A complex brief was addressed by Carmichael Fisher with creativity and speed, when Leica Microsystems Group wanted to appoint a global financial controller for its $1.1bn division of the Danaher Corporation.
The Recruitment Task
One of Fortune Magazine’s most admired companies and the leading precision equipment firm, the Danaher Corporation is a $13bn USD publicly-traded company
that designs, manufactures and markets industrial and consumer products.
Andy Savage is global VP for HR at Leica and HR VP for Danaher in Europe. He admits that his brief for the new global financial controller was complex: “This is obviously a key role in the business, working from our Frankfurt office. We were looking for someone with experience of US GAAP reporting, who was fluent in English, but could speak German and who understood local German filing requirements.”
The recruitment task was further complicated by the fact that many suitable candidates in the German market worked for very traditional operations which contrasted dramatically with Leica’s fast-paced approach. The cultural fit was an important added dimension to the brief; the appointee needed to be happy to take responsibility for themselves, but equally happy to work effectively within the Leica and Danaher fast-moving organisation.
“Lateral thinking quickly addressed the brief”
A Great Start
Andy Savage explains how Carmichael Fisher met the brief:
“Two things combined to get us off to a great start, firstly that our key contact at Carmichael Fisher was German and so she understood the market very well and secondly that Carmichael Fisher knows us so well that they had a very clear understanding of the kind of candidate that would fit within our culture.”
Lateral thinking from Carmichael Fisher quickly addressed the brief for Leica. With many international firms and Germanspeakers operating in Switzerland, Carmichael Fisher recognised that this could be a good source of potential candidates. In fact the successful candidate was indeed a German woman working in Switzerland for an international company who was keen to move back to her native Germany.
The Ideal Result
Andy Savage was delighted with the end result: “Six months in and the appointment has worked out really well. Not only was the candidate ideal, we were also impressed with the speed with which Carmichael Fisher operated. We set a target of 120 days for appointments and this one was achieved in 97 days, which is an excellent result.
This was the first time Danaher had used Carmichael Fisher for recruitment outside the UK and the impressive results have ensured that it will not be the last.
Carmichael Fisher specialises in providing best practice executive search and selection services to private and public sector organisations around the world. With offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, the firm has built a solid reputation for supporting US based organisations with recruitment in Europe and beyond.
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