Search 2.0: Impact of the Science of Search

If you are refreshing or rebooting the leadership of the portfolio company, then time is of the essence. The new leaders need to be on board and driving hard as early as possible if the company will achieve the investment thesis..

At Bespoke Partners, we have studied the outcomes of our more than 700 executive search placements for private equity firms in the software sector.

We have identified what it takes to be a leader who can execute on value creation plans and drive a company to exit. We have captured the best practices for finding, recruiting and onboarding these leaders, quickly, efficiently and successfully.

Our process will transform a portfolio company’s leadership.

We call that process Search 2.0.

Human capital: the new lever of growth

Decades ago, private equity firms often based much of the growth plan for a new portfolio company on financial engineering, exploring questions like:

Are there costs and inefficiencies we can drive out of this business?

Are there opportunities for optimizing operations?

Are there organic or inorganic ways to fuel growth?

These tried-and-true financial engineering approaches to portfolio company growth are now ubiquitous. Every firm of every size in every sector uses them. They are no longer a source of advantage or a way to generate outsized returns for your firm’s investors.

That’s why today’s new lever of strategic growth is human capital management.

And critical to moving that lever is to get the right leaders in place as quickly as possible.

Search 2.0: The Science of Search

Over the past decade of specializing in search for private equity, Bespoke Partners has studied very carefully how to conduct the most efficient leadership search with the best outcomes.

We call our process Search 2.0. It differs from traditional search in key ways:

It is data driven. Traditional search often relies on gut and casting a wide net to identify as many candidates as possible who “seem” like a fit for a role. Then the resumes are thrown over the transom for consideration with the hope one of them will work. Our process instead uses rigorous, proven personality tests and analytics to narrow the focus very quickly on the candidates who actually will fit the company and leadership team.

It ties search to the growth plan and investment thesis. We have completed more than 650 senior leadership searches for private equity portfolio companies in software and SaaS. We know the space and we know what a leader needs to do to meet a private equity firm’s investment thesis. Search 2.0 captures this domain expertise into a simple, highly effective series of steps.

It is incredibly efficient. We have an unparalleled network of seasoned leaders in software. We apply proven testing and analysis in every search. We have unmatched understanding of portfolio company success factors. That means we don’t waste your time or ours with chasing candidates who are not a fit.

It produces unmatched insight. We offer Deep Validation, which is the industry’s most in-depth backchannel candidate reference checking. We gather real evidence of a candidate’s potential to excel in the role. Our Advanced Scorecarding provides a comprehensive view of a candidate’s fit with the position’s essential requirements. Our FIT Profile further yields a holistic analysis of how the candidate would fit with the company and the executive team.

We call all of this the “Science of Search” because we approach leadership transformation as a challenge to be met with processes, data, and efficiency. We describe it as “Executive Search Reinvented.”

And it works.

Unrivaled outcomes

Does Search 2.0 make a difference? Consider:

• Our placed finance executives have been instrumental in cutting portfolio company hold periods.
• Our typical search completion and placement of senior leaders takes less than half of the time of other search firms.
• We have a 99% success rate with senior leader placements.
• A full 100% of our tier 1 private equity clients become repeat customers.
• We bring you transformative leaders. Our placed CEO, CFO and other senior leaders have orchestrated dozens of exits, dozens of M&A events and executed on growth plans that generate outsized returns for private equity firms and investors.

The net is that our process finds the right leaders and places them faster.

In future blog posts, we will dig further into what makes Search 2.0 unique and why Bespoke is quickly becoming the preferred partner for human capital management in portfolio companies. We will take a look at our unique FIT Profile framework. We will explore leadership transformation during the first 100 days after a deal closes. We will discuss effective human capital pre-deal due diligence.

Drop us a line if you would like to explore how Search 2.0 will get your portfolio company on the growth fasttrack.