Background: a French mining group with a worldwide presence owns and operates a rail network in an African country. Major investment is planned to upgrade the ageing network and undertake maintenance projects. The funding for these investments is coming from global banks, funds, lenders, etc.
Recruitment challenges: our client is asking us to find the second-in-command for the company: someone with a sufficiently technical background to plan the railway works, monitor their implementation and manage those reporting to them on the ground, who also knows how to manage investment plans and negotiate with banks and funds, and who can manage a division of 600 people (operators and rail construction workers). The person must know Africa and be able to move there with their family.
Added value provided by the firm/Skills used: we quickly saw that it would be difficult to find and attract someone whose profile was technical and operational as well as financial to this position. Our challenge was to give our client sufficient support to review and modify their specification. Our role was to show them profiles who were available, relevant and interested in the position.
Result and recruited profile: we shared with our client an analysis of the market and the available profiles. Based on this tangible information, together we thought about the ideal profile and ranked the required skills. For some highly strategic positions involving major challenges, it is natural to want a profile with the full range of skills, experience and know-how to eliminate any risk of failure.
Our role is to support our client by showing them candidates who differ slightly from what they want, to help them to think differently.