Experiences | Consumer Products

A $135 million division of a multi-title catalog company sought a President to succeed the company’s founder who had managed the business for more than 15 years.

With the catalog performing acceptably, the challenge was to find someone who, in short order, could succeed the founder and keep the existing management team together while simultaneously pleasing the private equity group that owned the parent catalog conglomerate.

When a founder is being replaced, the management team left behind often harbors an understandable level of trepidation and anxiety about the replacement leadership. Lantern Partners was selected based on its demonstrated ability to recruit top-level talent to catalog companies, including a significant number of searches within the parent company. However, Lantern Partners also possessed an understanding of the delicate nature of replacing a founder and the blend of leadership and interpersonal skills required. An important aspect of the search was the experience of Lantern Partners in recruiting management to highly leveraged, private equity-backed situations. In this case, diversity candidates were also of particular importance to the client.

The successful candidate had to possess the unique ability to impact a business without necessarily feeling the need to put his or her thumbprint on it from day one. It was critical that the candidate understood that when taking over a successful company it was important to act, but act judiciously rather than harming the company by making unnecessary changes in order to make one’s mark.

Within the first five weeks the client was presented with five candidates who fit the combination of experience, leadership and diversity which was sought. The client quickly focused on two, one of whom withdrew from the search for personal reasons. The remaining candidate received and accepted an offer. The successful candidate had a background in marketing and merchandising for both retail and catalog companies, possessed the personal traits necessary to navigate the complex process of taking over for the founder, and fit the diversity profile the client sought.

The client has been highly pleased with the candidate’s performance to date, and continues to depend on Lantern Partners for locating superb top-level management talent.