How We Run an Executive Search

Step 1: The Intake and Profile Alignment Session

Before any sourcing begins, we run a structured intake session with the hiring manager, the CEO, and any other key stakeholders who will be involved in the final decision. The goal is not to capture a job description — it is to achieve genuine alignment on the candidate profile, the success definition, and the evaluation criteria before the first candidate is introduced.

This session surfaces disagreements that would otherwise emerge during candidate evaluation — often too late to resolve without derailing the search. We have consistently found that organisations that skip this step produce longer searches, more candidate rejections at late stages, and higher rates of final-round offer failures. The intake session is not optional.

Step 2: Market Mapping and Sourcing

Once the profile is agreed, we map the candidate market — identifying the specific companies, communities, and networks where the right candidates operate. For most senior executive searches, 70–80% of the best candidates are not publicly available: they are employed, not actively searching, and not responding to generic outreach. Reaching them requires sourcing through peer relationships, investor networks, and the direct credibility that comes from a retained search engagement rather than a contingency approach.

We do not submit candidates from a database. Every candidate we present has been directly sourced and directly contacted for the specific role. This approach takes longer than a database search, but produces a candidate pool that reflects the actual market rather than whoever happened to respond to a job posting.

Step 3: Candidate Assessment

Each candidate we identify goes through a structured assessment before being presented: a deep-dive conversation covering their career history, their operating approach, their motivations for considering the role, and their specific experience relevant to the client's situation. We assess for stage fit, functional competency, leadership style, and the cultural dimensions the client has defined as critical.

We present a shortlist of three to five candidates — not a longlonglist that forces the client to do the assessment work themselves. Our shortlists are curated: every candidate presented is a genuine recommendation, not a candidate included to demonstrate activity.

Step 4: Client-Side Interview Process

We structure the client interview process in partnership with the hiring team — defining the interview panel, the question areas each interviewer owns, and the decision framework for evaluating candidates consistently. Interview processes that are ad hoc produce ad hoc results. Structured interview processes produce more accurate assessments because they reduce the impact of interview chemistry and increase the weight of relevant information.

Step 5: Reference Verification and Offer

We conduct independent reference checks — not the three references the candidate provides, but board members, former direct reports, and peers we identify independently. The information that surfaces in independent references is categorically different from what surfaces in candidate-selected references, and it consistently informs offer negotiation and onboarding planning. Our offer process includes compensation benchmarking, equity structure guidance, and negotiation support to maximise offer acceptance rate without overextending the company.

Timeline and Commitments

A well-run Majhi Group search takes 30–60 days from intake to shortlist and 45–90 days from intake to offer acceptance. We commit to weekly progress updates, candidate presentation within three weeks of intake, and a replacement search at no charge if a placed executive leaves within 90 days of joining. Our retained model — one-third upfront, one-third at shortlist, one-third at acceptance — aligns our incentives entirely to the quality of the outcome rather than the speed of placement.