What We Do

The alternative to Big Four global search firms

Bannerot Partners Deploys a Proven Consultative Process That Reflects  the Origin of Executive Search

The executive search industry’s roots extend to the 1940’s as service offerings of premier management consulting firms. Over time, management consultants recognized the conflict of interest created by recommending an organizational structure or new business strategy, then generating search assignments for leaders to implement their recommendations. Alumni of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, seeking to mitigate the conflicts of interest, extracted search practices from BAH to form firms like Spencer Stuart and Heidrick & Struggles. Commodity-focused contingent employment agencies surfaced in the 1950’s to fill low-level or early career staffing needs focused on functional skills below $100,000 like accounting and project management.

How The Industry Works

What Our Platform Offers

Large firms are built for business development, particularly those that are publicly traded. They support global offices, hire large legal teams, use branding staff to generate press releases and position papers, spend excessively on overhead, and set very aggressive sales goals that require consultants to depend on junior staff for much of the very important strategy and execution tasks. In typical business conditions a large firm search consultant might have 12-15 concurrent searches to achieve BD targets approaching $2 million. In business development pitches a large firm will bring in their “global practice leader” to offer learned observations of industry issues but will likely not play any meaningful role in the search effort.

We designed our platform with client service at the forefront. We seek a limited number of client relationships, defer searches that create overlapping candidate pools, and limit our concurrent search load to maximize partner focus on each assignment. Being partner-led, we do not offload critical aspects of your search to junior staff who you will never meet. We know you, your company, and your goals.

Our platform grants unencumbered access to the widest possible global senior level talent pool. We are frequently called to complete searches after one of the four global firms has failed.

Retained search is a consultative process. Every search assignment is a different business problem. That solution could include an internal candidate, multiple external candidates, or occasionally, a recommendation that the subject role may not be needed.

Contingent recruiting is a commodity-driven sales process. Much like warehouse retail stores, contingent recruiters focus on selling groups of interchangeable skill sets to companies who need large numbers of indistinguishable workers.

We do not accept assignments on less than a fully retained basis. We are consultants compensated for the value of our time and expertise, just as engaging outside counsel or external accounting firms.

Simply stated, we find people for jobs rather than jobs for people. No portion of our fees are refundable and we do not split fees.

Most people, even some senior executives, misunderstand the search process. Their early career exposure to contingent recruiting misinforms their judgement. Too often the question is “how many (title) searches have you done in the last year.” Using a sports illustration, this is similar to asking “how many 185-yard par 3’s have you played in the past year?”

The right question to ask is “what is your handicap?”

A skilled search consultant, just as a management consultant or an elite athlete, is trained to excel on any course. Our track record confirms that we know the right questions to ask, habitually listen critically, and obsessively focus on search strategy that delivers exceptional results regardless of the business problem to solve.

Critical drivers, often unnoticed by clients, impact the likelihood of a successful search.  Opaque to clients, candidates can be “reserved” to specific searches or “parallel processed” across multiple searches. While initially inferring functional expertise, a long history of similar searches by a large firm creates a complex web of inaccessible candidates and off-limit client relationships. Off-limit relationships with other clients, conflicting assignments within search firms, sheer number of concurrent searches, and leveraged/unleveraged search models all contribute to the outcome.

Our dedication to client service deliberately limits our capacity.  This high touch, high focus approach positions us to provide exceptional results for each client on each assignment. We are unencumbered by large firm politics, fee splits, and competing search assignments or conflicting client initiatives.

Some companies promote “disruptive” or “revolutionary” practices that substantially improve executive search…keyword searches, proprietary assessment tests, video promotion of job listings, automated resume harvesting, curated candidate pools…

…Nonsense. CEOs are not recruited using keyword searches.

We believe that search is fundamentally a person-to-person consultative process. Technology certainly allows easier data manipulation and we utilize the same underlying database technology providers and research tools as every major global search firm. While there is no perfect substitute for a face to face interview with a prospective candidate, at client’s direction we can utilize video tools for conversations throughout the search process.

However, we must walk the halls of your office, meet your team, meet your EA to understand who, how, and why. Only then can we define candidate attributes, motivations, and experiences which are critical to successfully accomplishing our client’s mission.