Case
A CMO for a digital coffee chain: we showed the market in 5 months, and the client chose an internal candidate
We showed the client the CMO market and the best external candidates, after which they made a deliberate choice of an internal candidate
An international chain of digital coffee shops (100+ people in the core team) needed a CMO who combined strategy with hands-on work. NEWHR tested two hypotheses, built a long list of 128 candidates and reached a pre-offer to the best external candidate. Having seen the whole market, after 5 months of search the client made a deliberate choice of an internal candidate and stopped the external hire.
Request and constraints
A Russian-speaking CMO ready to work “in the field” and travel abroad on business trips.
- Both strategy and hands-on work; deep involvement in product tasks
- B2C market experience, with priority on businesses at the intersection of online and offline
- Work on the brand, the product concept and the value proposition
- 11 selection stages on the client's side
Why it was hard
Strategy and hands-on at the same time
The role needed a CMO who builds the brand and the value proposition while also diving deep into product tasks and working “in the field”.
Adjacent industries did not work
The first hypothesis, FoodTech, HoReCa and retail, gave no result, so the search had to be widened.
A long selection process
The client had 11 selection stages.
How we searched
Hypothesis 1: we searched adjacent industries — FoodTech, HoReCa and retail
We started with FoodTech, HoReCa with a strong digital focus, and retail. It did not work.
Hypothesis 2: we widened the search to B2C companies with online and offline presence
We widened the search to B2C companies with both an online and an offline presence. This worked.
Funnel
The market map covered more than 100 source companies.
| Stage | Candidates | Conversion from previous stage | Conversion from start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long list: from Lead to CMO, from 100+ companies | 128 | — | 100% |
| Finalists | 8 | 6.3% | 6.3% |
| Pre-offer to the best external candidate | 1 | 12.5% | 0.8% |
The pre-offer went to the CMO of a large retail chain. There was no external hire: the client chose an internal candidate.
Result
Having seen the whole market and the best external candidates, the client made a deliberate choice in favor of an internal candidate and stopped the external search. The search took 5 months.
We have a strong in-house recruiting team, so we fill most roles ourselves. We turn to NEWHR when we need targeted expertise in a specific field or profession. Most searches end in a successful hire. In this case, the CMO search, we consider the collaboration a success because we worked through all the candidates relevant to us and in the end decided against hiring an external person in favor of an internal candidate.
Client, an international chain of digital coffee shops