Market Intelligence & Talent Mapping

We understand the need for diversity, inclusion, and belonging throughout an organization and the competitive advantage that a diverse executive team may offer our clients. Despite much progress in the last decade, many of our clients still find their leadership teams to be disconcertingly homogeneous. When organizations have limited options to diversify through internal promotion, they turn to us to understand the external marketplace and the best approach to diversify talent.

Client Challenge:

• Increase the level of diversity within the finance leadership team
• Source talent with relevant industry expertise
• Determine which functions to prioritize for diverse hires

Approach:

We conducted a mapping study for a Fortune 100, personal lines insurance carrier to identify diverse executive level talent within the Treasury, Tax, and FP&A functions. We broke out current leaders in those areas as well as step-up talent within their 30 primary competitors in the home, auto, and life insurance sectors. To accomplish these tasks, we leveraged a set of internal and external databases in conjunction with active networking. We also identified tax as a relatively diversity-rich function within insurance on a national basis.

Result:

Mapping resulted in the placement of a female Korean-American Chief Tax Officer.

Due diligence is a critical step of the M&A process. It helps stakeholders better understand the nature of the deal, the potential risks involved, and how it aligns with existing business strategies. One key area that is often skipped over but has the potential to make or break the success of the deal is assessing the existing leadership and talent.

Client Challenge:

A Private Equity client had concerns about the leadership team of a target acquisition, namely that they would have difficulty in acquiring additional companies because of existing leadership dynamics. This was a very niche market, primarily run by family patriarch, so traditional back-channeling was not as effective.

Approach:

We developed a custom list of all owners and CEOs in the market and identified 15 target companies with multiple contacts at each. Where contact information for the leadership team was unavailable, we leveraged our network to make introductions. We then made one-off cold calls to ask open-ended questions about the leadership teams of 3 target companies in order to tease out candid market perspectives. By expanding to 3 companies, the target individuals were not highlighted in conversations. Questions included:

• How are they perceived by peers in the industry? Are they viewed as fair, trustworthy, and reliable?
• Would a business owner be comfortable selling to them? Are they good stewards of the businesses and their employees?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses, with regards to areas including sales growth, M&A, and operations?

Result:

After engaging in dozens of conversation, we produced 8 material information transcripts for the client. We conducted weekly meetings to discuss additional color and context, including tone and implied perceptions in the market. This intel gave the investors enough data and insights to validate their decision, which was ultimately to not invest in the potential asset.

When looking to fill a vacant executive role, companies have two options: 1) recruit from the existing talent pool, or 2) look outside the organization for new talent. Recruiting internally may offer employees a feeling of security and stability and can reduce onboarding and transition time. On the other hand, searching externally can surface talent with fresh ideas and perspectives that can drive overall performance of the organization. In either case, it’s critical to thoroughly assess candidates for alignment with culture, goals, and strategy.

Client Challenge:

Our client was a PE-backed, mid-tier behavioral health services company. Through the talent network, the CEO met and interviewed a viable COO candidate. While talent networks can be a great resource for portfolio companies, the PE fund and CEO wanted to ensure that the market didn’t surface additional, better-fit talent to fill the role of COO.

Approach:

Morgan Samuels mapped the potential COO market outside of the company’s network/connections. Utilizing our proprietary methods and assessments, we further identified, vetted, and assessed several additional candidates. In doing both steps in parallel, when our team identified areas for concern with the network candidate, we were able to easily launch into a full search for a COO since the market had already been mapped.

Result:

Morgan Samuels identified over 200 candidates for the COO role in less than 30 days. Our client’s CEO met seven additional candidates and hired one – 78 days after the Market Intelligence & Talent Mapping project was launched.