# How we hired a CEO for a €50M Nordic group in three months > A Nordic group with €50 million in revenue, 150+ employees and over 30 locations asked me to find a CEO for its Finnish subsidiary. Three months later the contract was signed. Here is what I did. The stakes of a hire like this are high. The right CEO brings in millions per year for a decade. The wrong one can drive the company into the ground. So the process has to be thorough. ## How it started It started with a [Business Development Day](/). One finding stood out: for the Group CEO's succession, every country needs its own CEO. Finland did not have one clear leader dedicated to Finland alone. So the number one goal for the Finnish operation became finding and hiring a CEO. After the day, the Group CEO asked whether I could lead the process. My role was to own the whole process and put my name on it. Together with the Group CEO and the rest of the C-suite, we set the direction, and they made the final call. I did everything in between, so they could keep running the business the way they usually do. ## Defining what we need ### Interviews I started with two weeks on site. I interviewed over a dozen people in Finland and at the group headquarters, one on one, one to two hours each. The picture was clear. A team of seasoned professionals who knew their work. What was missing was the growth driver: a business developer and a leader. ### Profiling the ideal candidate I went through the findings with the Group CEO. Together we set the goal for Finland: grow long-term by expanding into new locations, and multiply profits as a result. The CEO's job is to lead that business development. From the goal we derived the person. The country CEO had to be - a growth-minded business developer who has scaled a multi-location business - a long-term thinker, not a chaser of short-term profits: someone who wants to stay 10+ years - a great people leader: people-oriented, demanding when needed, a leader rather than a boss - hands-on, learning the business by doing it - able to work on group-level strategy. ### Documenting it I wrote it down in three pages: the company and its numbers, the goal, why the role is interesting, the personality and experience we need, the compensation range, and what we expect from a headhunter. Three pages does not sound like much but it carried the rest of the project. ## Headhunter selection I tendered five headhunters. Quotes ranged from €15,000 to €80,000. I evaluated relevant experience, price, and above all the pre-sale effort. Is the headhunter actually interested in this case, or are we just another client to them? We chose a multinational firm. Not the cheapest. But they showed high commitment early on by rewriting our ideal profile in their own words, showing a clear process, and backing it up with materials and references. The others came in with a standard deck, lightly edited. The winner also kept the same two people on the case from research to signing, where most of the others would have handed over from researcher to headhunter midway. To me that says they are doers, and that the context gathered in week one is still in the room in week twelve. Headhunter processes follow a pattern: 1. Communicate the requirements and define the ideal candidate 2. Research candidates, form a long list, and iterate on candidate profiles 3. Short list introductions 4. Finalist interviews 5. Psychological evaluation The three-page document carried us through all five steps—from the job post to confirmation on the final decision. The headhunters hit the ground running, and every time a profile looked tempting, we had the spec to come back to and confirm or discard the candidate for the next step. ## Finalist interviews Seven finalists. I led the interviews. In the room: the Group CEO, one headhunter, the candidate and me. I built the interview to be demanding and included elements from special forces selection: fast pace, pressure, hard questions with no time to prepare. The format was unfamiliar to every candidate, which was the point. It set two candidates clearly apart from the rest. They handled the pressure and answered sharply. That matters: a CEO in a growth environment has to be fine with uncertainty and still be able to make decisions, sometimes under time pressure. Some of the questions included: - "What business problem are you *not* the right CEO for?" - "Describe a decision you made with incomplete information, significant downside risk, and no consensus around you. How did you actually make the call?" - "What's the most common negative feedback you get from your direct reports? And what kind of person struggles working with you?" After an intense 40 minutes of my questions, there was still time for more relaxed questions both to and from the candidate. ## Psychological evaluation High-performance teams from the NBA to special forces and Fortune 500 companies like Apple use personality profiles to build their teams: if you want to be a pro, you play like a pro. Our process also included thorough psychological evaluation for the top candidates. The top two went to an independent psychologist: cognitive performance tests, personality profiling and an interview. We got a multi-page report on each, including an international leadership evaluation in which the top candidate scored exceptionally high. The reports go deep but three questions mattered most to us from a personality perspective: Does the person fit the goal? Do they bring the strengths the organization is missing? And do they fit the existing organization? We went through the results with the psychologist. It confirmed the pick, and it gave the Group CEO a framework for how to lead this person. ## My evaluation and recommendation I did my own evaluation in parallel throughout the process, based on my own experience and knowledge of leadership and organizational efficiency, building teams with personality profiles, and having watched dozens of CEOs in action. I gave my recommendation to the Group CEO and he agreed with my conclusions. I also supported the deal crafting, determining the compensation package and brought in a legal services company to get the CEO agreement right. ## The result Three months from kickoff to a signed contract. The CEO we chose has 15 years of business development and leadership experience, and every stakeholder was happy with the pick. Finland now has a leader dedicated to Finland alone, which is where this whole project started. The client got more than just a new employee. They got a complete package from start to finish, including a written profile of what the role needs, a team that was heard before its new leader was chosen, and a psychologist's framework for leading him from day one. Was it worth it? The goal was a long-term CEO who brings in millions of euros of profit per year. A project like this costs about €50,000 all in, plus a six-figure annual salary. If the process finds the right person, that is a steal. If you pick the wrong one, you end up paying a high salary, miss the growth, and have to start the search again from zero. That is why you need to go through it thoroughly and nail it in one go. When you hire talented people, it is always a great deal. ## What this has to do with BASED This was a hiring project, but the way of working is the same as on every BASED engagement: understand the business, find what blocks the next step, and lay out the fix. Here, I also did the implementation. The client's leadership kept growing the business while I did the groundwork and put my name on the result. If there is something in your business that should be working better than it is, [get in touch](/contact) or [see if you qualify](/#booking) for the Business Development Day: one day on site, a prioritized plan within five business days, and if it was not worth it, you pay nothing.