About IPO
Strategy
Today, IPO Strategy is a
boutique Executive Search
company, successfully recruiting
for Software Companies for Sales
and Management positions throughout
Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong,
China, Japan and other countries..
IPO Strategy grew out of humble beginnings:
In June 1996, I was working as an Executive Search Consultant in London, specializing in recruiting sales, technical and management for
pre-IPO software companies. With
great mentors and great clients, I
was successful, challenged and
fulfilled. Then a new prospective
client challenged me to recruit a German Country Manager for them. I had never recruited outside of the UK and there were plenty of people saying it could not be done. The client had a serious case of Retainer Pain. They said they had already paid three large retainer fees to three different large executive search organisations, suffered through about 50 bad interviews and wasted 6 months to get no result.
As the company was the most
attractive potential client in the
Software industry, I agreed to do the search without a retainer (they had already paid three!).
I successfully completed the search within 21 days.
The client was delighted and
has remained a loyal client since
then. I gave them a choice of
three excellent candidates. The
candidate they hired sold the two
largest deals ever worldwide for
the company in his first six
months.
During that first German search, I stayed true to the fundamental principles of executive search that I had been taught, but through necessity began to innovate and experiment with the search process to solve the challenges of distance, culture and language. I rapidly learned how to best approach and initially assess candidates on the other side of the world, where and how to interview them and how to best manage
recruitment processes from far away.
Successful searches followed in many countries including
Japan, Italy, Holland, USA, Sweden, France, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and many others. I found myself
traveling and working from different locations, which resulted in strange combinations - whilst in the USA I was recruiting in
Italy and Holland, whilst in
Australia I was recruiting in
Singapore and Sweden, and whilst in the
UK I was recruiting in
Australia and Norway. As the geographies expanded, the challenges of time zones and distance became greater, requiring further improvements to the methodology and systems.
I learned quickly that if I
treated candidates in other
countries with lots of respect,
was very well prepared, was very
honest and really knew my clients
inside out, then candidates were
prepared to listen and that made
all the difference! Besides, it
was an unusual experience for a
candidate to receive a headhunt
call from another continent and
that novelty factor got me past
gatekeepers and won the
candidate's initial attention (at
least for 45 seconds, which is all
I needed).
Since 1996, I have continually innovated, experimented and developed the methodology for truly
global executive search.
Many search firms hire junior
or inexperienced staff to perform
tasks such as Research (the
process of identifying candidates)
and Reference-Checking. My
experience is that this does not
work well at all. The quality of
the recruitment work becomes
diluted. Therefore the service to
the clients is reduced. I decided
that IPO Strategy should remain
small, boutique-style and highly
focused. Our Principals are highly
experienced and they do all own
their own research, recruitment,
interviewing and reference
checking. They even type their own
notes. This may all seem old
fashioned, but I believe it's
essential to deliver high quality
recruitment. Our Principals
develop their own headhunt scripts
unique for each position, they
practice these and rehearse
answers to questions from
candidates. They ensure that each
headhunt script is 45 seconds
long, contains 2 Features, 2
Achievements, 2 Benefits and an
effective Close. Every word
counts. Pronunciation and tonality
are critical. All of this means
that IPO Strategy consistently
gets the right candidate for our
clients!
Anthony LaFrenais
Founder & CEO
IPO Strategy
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