want, but it’s not free,” Smart said, noting that university president searches, including out-of-pocket travel expenses, can cost between $100,000 and $150,000.
Chamber board Chairman Jeff Schrag declined to discuss the chamber’s process for finding the next person to fill Anderson’s shoes. Cleveland-based search firm Waverly Partners LLC was hired, but Smart didn’t know an exact cost for the chamber, adding the search would be done quietly, contrasted starkly by the very public search a university does as a result of being a tax-funded entity.
The qualities of quality Finding a qualified candidate requires organizations to define the qualities needed in an effective leader.
While those definitions vary depending on the organization, they often overlap, said Jackie Woolsey, director of PenPro Talent, the professional recruitment division of Penmac Staffing Services Inc.
“Companies generally prefer candidates with a successful track record of accomplishment in their specific industry, and the level of expertise, network of contacts, business relationships and resources that experience brings,” she said.
Having interviewed many potential candidates for executive-level positions at MSU, Smart said learning about the community and the organization is of upmost importance for any candidate’s success. A lack of knowledge in what the organization is all about shows him an applicant is not serious about the position.
“I didn’t want to be the president of a university, I wanted to be the president of Missouri State University,” Smart said. “My-20 plus years in Springfield, my knowledge of the university and the state political system, and my history with Missouri State all attributed to the board choosing me.”
Organizations often are scrutinized by potential candidates as well, and candidates expect a great organization to settle down in, search firm owner Jacobson said.
“One of the first questions a potential candidate asks us is, ‘How is the board,’” Jacobson said. “When you have a cohesive board that works well together, that attracts the best candidate.”
