Reverse Search Program

There are over 20,000 paid board seat openings every year. Executive search firms are retained to fill approximately 15% of them—the rest are filled through word of mouth and networking. Though boards commonly state that they “invite” prospective candidates to be on their boards as if the position is an honorary appointment, the reality is that these seats are statutorily mandated to be filled. They use terminology related to “invitations” to maintain some semblance of exclusivity and control over the application flow.

It’s often said that you must know someone to be invited to be on a board. That may have been true in the distant past when CEOs and Chairmen wanted friendly boards to bless their initiatives, compensation and not vote them out of a job.

This is not the case anymore in the current complex environment of regulation and the Internet. Having a friendly introduction does not guarantee that the decision maker is more likely to want you on their team. Nowadays, boards are looking for diversity in gender, ethnicity, skills, industry experience and age. One only has to look at recent articles of terminated CEOs to see why diversity and relevant functional skills are the new mandate.  Diversity is no longer considered filling quotas but rather a powerful tool to create policies and strategies that address customers and social concerns and strengthen internal and external communication.

It must be noted that board seat openings are rarely published, hence one of the greatest advantages of getting your background directly in front of decision makers, in multiple modalities (hard copy, voice, email), is the access you have to the “hidden” market. Hidden board seats are obviously more difficult to uncover. Consequently, there are typically fewer applicants for these opportunities.

Our philosophy is to generate interviews through “attraction” instead of “promotion,” meaning that rather than hunt for open board seats and promote you to the decision maker, we educate decision makers about you in a critical mass of well researched companies with boards and committees, where your background would be applicable, then let the decision maker invite you to the discussion, akin to the concept of permission-based marketing. We believe that custom direct mail, supported by a compelling cover note, succinct résumé and a follow-up voice presentation, directly to the decision maker, is the fastest and most effective method of generating interviews.

The “reverse search” methodology produces results. We provide a powerful tool that can be difficult and time-consuming to develop on your own. The rest, however, depends on your motivation, enthusiasm and level of commitment to securing and smoothing your executive transition.

How We Execute a Successful Reverse Search

When Executive Advisory conducts a board search on your behalf, we proceed with a team of four members through the following series of steps designed to launch your search within 30 days, generate interviews within 45-60 days and acceptance of a board nomination within 90 days.

Strategy Session

Each new client relationship begins with a 60 to 90 minute strategy session. During this session, you will discuss, with the team leader, your background and skills and how they may be reflected in a governance parlance, your geographical preferences and isolating industries where your experience is likely to be in demand.

Résumé Re-Write and Target List Development

The résumé writer creates a compelling presentation of your career history by tailoring your professional skills to project the areas of governance designated by the target board committees. The résumé writer also develops a cover note that articulates how your skills will benefit the target board’s needs. Drafts of the résumé and cover note are sent to you for your feedback and approval.

The passive researcher develops a list of target companies using advanced research skills and intelligence data (some of which include our proprietary databases as well as Hoovers, Lexis Nexis, Dun & Bradstreet, OneSource, and Bloomberg). A draft of the target list is sent to you for approval.

Active Research

The active researcher will call each company on the target list to ascertain the committee chair to whom you would directly report. The active researcher gathers names, titles, addresses, phone numbers, email and fax numbers for each target company. Obtaining this information typically involves 2 to 20 investigative calls per target.

Résumé, cover note, contact list, “follow-up call pitch” and instructional information are sent to you.

Résumé and Cover Sheet Distribution

Copies of the résumé and cover note are sent in the mail to each contact on the target list in batches of 10 to 20 per day, ensuring that the follow-up calls can be made in a timely manner.

Follow-Up Calls

The follow-up call pitch is made to each contact to secure appointments. This involves repeated calls to each target since contacts may be difficult to reach due to meetings, travel or other prior commitments. We make all follow-up calls. The only calls clients will be involved with are phone interviews.

Interviews

Interviews occur as informational interviews, phone interviews and face-to-face interviews. The team leader assists with the interview preparation and follow-up. We will do the necessary preparation to support and guide you through each interview so that you appear knowledgeable and do not find yourself in an awkward situation.

Board Invitations

Why Are We Unique?

We strategically target companies that will most likely have an interest in your skills and background (this does not involve simply pulling up databases or SIC and NAICS codes).

Blasting your resume to thousands of firms is a waste of valuable time and resources. Like customers, companies differ greatly in their needs, perceptions and preferences. Therefore, the boards that will be the most responsive to you are those that are in strategically defined industries with companies that have committees where your governance skills are most closely aligned.

We make calls into each company to identify the person to whom you would directly report based on our target committees. It must be noted that our target committee directors most likely do not work for the company that we are seeking a board seat with. Hence, it takes extensive research to ascertain their respective contact information.

We do not rely solely on databases (such as Hoovers, Dun & Bradstreet and Bloomberg) to obtain contact information. We conduct fundamental, proprietary research in many special business channels. Getting directly to decisions makers is at the heart of our value proposition.

With the vast number of companies listed on databases (Hoovers lists approximately 65 million), these resources cannot guarantee accuracy. In fact, it is estimated that only 50-75% of the information on databases is accurate. Sending out résumés, based on this information, will result in additional loss of time and money. That is why it is critical to call into each company to gather this information.

It is critical that we approach the decision maker for the committees that we are targeting, since he/she has the greatest nomination power. The decision makers may be the first, and only, people who know of a board opening.  We make informed, well-presented follow-up calls, on your behalf, directly to decision makers as a critical step in producing interviews for you.

Although 85% of our clients meet their board objective within the first 100 targets, we guarantee to continue generating targets/contacts for you, at no additional expense, until you meet your board objective.

Please contact us at 312-257-2899 if you have further questions.