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CASE STUDY

Human capital issue

President needed to fill leadership void, reshape portfolio and lead acquisition efforts

Business situation:

Our client was a privately held lodging industry owner/operator.  The company, through organic growth, had a mixed portfolio of premier brand full service and select service properties across North America.  The sitting president had announced his resignation after being in the role for only 7 months.  He had not relocated to the corporate headquarters, failed to establish positive relationships in the organization, and generally spent only 3-4 days in the corporate office.  This resulted in a leadership void both in terms of company “sense of purpose” and progress on strategic goals.

Solution:

A strong, deliberate personality was necessary in the role to restore unity of purpose throughout the organization.  Leadership skills and a strong, successful track record in operations, acquisitions, and portfolio management were certainly necessary.  This person needed intimate knowledge of major brands and an innate ability to recognize value creation opportunities.  As functional head of the corporation, this person needed experience leading all support functions, including HR, finance, legal and marketing.  Our strategy focused on sophisticated owner/operators and management companies, looking primarily to current and past presidents and CEO’s.  While the entire recruitment process required 5 months, we made initial contact with the eventual successful candidate within the first 10 days of the search.

CASE STUDY

Human Capital Issue

Large 3^rd-party hotel management company growing beyond capacity of senior team

Business situation:

Our client was one of the largest 3^rd-party management companies in the industry anticipating substantial growth in the full service sector.  While the senior team was broadly experienced across full service and select service property types, the operations organization was deep in select service skills but lacking in full service experience.  Domain knowledge to support full service business development as well as potential succession planning were becoming areas of concern. Of equal concern was maintaining internal equity in compensation and reporting relationships to ensure acceptance of a new member of the senior team.

Solution:

A strong, yet flexible, operations executive was needed, one who could lead from a #2 ops role while adapting to changing portfolio needs as the company added new properties and shifted geographic alignment across the operations team.  The person needed depth in full service operations and the ability to participate in the development process yet would be comfortable managing a large multi-brand select service portfolio.  Our strategy included owner/operators, 3^rd party management companies and brand franchise operations with a primary focus on management companies.  Our successful candidate required multiple conversations to bring him to the table and a series of meetings with our client.  After lengthy discussions about title and reporting relationships we were able to extract him from a company and role in which he had been very happy.  Our client offered the opportunity to expand his professional scope and join a company of significantly greater scale.

CASE STUDY

Global economy hotel owner/franchiser

Human capital issue:

Chief Marketing Officer retiring, “Big 4” search firm not performing

Business situation:

Our client was a leading $1B brand in the U.S. economy lodging sector. The organization’s CMO was retiring and they were seeking her successor. Our client had engaged one of the global, multi-line executive search firms but, after 45 days, they had produced no candidates and had advised our client that it would likely be another 6 weeks before they could expect to see any candidates. Our client terminated that search and engaged us to quickly solve their problem. Our client needed an executive who could work effectively with the international leadership team, bring a fresh look to branding initiatives of an American icon and position the brand for growth in new geographic and demographic markets. Although our client contact had CPG experience prior to entering the hotel industry, we concurred that their needs could best be met by an executive with consumer services branding experience.

Solution:

Our search strategy included two tracks which would initially focus on competing hotel brands and, secondarily, travel/leisure and consumer services sectors. Scale was important so our initial focus was on brands with at least $500 million in revenue. We identified heads of similar economy and limited service hotel brands as well as sourcing through other leisure and consumer services companies. Our client directed that we present our “best three candidates”. In this case, we had developed 6 candidates who we believed could be very viable. Following our client’s direction, however, we introduced only three and our client declared a “tie” between two. Several rounds of interviews were required before our client selected the successful candidate.

CASE STUDY

Human capital issue:

Chief Marketing Officer retiring, “Big 4” search firm not performing

Business situation:

Our client was a leading $1B brand in the U.S. economy lodging sector.  The organization’s CMO was retiring and they were seeking her successor.  Our client had engaged one of the 3 largest global executive search firms but, after 45 days, they had produced no candidates and had advised our client that it would likely be another 6 weeks before they could expect to see any progress.  Our client terminated that search and engaged us to quickly gain traction.  Our client needed an executive who could work effectively with the international leadership team, bring a fresh look to an iconic American brand and position the brand for growth in new geographic and demographic markets.  Although our client contact had CPG experience prior to entering the hotel industry, we concurred that their needs could best be met by an executive with consumer services branding experience.

Solution:

Our search strategy included two tracks which would initially focus on competing hotel brands and, secondarily, travel/leisure and consumer services sectors.  Scale was important so our initial focus was on brands with at least $500 million in revenue.  We identified heads of similar economy and limited service hotel brands as well as sourcing through other leisure and consumer services companies.  Our client directed that we present our “best three candidates”.  In this case, we had developed 6 candidates who we believed could be very viable.  Following our client’s direction, however, we introduced only three and our client declared a “tie” between two.  Several rounds of interviews were required, before our client selected the successful candidate.

CASE STUDY

Human Capital Issue:

Top Sales and Marketing executive resigning from diversified real estate company lodging business unit.

Business Situation:

Our client was a diversified real estate development company founded by icons in the industry.  The company’s lodging business, focused on developing and operating upscale select service branded products in urban gateway markets, was continuing its rapid growth across the country.  The company planned an organic effort to build 3^rd-party management business from via sale of their developed properties. The company’s top sales & marketing executive, a woman early in her career, elected to resign to allow greater focus on raising her family.  While the company offered commuting opportunities, the executive declined due to the travel demands associated with the role.

Solution:

The sales & marketing role encompassed field sales, revenue management, and ecommerce for premium select service brands in urban gateway markets nationwide. As the portfolio assets averaged less than five years in age, repositioning or rebranding was not of concern.  A skill set that naturally transferred to the management business was highly desirable but certainly an owner’s perspective would be requisite. With minimal definition, the goal was to improve the sales & marketing effort, “taking it to the next level”.  Our strategy was to pursue individuals with a combination of brand and owner/operator experience, those having led S&M efforts for at least 30 properties in multiple urban markets.  Critical to this was finding a match with the client’s formal yet highly entrepreneurial real estate development culture.  With that narrow focus we moved quickly, accelerating the process such that the search was completed in 63 days.

CASE STUDY

$700 Million Diversified Travel Company

Human capital issue:

CFO of 25+ years retiring.

Business situation:

Our client was a privately held $700 million company active in lodging, cruise, retail, tourism, and restaurants. The 60 year old company had experienced rapid through acquisitions over the most recent 10 years resulting in a hodgepodge of accounting systems. The company was also creating a shared services platform to support operating companies active in 70 countries.

Solution:

The company needed a positive, energetic executive capable of upgrading the accounting team and bring all support groups into the shared services platform.  Our search strategy focused on sitting CFO’s in the lodging sector and secondarily on financial executives in the cruise line industry. We introduced 7 candidates within 45 days, two were identified by our client to assume the CFO role and a newly created COO role.

CASE STUDY

Privately held hotel owner operator

Human capital issue:

Retiring CEO needed Chief Investment Officer to assume capital deployment role.

Business situation: Our client was a privately held $250 million company with a 30+ successful years in hotel development and operations. The company was financially stable, with little debt, and a high performing branded portfolio in the Midwest.

Solution:

Our search strategy focused on industry veterans with broad development and investment experience in owner/operator settings. We also considered development-related executives with deep experience in architecture & design, construction, and law. We introduced 6 prospects representing that broad range of experience.

CASE STUDY

Ultra-luxury hotel & resort management company

Human capital issue:

Senior architecture and design executive resigning to pursue development opportunity

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most prestigious management companies in the ultra-luxury sector, called with an urgent need to replace their head of design and construction. This role was the “keeper of the standards” for our 5+ star client.

The CEO was relatively new in his position and was in the midst of reshaping and rebranding the portfolio. The design and construction executive played a key role in enforcing the ultra-luxury brand standard, both in the existing portfolio and for all new projects. This person had to be persuasive with owners, conveying the need to invest architecture and design capital in a manner that defined and reinforced the brand. Our client was of the opinion that “the industry recycles mediocre talent” and challenged us to find a new path in recruiting someone for this critical role.

Solution:

Clearly, there were only a handful of people worldwide with both the technical experience and category knowledge for this leadership role. This was a global search by necessity. We defined two search strategies that would include the very limited peer group (only 7 competitors) and architecture and design firms that served the ultra-luxury sector. We introduced 3 highly qualified candidates within 60 days. Our successful candidate was a highly regarded partner and practice leader from a top architecture and design firm. His work for our client was widely recognized in industry publications and he was a frequent speaker at conferences around the world.

CASE STUDY

Human capital issue:

Senior architecture and design executive resigning to pursue development opportunity

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most prestigious management companies in the ultra-luxury sector, called with an urgent need to replace their head of design and construction.  This role was the “keeper of the standards” for our 5+ star client.  The CEO was relatively new in his position and was in the midst of reshaping and rebranding the portfolio.  The design and construction executive played a key role in enforcing the ultra-luxury brand standard, both in the existing portfolio and for all new projects.  This person had to be persuasive with owners, conveying the need to invest architecture and design capital in a manner that defined and reinforced the brand.  Our client was of the opinion that “the industry recycles mediocre talent” and challenged us to find a new path in recruiting someone for this critical role.

Solution:

Clearly, there were only a handful of people worldwide with both the technical experience and category knowledge for this leadership role.  This was a global search by necessity.  We defined two search strategies that would include the very limited peer group (only 7 competitors) and architecture and design firms that served the ultra-luxury sector.  We introduced 3 highly qualified candidates within 60 days.  Our successful candidate was a highly regarded partner and practice leader from a top architecture and design firm.  His work for our client was widely recognized in industry publications and he was a frequent speaker at conferences around the world.

CASE STUDY

Human capital issue:

A senior development executive was needed to oversee a new 40-story luxury condo/hotel/retail project.  Our client had no capabilities in-house to oversee development and construction.

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most diversified privately held real estate developers in the country, was embarking on a $400 million condo/hotel project within a $2B downtown development district.  The project was well into its design phase with 14+ different world-class architects engaged and initial “dirt work” was under way.  There was only a skeletal team in place to manage the project from the developer side and order needed to be brought to the project as soon as possible.  While condo/hotel projects had been completed across the country in recent years, few luxury projects on the scale of our client’s project had been completed.  The talent pool was limited.

Solution:

We defined our search strategy to those development executives who had led $200+ million luxury condo/hotel projects.  While a national search was the correct path, known to us was a local executive with an ideal professional background and, we believed, a personal style that would blend effectively with our client.  We conducted the search on a national basis to ensure that every suitable candidate was vetted.  Our client quickly reacted to our local candidate, bringing him on board within 60 days of the start of our search.

CASE STUDY

Human Capital Issue:

CEO of a premier development firm lacks development bandwidth for renewed focus on North America

Business situation:

Our client was one of the legendary North America-based developers with a 40 year track record of architectural excellence and massively scaled developments completed worldwide.  Active primarily in Asia for the most recent 5 years, the firm was “getting ahead of the development curve” in North America.  The CEO needed new development talent on board to evaluate and lead mixed use developments ranging from $150 million to $3B.

Solution:

Targeting premier development firms in gateway markets, we looked for developers with concept-to-completion mixed use experience.  Critical were the concept skills necessary to envision successful retail, multifamily and hotel mixed use projects.  In this situation, our client asked for as much creativity as track record, leaving open the possibility of the “rising star” candidate profile.  By reviewing large project summaries in the top 20 markets and targeting specific companies known for development excellence we sourced 5 prospective candidates with broad mixed use development experience within two weeks for our client.

CASE STUDY

$700 Million Diversified Travel Company

Human capital issue:

Chief Information Officer of 25+ years retiring.

Business situation:

Our client was a privately held $700 million company active in lodging, cruise, retail, tourism, and restaurants. The 60 year old company had experienced rapid through acquisitions over the most recent 10 years resulting in a hodgepodge of accounting systems. The company was also creating a shared services platform to support operating companies active in 70 countries.

Solution:

The company needed a positive, energetic executive capable of upgrading the I/T team and bring all support groups into the shared services platform.  Our search strategy focused on sitting CIO’s in the lodging and cruise lines sectors in addition to other consumer services. We introduced 4 candidates within 30 days, two were tied as leading candidates. The finalist was a former I/T consulting partner with broad consumer services experience.

CASE STUDY

$3B restaurant company

Human capital issue:

CIO needed architecture strategist to design and lead ecommerce deployment and design global I/T architecture platform

Business situation: Our client was one of the premier global restaurant companies based in the US. The company franchised almost 3,400 restaurants worldwide and owned and operated almost 950 stores. The CFO and CIO needed a new executive to  drive five-year information technology strategy planning and implementation efforts.  This person would ensure that I/T strategy aligns with business priorities and ensure the company’s enterprise architecture aligns with the long term technology vision.

Solution:

Our search strategy focused on global I/T executives recognized as strategic thought leaders. We assessed leaders in restaurant, retail, and  manufacturing technology experience in widely distributed multi-site business settings. We introduced 7 prospects with global experience across I/T consulting, restaurants, and retail. Our successful candidate accepted the offer 61 days after our assignment start date.

CASE STUDY

Large, diversified real estate developer

Human capital issue:

A senior development executive was needed to oversee a new 40-story luxury condo/hotel/retail project. Our client had no capabilities in-house to oversee development and construction.

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most diversified privately held real estate developers in the country, was embarking on a $400 million condo/hotel project within a $2B downtown development district. The project was well into its design phase with 14+ different world-class architects engaged and initial “dirt work” was under way. There was only a skeletal team in place to manage the project from the developer side and order needed to be brought to the project as soon as possible. While condo/hotel projects had been completed across the country in recent years, few luxury projects on the scale of our client’s project had been completed. The talent pool was limited.

Solution:

We defined our search strategy to those development executives who had led $200+ million luxury condo/hotel projects. While a national search was the correct path, known to us was a local executive with an ideal professional background and, we believed, a personal style that would blend effectively with our client. We conducted the search on a national basis to ensure that every suitable candidate was vetted. Our client quickly reacted to our local candidate, bringing him on board within 60 days of the start of our search.

CASE STUDY

Human capital issue:

A senior development executive was needed to oversee a new 40-story luxury condo/hotel/retail project.  Our client had no capabilities in-house to oversee development and construction.

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most diversified privately held real estate developers in the country, was embarking on a $400 million condo/hotel project within a $2B downtown development district.  The project was well into its design phase with 14+ different world-class architects engaged and initial “dirt work” was under way.  There was only a skeletal team in place to manage the project from the developer side and order needed to be brought to the project as soon as possible.  While condo/hotel projects had been completed across the country in recent years, few luxury projects on the scale of our client’s project had been completed.  The talent pool was limited.

Solution:

We defined our search strategy to those development executives who had led $200+ million luxury condo/hotel projects.  While a national search was the correct path, known to us was a local executive with an ideal professional background and, we believed, a personal style that would blend effectively with our client.  We conducted the search on a national basis to ensure that every suitable candidate was vetted.  Our client quickly reacted to our local candidate, bringing him on board within 60 days of the start of our search.

CASE STUDY

Human Capital Issue:

CEO of a premier development firm lacks development bandwidth for renewed focus on North America

Business situation:

Our client was one of the legendary North America-based developers with a 40 year track record of architectural excellence and massively scaled developments completed worldwide.  Active primarily in Asia for the most recent 5 years, the firm was “getting ahead of the development curve” in North America.  The CEO needed new development talent on board to evaluate and lead mixed use developments ranging from $150 million to $3B.

Solution:

Targeting premier development firms in gateway markets, we looked for developers with concept-to-completion mixed use experience.  Critical were the concept skills necessary to envision successful retail, multifamily and hotel mixed use projects.  In this situation, our client asked for as much creativity as track record, leaving open the possibility of the “rising star” candidate profile.  By reviewing large project summaries in the top 20 markets and targeting specific companies known for development excellence we sourced 5 prospective candidates with broad mixed use development experience within two weeks for our client.

CASE STUDY

Large, diversified real estate developer

Human capital issue:

A senior development executive was needed to oversee a new 40-story luxury condo/hotel/retail project. Our client had no capabilities in-house to oversee development and construction.

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most diversified privately held real estate developers in the country, was embarking on a $400 million condo/hotel project within a $2B downtown development district. The project was well into its design phase with 14+ different world-class architects engaged and initial “dirt work” was under way. There was only a skeletal team in place to manage the project from the developer side and order needed to be brought to the project as soon as possible. While condo/hotel projects had been completed across the country in recent years, few luxury projects on the scale of our client’s project had been completed. The talent pool was limited.

Solution:

We defined our search strategy to those development executives who had led $200+ million luxury condo/hotel projects. While a national search was the correct path, known to us was a local executive with an ideal professional background and, we believed, a personal style that would blend effectively with our client. We conducted the search on a national basis to ensure that every suitable candidate was vetted. Our client quickly reacted to our local candidate, bringing him on board within 60 days of the start of our search.

CASE STUDY

Human capital issue:

Senior architecture and design executive resigning to pursue development opportunity

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most prestigious management companies in the ultra-luxury sector, called with an urgent need to replace their head of design and construction.  This role was the “keeper of the standards” for our 5+ star client.  The CEO was relatively new in his position and was in the midst of reshaping and rebranding the portfolio.  The design and construction executive played a key role in enforcing the ultra-luxury brand standard, both in the existing portfolio and for all new projects.  This person had to be persuasive with owners, conveying the need to invest architecture and design capital in a manner that defined and reinforced the brand.  Our client was of the opinion that “the industry recycles mediocre talent” and challenged us to find a new path in recruiting someone for this critical role.

Solution:

Clearly, there were only a handful of people worldwide with both the technical experience and category knowledge for this leadership role.  This was a global search by necessity.  We defined two search strategies that would include the very limited peer group (only 7 competitors) and architecture and design firms that served the ultra-luxury sector.  We introduced 3 highly qualified candidates within 60 days.  Our successful candidate was a highly regarded partner and practice leader from a top architecture and design firm.  His work for our client was widely recognized in industry publications and he was a frequent speaker at conferences around the world.

CASE STUDY

Human capital issue:

Senior architecture and design executive resigning to pursue development opportunity

Business situation:

Our client, one of the most prestigious management companies in the ultra-luxury sector, called with an urgent need to replace their head of design and construction.  This role was the “keeper of the standards” for our 5+ star client.  The CEO was relatively new in his position and was in the midst of reshaping and rebranding the portfolio.  The design and construction executive played a key role in enforcing the ultra-luxury brand standard, both in the existing portfolio and for all new projects.  This person had to be persuasive with owners, conveying the need to invest architecture and design capital in a manner that defined and reinforced the brand.  Our client was of the opinion that “the industry recycles mediocre talent” and challenged us to find a new path in recruiting someone for this critical role.

Solution:

Clearly, there were only a handful of people worldwide with both the technical experience and category knowledge for this leadership role.  This was a global search by necessity.  We defined two search strategies that would include the very limited peer group (only 7 competitors) and architecture and design firms that served the ultra-luxury sector.  We introduced 3 highly qualified candidates within 60 days.  Our successful candidate was a highly regarded partner and practice leader from a top architecture and design firm.  His work for our client was widely recognized in industry publications and he was a frequent speaker at conferences around the world.