info@homecomingex.com

Are you looking to fill senior roles?

HomecomingEx’s seasoned team of recruitment specialists offers employers strong end-to-end Executive Search services.

With a passion for Africa’s  prosperity, we place top executive African talent across Africa. We set ourselves apart by placing both African diaspora professionals in high-level positions back home, as well as “homegrown”, highly skilled talent into C-suite and senior management positions.

We customize each of our searches, using an innovative and refreshing approach to sourcing high-level talent. Our depth of expertise and emphasis on strong global relationships, ensures we’re able to reach Scarce-Skill African Talent across the globe.

Please get in touch to find out more about our Executive Search offering.

CASE STUDIES

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DIRECTOR | Africa

A multinational Electronics Company with a market cap of $421.34Billion and recognized as a Top 10 Brand, required a CE Director to drive sales across Africa.
THE BRIEF
  • The role required an exceptional leader with a proven track record in revenue generation and growing market share across multiple geographies. They needed a heavy-weight who understood the competitive industry and could double revenue and increase team size by 30%. This person was required to live, sleep and breathe the brand for the first 18 months so the challenge was finding someone at an Executive Level who was willing to be 150% committed to work and had no external distractions/ responsibilities.
OUR STRATEGY
  • In the retail/ sales market-it is vital to find someone who understands the lifecycle of retail, from warehousing/ supply chain/ distribution channels etc.
  • Client was very clear on the sacrifices this person would need to make regarding their personal time in the first 18 months-this was a challenge in itself.
  • We needed someone with a proven track record of diversifying revenue streams, leading and inspiring a challenging team, and delivery/ output focused.
  • Must be a great relationship builder and commercially savvy as he/she needed to work across all divisions, with complex multinational personalities
SEARCH PROCESS/ METHODOLOGY
  • Engagement- HomecomingEX met with the CEO, HR Director and Global Counterpart to understand the overall businesses (SWOT analysis done) as well as insights into culture challenges.
  • Sourcing- HomecomingEX defined a target list of individuals, referrals, companies etc. within the Retail, E-Commerce, FMCG, Supply chain and Electronics sectors across South Africa, the UK, USA, Europe, Middle East & Australia.
  • Assessment – Following a preliminary screening of candidates via telephone, Skype and video conferencing we conducted competency based interviews.
  • Process – Weekly updates including a weekly summary, metrics report and detailed market map. Long-list within 3 weeks.
  • Interviews, Assessments and Psychometrics completed as well as all PES checks.
  • Offer and Negotiation management.
CHALLENGES/ OBSTACLES
  • Language/ Culture challenges; Personality difficulties/ Politics.
  • High Attrition in existing team; New entries to market who threatened competitive advantage.
STRATEGY
  • Had to have difficult conversations about making one person the decision maker/ the buck had to stop with someone-determining who that person was was a challenge but through multiple meetings we agreed to work predominantly with the Local CEO.
  • Multiple languages across geographies came with some challenges during interviews and required us getting translators involved/ assisting in the interview stages and doing a lot of prep work with the candidates.
  • Culture nuances about the organization and its head office influences ran deep throughout the local offices and these had to be tackled daily to make all parties aware of acceptable behaviour/ etiquette in those regions.
  • Massive turnover of sales team/ staff due to poor leadership/ management. We had to make sure we did a lot of EVP work during this process and work with the Client to help problem solve this and improve brand perception in the market-we in fact partnered with their marketing team as well.
  • Highly competitive market-and first to entry was critical when it came to product launches so understanding the timing around new hires was very important and we needed to negotiate notice periods to make sure the suitable candidate was available for product roadshows/ global launches, etc.

GROUP ECOMMERCE DIRECTOR | Sub-Saharan Africa

A multinational Retail Group with a footprint across Anglophone Africa of 33 stores. They required a Group E-commerce Digital Executive to drive digital transformation across customer, employee and supply chain.
THE BRIEF
  • The role required a strategic but practical heavyweight who could build an onsite/outsourced development team to create innovation, solutions, efficiencies and processes around e-commerce, omni-channel, logistics, staff and operations.
  • Most importantly they needed someone with a strong track record of proven business deliverables of digital transformation from start to finish.
OUR STRATEGY
  • In the retail game it is vital to find someone who understands the hard-nosed edge of retail.
  • It wasn’t good enough to find a creative strategist who was threatened by tight budgets and complex supply chains.
  • We needed someone with a proven track record of implementation, project management and hard-nosed business results.
  • This person also had to be a great relationship builder (and not too “tech-head”) as he/she needed to work across all divisions.
SEARCH PROCESS
  • Engagement – HomecomingEX met with the CEO, Head of IT and Head of Sales to understand the digital transformation priorities and politics.
  • Sourcing – HomecomingEX defined a target list of individuals, referrals, companies etc. within the Retail, E-commerce, FMCG and Manufacturing/Logistics sectors across South Africa, the UK, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East & Australia.
  • Assessment – Following a preliminary screening of candidates via telephone, Skype and video conferencing we conducted competency based interviews.
  • Process – Weekly updates including a weekly summary, metrics report and detailed market map. Long-list within 3 weeks.
  • Delivery – The successful candidate was a South African executive with global experience at a large consulting firm plus a retail giant. He had turned one of the major conglomerates “paperless” which was an internationally-recognised achievement.

CHIEF RISK OFFICE | East Africa

CLIENT BACKGROUND
  • A Top 3 Bank with a strong African and international presence.
  • The growth strategy required an East African national with global expertise coupled with local understanding of regulatory policy.
THE BRIEF
  • This specific role required niche Risk and Compliance knowledge from a US or UK standpoint which was still relatively new to the local market with regards to various legislation and regulatory requirements around Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Money Laundering as well as detailed knowledge and experience across the Operational, Credit and Market risk space.
OUR STRATEGY
  • We knew we were looking for a pioneering spirit to spearhead this team on the ground and form a robust set of policies and procedures that would adhere to local as well as international regulatory requirements.
  • Strong leadership, Stakeholder Management skills, Understanding of local and global regulatory complexities, appreciation for the patience and nuances required with doing business in an emerging market.
  • We wanted someone who had the proven track record of navigating the unpredictability and ambiguity of the African environment.
SEARCH PROCESS
  • Engagement – HomecomingEX met with the Head of EMEA as well as the CE in Country to further understand what they were looking for in terms of the company and their 5 year strategy, the culture, the detailed job brief as well as candidate competencies required.
  • Sourcing – HomecomingEX’s internal research team defined a target list of individuals, referrals, companies etc. within the FS Sector across the UK, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East & Africa.
  • Assessment – Following a preliminary screening of candidates via telephone, Skype and video conferencing we conducted competency based as well as technical interviews.
  • Process – Weekly updates including a weekly summary, metrics report and detailed market map. Long-list within 4 weeks.
  • Delivery – The successful candidate was a Kenyan executive who was working in the UK. He had over ten years African experience plus 6 years of UK experience, making him the perfect candidate to hit the ground running.

PART-TIME

HOURLY