When you are walking down a lonely country road at night, your flashlight only shows the next steps in front of you. But using night-vision goggles would give you a view of the entire landscape.
Similarly, if you stop to look at the sky, you can admire the twinkling lights with just your eyes. But a telescope lets you appreciate distant constellations and individual stars.
In both cases, you can transform your view of the world by using a specific tool. And the same is true of executive searches in consumer brands. Too many retail companies rely on job postings and executive databases to find their next leaders and consider only a narrow slice of the most obvious options, but network mapping expands the view.
Network mapping doesn’t show you the relationship between places. It shows you the relationship between people. With network mapping, you can create a visual outline of professional relationships. You can leverage connections and referrals to find promising candidates who may not be actively searching for a job.
Here’s how network mapping gives you a better view of the talent landscape.
It Reaches the Brightest Executives
The most qualified executives in the consumer goods industry probably aren’t looking for a new job. They’re leading high-performing teams and delivering results at competing organizations. These leaders are as far from a job board or an executive database as distant galaxies are from Earth.
Just like a telescope brings stars into focus over hundreds of miles, network mapping allows you to reach top-notch passive candidates. Consumer goods executive headhunters build a map of all the relevant professionals in their network. Then, these hiring experts trace the leaders’ career histories and identify the executives who might be interested in your opportunity, whether or not they are checking job boards.
Because search partners have established relationships with C-leaders and reach out confidentially, they can engage with candidates who wouldn’t respond to a cold message or check LinkedIn for a posting. This might include someone like a VP of Brand Strategy who has spent the past three years repositioning a heritage consumer brand and only takes calls from people she trusts.
Network mapping not only connects you to the brightest executives in the market, but it also allows you to reach out to specific leaders through channels they trust.
It Expands Your Talent Pool
When you’re filtering through job applications, it’s easy to focus on the titles and brand names on candidates’ resumes. That only exposes a narrow slice of leaders who meet your qualifications. What you don’t see are leaders who may not make it through rigid resume filters but who have the aptitude to thrive at your company.
Network mapping helps you see qualified leaders beyond your title or brand parameters. Some of the most effective consumer brand executives come from mid-tier or emerging brands. They don’t have all of the shiny job titles, but they have driven more strategy and developed broader leadership skills than their counterparts at larger organizations.
A network-informed search also finds candidates from other industries that bring relevant skills and perspectives to your consumer goods company. If an innovative approach is key to your Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) executive search strategy, then you may need someone outside of retail. Search partners with strong networks can be your guiding light here. They may know the media executive or hospitality leader you could hire to refresh your marketing department.
Rather than skipping over talented candidates because they don’t hold the titles or work for the brands you included in your keyword search, expand your view. There’s a promising ecosystem of leaders out there, and network mapping lets you see them.
It Focuses on Leadership Skills
Relying on resumes usually means you have to read between the lines of where a leader has been to figure out how they really lead.
You can draw a more complete picture of the candidates through network mapping. You have intelligence on each person’s leadership style from industry relationships, peer networks, direct conversations, and recruiters’ experience.
This information matters for skill-intensive executive roles. Take a consumer goods company that just secured a major retail partnership and needs a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to lead the growth. You can find proven leaders with the necessary scaling experience through a CEO search partner’s network.
Network mapping makes it much easier to see the shape of a leader rather than guessing at resumes.
It Provides Context for Success
Each job board application is a mystery. You don’t know the person submitting it, and they don’t know your company. You have to build an entire relationship from scratch during the recruitment process.
That approach takes more time and invites more risk. You’re more likely to misunderstand the candidate’s interest or their fit in your organization. And since cultural misalignment is the number one reason new executives leave a company, it’s essential to get the fit right.
Network mapping provides better protection from this risk. You can see the leaders more clearly from the start. You have evidence from trusted peers, former colleagues, and search partners that the candidates could fit your company culture.
Hiring with context matters more to executives in consumer goods companies. Leaders who already understand your reputation in the industry and the stakes of the role are more sure of their interest than cold applicants. They are less likely to be caught off guard in the final interview and leave you in the lurch.
It Keeps You Prepared for Anything
When you have an executive role open, you lose time, money, and momentum for every minute that seat goes unfilled. Starting an executive search from scratch often leads to rushed decisions and misaligned hires.
Network mapping keeps you from having to start cold. Your search partner maintains an ongoing map of named candidates across relevant talent pools. With their help, you always have a roster of dynamic leaders who can fill your critical roles, along with information about their leadership skills and cultural fit.
Executive Recruitment with Clarity
The best leaders in consumer brands are not always the most visible ones. Instead of focusing on the candidates who are easiest to see, network mapping reveals the broader leadership landscape as well as the motivations and skills within each executive.
Rather than searching for talent in the dark or guessing at a candidate’s fit, approach your executive recruitment with clarity by mapping your leadership network.
