Here’s a few insights from Delyan Grozdev, Veronika Mohacsi, Raik-Eric Theil and Sina Nowack about the invaluable role they and all our researchers play.
What does a day in the life of a Researcher look like?
It is varied! Being a researcher is undoubtedly a wide-ranging role involving lots of communication (with the team and our candidates), timely emails, telephone interviews and compilation of project briefs leading to systematic search, collection of business news and knowledge sharing (in person and with web platforms), thorough industry research and of course database maintenance.
What is your typical approach to finding candidates for a specific role?
At the outset we discuss with the consultant the best approach in terms of any possible sources or candidates on which to focus. If the role is one we do regularly in a given industry, then we get rolling pretty fast. In other cases though, the first thing to do may be to talk to a source well-positioned in the given field to get a better understanding. Vera says, “Naturally, we examine our earlier projects for similar roles, draw on our database and do Boolean search. I am old school in that I strongly believe in great candidates recommending great candidates.”
Raik-Eric agrees, “I work with Boolean strings in Linkedin and Xing and systematic cover letters. I talk to key people from the sector and ask them and contacts for recommendations.”
With an ever-increasing online presence, Executive Search is changing. How do you see your role developing in the future?
Delyan believes that the future is already here with automated tools like LinkedIn and Google Alerts being a good way to stay up to date with people and companies. “Technical skills for working with CRM/database tools and web search tricks are essential, but it is still a knowledge-based job so it remains crucial that we are deeply interested in how businesses and people work, to be able to target our searches well, using all the technology at hand. Data management is an increasingly time consuming issue both in terms of volume and knowing what’s what - don't talk to me about GDPR!”
The modern researcher, agrees Raik-Eric, must understand how to collect the right data, process it and translate it into appropriate action in order to continuously improve. “In the digital world, work is becoming more data-driven and scalable. We must therefore be able to move confidently in the relevant systems and on the relevant platforms.”
Sina reiterates however that is vital researchers do not lose professionalism in the way candidates are contacted, “It is becoming more and more important to address candidates in the right way and to network in a discreet way.”
What do you enjoy most about your role?
All agree that it is a privilege to interact with many differing personalities from a range of industries on a variety of issues. Acquiring knowledge is a vital part of the role – from business through to science - as well as understanding how businesses work and how the economy evolves.
In terms of international collaboration, Sina added, “Networking across national borders is very important for our clients and thus for me as a Researcher.”
How has the changes and new demands on industry affected the search process?
With so much information readily available and the pace of change in the world today, clients expect results faster. To stay competitive we need to balance speed with quality search methodology. In general, the demands on services are constantly increasing. In the course of customer centricity, our clients and candidates also expect our process to be targeted, transparent and fast.
Whenever the new normal arrives, and it will come in 2021, there will be a rush for talent. What action are you seeing companies taking at the moment?
Vera sums it up, “ In my experience, companies have recruitment needs now same as ever, I don’t see them holding back on a rush for talent later. Most of our clients are simply rethinking the way they work in the new normal.” Reflecting on the anomalous 2020, she added, “We’ve been conducting projects with virtual interviews and while it doesn’t offer the same experience as live interviews, it seems to be working pretty well. Considering how much time and energy can be saved (both from our side and candidates’ as well), virtual interviews may be with us for good. Our roles could involve zero face to face interaction with candidates - but I hope not!”
Veronika Mohacsi, Hungary
Raik-Eric Theil, Germany
Delyan Grozdev, Bulgaria
Sina Nowack, Germany
You have been responsible for international business development for years. What do you enjoy most about this role?
Diversity. Diversity, in terms of colleagues, cultures, projects and the international scene where we service our Clients. It delivers new challenges on a daily basis that I need to solve rather fast. Besides my work as a consultant on the Hungarian market, my international business development role makes it more complex providing me with a lot of new information, insights of international trends and involvement with how our Partners handle projects in various countries. It is just fun!
The concept of thinking globally is now more widespread. Why do you think Friisberg is so successful working globally and on cross border assignments?
Quite simply, Friisberg can be very responsive to the markets. Our flexible methodologies mean some of our offices actually exhibited massive growth during 2020, which is simply admirable. Even before the pandemic we positioned Friisberg not only as a trusted search firm, but also a management consultancy firm, delivering solutions for business leaders in management audit, board services, network science-based organisational development and business partner search.
What qualities do you think are required to facilitate effective international business development?
You must love it and you must be dedicated to it. Having inspiring people around you whether that is your colleagues, clients or candidates, helps and we must all listen to each other carefully. Openness is very important in such a role.
How do you use technology? Do you use business intelligence tools or systems and what steps you do take to analyse trends and identify new opportunities?
Throughout Friisberg we use various cloud based platforms for our business administration, but most importantly our Friisberg Network Advisory (FNA), which is a network science-based organisational development tool supported by AI, reveals the social network of the company and provides the opportunity to visualize and thus analyse and manage the relationship of business units and individuals. This is much loved by our clients too!
Where do you see Friisberg in 5 years’ time?
Friisberg is a growing organisation so my role is increasingly interesting. We are opening new offices in new cities and new countries and we plan to expand even more in the coming years. The future is very bright for Friisberg!
Zoltan Petho
Partner, Hungary
With such economic volatility and uncertainty currently, oversight by boards is more important now than ever.
A balanced view is critical to the success of a company, and maybe even its survival. However, boards may whether wilfully or unwittingly converge on collegial consensus and by doing so fail to address crucial issues. Independence from each other and thereby better collective decision-making are interconnected prizes that are hard fought but well worth winning.
In 2015, Siobhan Sweeney’s “The creation of the Contrarian Director and their role in achieving workable board independence and better risk oversight” caused something of a stir. The premise of that paper is as pertinent now as it was then, and in the aftermath of Coivd-19 perhaps even more so. Having a ‘Contrarian Director’ - a devil’s advocate - on a board to question the herd instinct, to investigate alternatives and recommend innovative approaches whilst acting independently and impartially will deliver more robust examinations of facts, options and proposals.
The longstanding and arguably inevitable consequence of capitalism is that the untried, untested, unknowns are avoided in favour of their more familiar counterparts. The composition of a board of directors will often follow the same trajectory, with reinforcement of success in the form of making another appointment not too dissimilar to the last. The case for independent thinking, and diversity of background (gender, ethnicity, education, experience) has not been made in sufficient boardrooms - all too many boards continue to miss opportunities in the appointment process leading to a reinforcement of an established culture.
Groupthink and confirmation bias in a board room are dangerous and difficult to root out. They can easily override the most rigorous of decision-making processes and detract from even the most respected expert opinion. Self-awareness is the key to reversing such a slide.
Chairs, and other NEDs should recognise when:
Consciously or subconsciously Chairs may prefer directors who will help them build a consensus. The concept of the contrarian runs counter to that – and deliberately so – so it will take a strong Chair (and CEO too) to actively seek out and secure someone to the board who can and will challenge them, routinely, but professionally of course.
Once the benefits of more varied thinking in the boardroom become apparent, then the same principles extended to senior management and throughout a company might yield yet more advantages for that company.
But… do please feel free to disagree with me!
Andrew Guy
Partner, UK
Most of us will have heard convincing presentations regarding visions, strategies, clearly defined projects, actions, and willingly, cheerfully, in chorus, agreed to work towards the temptingly described goals:
“Yes we can! Yes we will! Let´s do this!”
We have seen this in several organizations, heard about it from even more, and experienced it ourselves having been infected with the warm fuzzy feeling of the unanimous ‘Team Pledge’.
But, when reality kicks in and we realize this is actually going to necessitate considerable time and effort, the contagious team spirit that made us so determined and willing to sign up, bit by bit disappears…it simply fades away. Of course we all know what we should do, but all too often we hesitate, we do not prioritize - we make excuses. Our previous ‘total commitment’ is in the end, and at best, stored under ‘Happy Shared Moments’, or at worst never spoken about again.
It has long been a challenge for each and one of us to actively (not only in words) support and stand behind agreed visions, strategies, clearly defined projects, actions etc - to make it happen!
Our virtual existence comes with many benefits, indeed online meetings are often a great forum for sharing ideas and creating impressive strategic campaigns, but we have noticed that since the pandemic many people actually have less time to follow through– they are simply trapped behind the screen, too occupied in online meetings to even find the time to eat!
As we increasingly ‘talk the talk’ paradoxically many of us have less time to ‘walk the walk’ and our brilliant strategic plans become little more than ephemeral blue sky thinking…
While we all miss our daily in-person interactions, perhaps they are more important that we ever realized in ensuring our shared and agreed upon ideas actually become reality.
Share with us your tips of how you find the balance between the 'talk' and 'walk'.
We will be waiting behind our screens...
Michael Karlsson
Michael Rooslien
Partners, Sweden
You need to load content from hCaptcha to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from Turnstile to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information
