How a Managing Director Search Helped Drive 4X Revenue Growth

Executive search isn't about finding somebody who can do the job that's open today. At the senior level, the real question is whether you can find the leader who can help build the company you're trying to become.

That was the challenge facing Rossmann Architecture.

The firm had strong technical capabilities and an entrepreneurial foundation. But continued growth required a different level of leadership, operating discipline and accountability.

They didn't simply need another experienced architect.

They needed a Managing Director who could help change the trajectory of the business.

The Challenge

Rossmann Architecture had reached the point where growth required more than technical excellence. The business needed stronger operating leadership to support the principals, improve execution and create the management discipline required for the next stage of the company's development.

That's a very different search from filling a vacancy.

The successful executive needed to understand the realities of a professional architectural practice while also being capable of leading people, strengthening accountability and helping the organization scale.

The Search

Perry-Martel approached the assignment from the inside out.

Instead of starting with a conventional job description and searching for people whose résumés matched it, we focused first on the business outcome Rossmann needed the new Managing Director to deliver.

What had to change? What would the successful leader need to accomplish? What abilities would be critical? And what leadership behaviours would work inside the existing organization?

Only then did the search go to market.

That meant looking beyond executives who happened to be available. The target was a leader capable of helping professionalize the business without destroying the entrepreneurial strengths that had already made Rossmann successful.

The Result

The important result wasn't simply that Rossmann filled the Managing Director position.

The right leadership hire helped create the operating capacity required for a substantially larger business.

That's the difference between recruiting to a job description and recruiting to a business mission.

A senior executive hire can affect far more than one position on an organization chart. The right person can change how decisions get made, how people are led, how accountability works and how much growth the organization can absorb.

Why This Search Matters

Architecture, engineering and construction companies frequently promote their strongest technical people into larger leadership roles. Sometimes that works beautifully.

Sometimes it doesn't.

Being an excellent architect, engineer, estimator or project leader doesn't automatically make someone the executive who can build the next version of the company.

Senior leadership requires a different lens.

That's why Perry-Martel defines the required business outcome first, then the abilities and observable behaviours the executive will need to produce it.

The objective isn't to find the best executive looking for a job. It's to find the right executive for the mission — including the people who aren't looking at all.

Executive Search Starts With the Mission

The Rossmann search reflects the methodology Perry-Martel uses across senior leadership assignments.

Our Inside-Out Approach® begins inside the business: with the outcome that must be achieved, the problems the incoming executive will inherit and the environment in which that leader will have to perform.

Our 1:3:8 Leadership Lens sharpens that further by defining leadership around one required outcome, three critical abilities and eight observable behaviours.

Only after the leadership mandate is clear do we go looking for the executive capable of delivering it.