Finding the right chief executive is difficult even for companies with solid finances, strong products and a clear need for external leadership. The best candidates are often already well placed in other jobs, and the right match depends on more than experience and title. The assignment, the culture, the mandate and the daily life around the role all have to fit if a leader is to make a move.
For companies in Lolland-Falster and southern Zealand, geography adds another layer. A leadership role in the region can contain much of what strong candidates are looking for: responsibility, short decision lines, direct access to the owner and the chance to leave a clear mark. Even so, distance from the largest business centres can narrow the field before the first conversation has been arranged.
That is one reason why some companies turn to external recruitment. The task is rarely a matter of posting a vacancy and waiting for applications. It is about finding the people who can both handle the role professionally and see the job as a realistic opportunity.
Christina Hansson, who runs the recruitment firm Hansson Management together with Isabell Hansson, encounters the issue in her work with owner-managed and family-owned companies. The firm specialises in finding leaders for businesses where ownership, culture and operations are often closely intertwined.
- Danes are very reluctant to move. It should preferably be less than 30 minutes, otherwise they will not drive, says Christina Hansson.
For a company in Nakskov, Nykøbing Falster, Vordingborg, Næstved or another place outside the largest business centres, that point can matter a great deal. A candidate who is already well placed elsewhere needs a concrete reason to spend more time travelling, change working patterns or reorganise everyday life.
Intense competition
When the obvious candidates are fewer, competition for the best people becomes sharper. A local or regional company may be strong in its industry and well known among customers, while remaining far less visible to leaders outside the area. That makes it important for the employer to present itself clearly as a workplace and show what a new leader will actually gain access to: decisions, responsibility, mandate and the ability to set direction.
- The candidate field is smaller in those areas, and you are competing with other companies that also want the good candidates, says Isabell Hansson.
That makes the task broader than describing a position. The company has to make the job tangible for people who may know little about the workplace, the area or the daily reality around the role. It has to show what a leader can influence, and why the assignment is worth moving for.
If distance is a barrier, the solution may also lie outside the job description itself. The company has to look at the practical framework that determines whether the role can work. How often does the leader need to be physically present? Can meetings be grouped on specific days? Is there flexibility in working hours? Can the role be shaped so the business gets the leadership it needs without making daily life unnecessarily difficult?
Christina Hansson points to housing and working hours as possible ways to widen the field.
- It could be solutions where you buy a small apartment and say that the person can stay there three days a week. Or you can work with unusual hours so they do not hit rush hour. You have to be open to solving it in a different way. Otherwise the candidate field becomes very small, and then the potential also becomes small, says Christina Hansson.
More than salary
For some owner-managed and family-owned companies, that can be a difficult exercise. They may have strong values, a good culture and a workplace where people thrive, while still hitting a limit if salary or terms are too far from what the candidate already has.
Salary rarely stands alone. Freedom, mandate, flexibility, working conditions and the everyday life the candidate is being asked to enter can also form part of the calculation. Especially for small and medium-sized companies, which rarely have the same name recognition as large brands, the job has to be explained concretely: how close is the leader to decisions, what responsibility comes with the role, and where can he or she make a difference?
That story matters more when the company is further away from the candidate’s current daily life. A good product and a healthy business can be strong cards, but they have to be made visible to people who might never have looked in that direction on their own.
Look more broadly at the field
A broader view of the candidate field can also become important. If the company is only looking for the classic mid-career leader, with young children, a high tempo and many alternatives closer to the large business centres, geography can quickly become a larger barrier. For more experienced profiles, other considerations may carry more weight.
Christina Hansson finds that senior profiles are often overlooked in that discussion. They may have greater freedom in daily life because their children have moved away from home, and because the next job is assessed more on content, culture and meaning.
- When you are over 50, the children have often moved away from home, and then you sometimes think more about what gives meaning and value than whether the salary package is exactly the highest, says Christina Hansson.
The job and the mandate still have to be clear. For companies located further from the largest candidate pools, it can be worth looking at experienced leaders who are more likely to choose on the basis of the assignment, the culture and the opportunity to make a difference.
