Finding an Outstanding Leader to Drive Your Business to Success
Since 1988, Perry-Martel International has worked with CEOs and Owners across three specialized industries—construction, technology, and real estate—to enable them to hire great leaders and outperform their competitors.
In a conversation with Manage HR magazine, David Perry, CEO and managing partner of Canadian executive search firm Perry-Martel International, sheds light on how the company enables organizations worldwide to find and hire the best leaders.
Challenges Observed in the Industry and Perry Martel International
The goal in an executive search isn’t to find the best talent currently looking for work, or at least it shouldn’t be. What it should be is finding the best talent, period. And herein lies the recruiting challenge: the best executives aren’t looking for work. They already have jobs – good jobs.
Business leaders know that companies with great executive talent significantly outperform their competitors. So, it should come as no surprise that the competition for talent is fierce. Additionally, COVID, globalization, and changing demographics have led to a scarcity. All this to say that effective recruiting is now at the core of what builds competitive advantage.
As an executive search firm, our key objective is to help clients hire that one ‘keystone’ executive who can align corporate values, unite staff, ignite growth, and create wealth. We have successfully completed more than 1600 projects to date, by finding the very best, engaging their interest, hiring them, and ensuring they stick around.
Unique Approach of Perry Martel International
We follow the Inside-out Approach™ in realtime while working with clients. It starts with a deep dive into the organization to understand its’ mission and vision, positioning in the marketplace, short- and long-term goals, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of its current executive team. Based on that knowledge, we create a custom-tailored recruitment campaign to locate, evaluate, and attract exactly whom they need quickly.
With the Inside-Out Approach™ executive integration start during the recruiting process. We consider, right out of the gate, the three C’s of talent retention – Cause, Connection and Compensation. This ensures that the new executive can contribute quickly and meaningfully – and makes them nearly impossible to recruit away. We don’t fill a box on an organization chart- we create ‘value’ connections between the chosen candidate and the entire executive team.
A Successful Collaboration Leading to Positive Enterprise Outcomes
In the early 1990s, the CEO of a Canadian construction company approached us as they wanted to out of the “rip-and-read business” and into the design-build business. We discussed it and figured out what they needed to do.
A global mandate led us to the best construction management companies in the world. We recruited a director of PR and Marketing who had been involved in landing Canary Wharf, Euro Disneyland, and the refurbishment of the Statue of Liberty in the prior year. At the time of his joining, the client’s revenues were approximately $320 million. The executive hired retired 26 years later as a divisional president, and the firm had $3.4 billion in revenues.
In another instance, Canada’s biggest pension fund created OMERS Realty Corporation about twenty-five years ago. They hired Chuck Magwood and Paul Colangelo, who had just finished building the SkyDome in Toronto. We were approached that same week to find a CFO with international real estate experience who understood construction. We successfully acquired for them a CFO who was a P.Eng. MBA, CA, who eventually became the CEO of OMERS Realty.
In the executive search business, reputation is everything. We believe you should judge a firm based on the Return on Investment of each project. “Landing a Star can catapult your company to new heights by increasing sales, boosting productivity, or finding new markets”, he adds.
