Challenge
Our client, a manufacturing startup in the greater Boston area, founded by two engineers, found their firm quickly outperforming its projected sales goals and in need of a dedicated Chief Financial Officer. Initially, the founders could oversee the firm’s financial responsibilities. However, as time progressed, the complexity of the financial workload increased for our client.
The new CFO was expected to implement the firm’s first-ever accounting policies and processes. Recruiting a high-caliber candidate capable of leading such an initiative was challenging for the firm’s leaders. Both founders needed to focus on driving sales and engaging with clients, and neither had the bandwidth to conduct a dedicated search for the CFO position.
After receiving a referral from a tax advisory firm that was a previous client of Daley And Associates, the founders sought Daley’s financial industry knowledge and experience to conduct an extensive search and find the right person for their new role.
Approach
Since our client had little experience working with an executive search firm before this project, the firm’s founders were initially reluctant to divulge company information and hiring objectives. They needed to recruit a new team member whom they could trust explicitly with all the firm’s financial information and responsibilities, and the pressure to find this individual was mounting as their business continued to grow. In addition to the pressure from growth, the founders had their own money on the line, with no outside investors.
Within the first few minutes of the introductory meeting, the firm’s leaders found value in Daley’s genuine approach. Daley’s recruiters provided examples of recruitment projects and detailed their cost-effective methodology, a process that has allowed the Daley And Associates team to place quality candidates while remaining within their client’s budgets.
In this instance, Daley’s recruiters focused on finding a candidate who aligned with the founders’ personalities and could be entrusted with the firm’s most sensitive financial data.
Once these qualities were identified in the initial search, Daley’s team vetted candidates to ensure they could implement the firm’s inaugural accounting systems. In past roles, many candidates had expanded and improved upon existing systems, but few had experience building policies and processes from the ground up.
Results
The Daley And Associates team provided the firm with detailed compensation packages, including a detailed data analysis to support its proposal. After gathering custom insights from similar recruitment cycles in recent years, Daley’s recruiters communicated the key differences at varying price points to the firm’s leaders to ensure they understood each tier’s average return on investment.
Ultimately, the Daley And Associates team managed to fill the position at a lower cost than the firm’s founders expected, further establishing their trust in the partnership. Two months after the placement was finalized, the founders expressed their gratitude for Daley’s efficiency and noted how their new team member was excelling in the role.
The new CFO, who had previous experience in implementing an inaugural accounting system, was brought on to take charge of developing a comprehensive accounting and finance back-office strategy. In addition to bringing all accounting processes and financial statement management in-house, the CFO would be heavily involved in evaluating and selecting the firm’s new ERP and accounting software systems.
A year later, the same CFO continues to oversee the firm’s financial operations, and Daley And Associates still serves as the firm’s exclusive recruitment partner.
Daley And Associates
In today’s market, professional services firms often rely on a transactional business model. Many of these firms provide clients with high volumes of candidates in hopes of filling roles as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, this model often fails to deliver the long-term results that so many clients seek when partnering with an external agency. Often, the cost of placing an unfit candidate into a role exceeds the cost of leaving the role vacant.
Daley And Associates prides itself on its relationship-first model. Our seasoned recruiters take time to understand our client’s business and recruiting goals. As a boutique firm with more than 255 years of combined recruiting experience, our hands-on approach has helped our team build a strong reputation across industries and professional disciplines.
Whether your organization is hiring for a new C-Suite member or a staff-level employee, Daley And Associates is ready to help you find the quality talent your team needs.
