Search
Director, Telecommunications Products
Organization
Internet Start-up Company
Situation
This US-based Internet company was building a marketing infrastructure to support their service launch in the Canadian marketplace. The client had been referred to Aspire HR Consultants’s Toronto office by a business colleague and was looking for a search partner capable of sourcing a broad range of senior management staff. It was also critical that the search partner have the relationships and resources to attract high-caliber candidates to an unknown start-up.
Assessment
This venture represented a relatively new concept involving essential yet low-interest services. The business model was based on aggregating a suite of essential services—including telecommunications, gas, and electricity—creating a buying group and offering discounted rates to members. The concept was consumer-focused, targeting both individual consumers and large-scale partnerships with builders, property managers, associations, and affinity groups.
Challenge
As telecommunications services were the lead products for the Canadian launch, the candidate needed deep knowledge of competitive service offerings to develop superior product packages. They also needed to build and present business cases to potential wholesalers and providers, with a broad understanding of voice, data, and mobile products for future expansion.
Solution
Within three weeks, a slate of four candidates was presented to the Canadian General Manager and later interviewed by the US CEO. Because the Canadian candidates were considered stronger than those sourced in the US, the client hired the two top Canadians. The product portfolio was split between voice and data, and both hires were given North American responsibility.
Candidate
Both selected candidates had broad telecommunications backgrounds in product development and marketing for voice, data, landline, and mobile products. Each brought a balanced mix of technical knowledge and marketing expertise to the role.
Postmortem
The Toronto team’s performance on this initial search led to multiple follow-on assignments, including Directors of Business Development, Marketing, Energy Products, Sales, and Customer Service—all recruited and onboarded within three months. The strength of the Canadian candidates quickly elevated their involvement with the US parent company’s strategic operations.
