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Nicholas Dall is an executive search firm specialising in the media sector. Over the past eight years we have built a reliable reputation with clients such as the Archant Life Group, Northcliffe Newspapers, Archant Regional, Trader Media Digital, Trader Media Ltd, Yattendon, Newsquest, North Wales Newspapers, Advent Media, Fish 4, BBC online, and Archant France, Newsquest North London, Newsquest Essex, Newsquest Buckinghamshire, working on positions such as Managing Director, Regional Sales Director General Manager, Publisher, Publishing Manager, Group Advertisement Manager, Commercial Director, Sales Manager, Sales Executive, Business Intelligence Manager, Group Editor and E-Commerce Manager.
The success of the company is due to three factors: experience, methodology-in particular, and the candidate assessment process.
Experience is best summed up by the fact that we have many years experience as operational managers in the media and communications markets.
Philosophy stems from our experience. As a senior manager within the industry, I had been frequently dissatisfied with the quality of service, depth of knowledge and cost offered by established executive search firms.
Clients want a more personal, professional and consultative service, and this is what I aim to deliver. I strive to build long term relationships, in the belief that my clients are best served once I have experience of their business.
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Methodology the VCA (Values, Competencies and Achievements) process that I have developed differentiates my service from my competitors. Fundamentally believe that there are four critical factors (three of which are measurable / assessable: the fourth, chemistry, is not) that influence the ability of candidates to succeed in a defined position within an organisation, namely:
· Values: the inherent characteristics of an individual are the primary driver of success. The ability to match these characteristics to the requirements of the role within the overall culture of the organisation is key. For instance, innately creative people will not thrive in process led organisations.
· Competencies: clearly knowledge, expertise and experience in the technical aspects of a role are important and in some instances are absolute requirements. However, in most instances these skills can be taught and honed by experience gained over time.
· Achievements: the best predictor of future success is prior achievement. It is therefore important to establish what candidates have achieved in their previous roles. It is also interesting to see what candidates rank as their “greatest achievements” at various points in their careers as an analysis, which gives an insight into their personality.
· Chemistry: candidate personality plays a key role in the recruitment process and it is vitally important that the chemistry between the potential employer and the individual is positive. However, whilst we can make predictions as to how the individual will fit an organisation the ultimate test is a face-to-face meeting between the client and candidate. Accordingly we do not attempt to make firm judgements in this area.
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The implementation of this process works as follows:
· Brief: On every assignment we take a full brief for the role and person specification. At the briefing we agree the inherent values and competencies relevant to the role with the client. This ensures that we intimately understand our client’s requirements, the skills and experience required for the job, and the corporate/divisional culture, and enables us to judge the suitability of candidates more accurately.
· Research: Our approach is thorough and comprehensive. We start every assignment from scratch, researching and speaking to up to 100 people per assignment. We will then discreetly present the opportunity to candidates, taking the time to identify an individual’s key motivational drivers and their fit to the brief, and overcome any initial objections or concerns.
· Interview: The most suitable candidates are given a rigorous and comprehensive face-to- face interview that evaluates them against the agreed values, competencies and achievements. This ensures that the short-listed candidates not only possess the required skills and experience, but also fit the culture of our client. Internal candidates are included in this process at the client’s request. This allows us to assess all candidates on an equal footing. A shortlist of three candidates plus a reserve are then presented to the client, along with a CV and VCA report (see appendices for an example).
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