Do You Want To Be The Best Business?
If so, you need the best leaders.
We find you the best leaders.
We are a retained executive search consultancy that helps you transform your business.
Why do businesses that need to make crucial leadership recruitment decisions to transform their businesses come to this leading Executive Search Company that turns away as many mandates as it undertakes.
If You Are...
An SME investment fund that wants a dedicated premium search partner to hire executive and non-executive teams for its portfolio
"Ford Hastings provided a dynamic, thoughtful search service that large regimented search firms have not been able to match. They become intimately involved with the business and provide a real value-added advisory service. We are delighted with the result and continue to use Ford Hastings for all our key management and leadership team hires across our group of companies."
- Mark Anslow - CEO at Pemberstone Ventures
A High Growth SME business which needs additional or replacement senior management who can help to capitalise on the growth successfully
An established company that has had a setback due to an internal or external senior hire that did not go successfully. Therefore, the next senior hire is crucial to the business
An SME that is experiencing some difficulties and so needs a talented Sales Director or CEO to come in and help turnaround the business
An established SME that needs to grow it’s sales
"Ford Hastings provided a dynamic, thoughtful search service that large regimented search firms have not been able to match. They become intimately involved with the business and provide a real value-added advisory service. We are delighted with the result and continue to use Ford Hastings for all our key management and leadership team hires across our group of companies."
- Prashant Jhawar - CEO at Usha Martin Technologies
A traditional offline business that needs to create new business models to compete in a digital world and needs a key hire to help make that happen
A business that has had a failed trade or investor sale due to business performance erosion or poor second tier management, and doesn’t know what to do next
A company that was going to sell but was chipped on price after due diligence and so walked away from the deal, and doesn’t know what to do next
A founder led entrepreneurial business that has grown to a certain size and now the founder would like to make a key hire to grow the business to the next level
Have annual sales of £2-£75m pa
And You Want To...
Create more sales with less effort, giving you more time to focus on other things (like creating great products, servicing your customers, spending more time with your family)
Substantially improve your profits so that you can get light-speed organic growth
Get your business “investor ready” so that when you come to sell the process is a breeze
Figure out new profitable business models that make money while you sleep
Open up new markets or launch new product and service offerings, giving you new revenue streams and diversifying risk, allowing you to sleep easy at night
''Ford Hastings takes a refreshing approach to recruiting and does not just pass through CV’s. Ford Hastings took care of all of the screening and ensured only the highest calibre candidates were passed through to us for a meeting. Ford Hastings managed volumes to make our meetings manageable and provided some exceptional individuals. We will definitely be working with Ford Hastings again.''
- Darryl Cooke - Co-Founder at Gunnercooke
Establish robust, effective supply chains, giving you no single point of failure and optimising your cost base, meaning you leave the office safe in the knowledge that things are going smoothly
Tap into a vast, respected, influential network that gives you one up on your competition and makes building new business partnerships easy
Then Use Ford Hastings
Why Use Ford Hastings?
We are one of the leading Executive Search firms for entrepreneurial high-growth businesses in the UK.
We have all worked in business (building them, consulting for them) and get to know your business before making any leadership recommendations
We use a proven 4D search process (Define, Discover, Detail, Deliver) to find you the best candidate for your role.
We have an incredible global research and resource team, ensuring we’re talking with the best candidates for your business.
Over 20+ years, we’ve hired the best leaders for your business 95% of the time. The average is 40% (Harvard Business Review).
We only hire leadership teams. We’ve done it for 20 years. By focusing on a key role type, we’ve gotten to understand the DNA of a successful placement.
We work with select world class Non-Executive Directors, Investors and Advisors which enable us to find and verify the right person for your business.
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About Ford Hastings Executive Search
Our Vision
"We help positively transform ambitious entrepreneurial businesses and people"
Our Purpose
We do that through executive search and consultingWe help transform businesses by helping to create world class management teams.We help transform people by putting putting them into incredible businesses and giving them incredible opportunitiesIn 2019, we want to positively impact 100 businesses and people, irrespective of financial reward
Our Method
We work on a retained search basis. We work to understand your business in depth, challenging you on your leadership strategy. We use our global research team to map out and identify the best talent for your business.
To see the differences between retained and contingent search, click here.
Our search process follows our 4D Search method. We developed it over 20 years of placing top level senior executives into companies like yours.
To read our our detailed 4D search process, and how it guarantees you the perfect leadership hire, click here.
Who We Work With
We find the best executive team for businesses like yours that turnover £2-£75m per year.That’s the CEO, CFO, CMO, CPO, MD, FD, SD and more.Salaries from £80-£350k per yearWe work with select businesses, serious about success. We only work on a retained, fixed fee basis. (for the difference between retained and contingent recruitment, click here.)We only work with businesses where we believe we can make a positive impactWe turn away 80% of enquiries, only working with select businesses. (See if you Qualify...click here.)
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Meet The Team
Tim Hastings - Founder
Tim is a board level search specialist with over 20 years’ experience placing exceptional executive and non-executive talent into a variety of businesses.
Tim has an enviable network of investment professionals, high net worth individuals, private family offices and non-executive director contacts across a broad range of sectors.
Prior to establishing Ford Hastings in 2003, Tim held senior executive search posts at Ernst & Young in London and KPMG in the North of England. Tim has also worked in-house for a venture capitalist where he was responsible for Executive and Non-Executive appointments.
Joe Thomsett - CMO
Joe started professional life as a Chartered Accountant for a top 50 firm, working with entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses.
He moved into SME management consulting, delivering a plethora of value-added projects for an SME client base; such as raising funds, setting up overseas offices, delivering growth projects and working on successful company turnarounds.
Joe’s broad business understanding allows him to assist business owners and management teams on their hiring strategy in the context of their wider business ambitions.
Will Hastings - Search Consultant
Will is an experienced Search Consultant and works on a number of senior assignments.
He is also responsible for the management of the Ford Hastings research team.
Will graduated with a degree in design. Prior to joining Ford Hastings in 2016, Will worked in the marketing department of an MBO team in Financial Services, where he was responsible for not only their the web presence and all traditional print media but also running their wealth management and client networking events.
Emma Watson - Head Of Research
Emma has worked as an Executive Researcher for 22 years.
She began her search career with Armstrong Craven before moving to a Top Tier Search Firm in London.
She then worked for a number of boutiques as Head of Research before moving in house into Talent Acquisition with Coca-Cola, Ideal Standard International, Mothercare and most recently Astra Zeneca.
She has worked across Retail, FMCG, Technology and Digital verticals and her extensive research skills and methods underpins her approach.
Emma has a degree in Psychology from The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
FH Research Team
Ford Hastings has an established Research Team, following industry leading search methodology, to ensure we find the best set of candidates specific to your business and the role you are hiring for.
Ford Hastings Partners
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The Ford Hastings 4-Step Method To Find The Right Person To Transform Your Business
01 Define - Your Requirements
We work to understand your goals and how a leadership team can achieve them. We utilise our 20+ years of experience to define a successful hiring plan based on your business needs.
We’ve worked with hundreds of successful companies like yoursWe get to know your business DNA and create a hiring plan based on thisOther search firms don’t do the work here, causing you pain and costing you money
02 Discover - Candidate Research
With a defined, clear brief in place, we do candidate and market research.
Using our expert research team, we do market and candidate research, relative to your business DNA and goalsWe carefully engage top candidates to maximise the chances of progressing a discussion
03 Detail - Candidate Development
After a program of search and screening, we devise a long list of candidates. We meet these candidates in person. We get to know them and compare them to your search brief.
We meet in person a long list of candidatesWe send you reports on candidates you should seeWe attend first interviews with youYou have a second interview with key candidates
04 Deliver - Candidate Delivery
As a result of our 4D process, you want to offer a candidate the role.
We help you create and negotiate a salary packageWe undertake thorough candidate referencingWe nurture the candidate to the start date to ensure a smooth role transition
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Contact Ford Hastings
Talk to us. Tell us about your business. Your problems. Your leadership requirements. Your growth plans. We’re ready to help you. Contact us now.
Send Us A Message
London Office
Birchin Court, 20 Birchin Lane, London, EC3V 9DU
Manchester Office
c/o gunnercooke LLP
53 King Street, Manchester, M2 4LQ
Do You Want Expert Help With Your Leadership Recruitment?
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Retained Vs Contingent Recruitment
Contingent Recruitment is optimised for speed. Firms compete with each other to get you a candidate CV as quickly as possible. This makes breadth and depth of understanding and research impossible.
Retained Recruitment is optimised for quality. Assignments are undertaken in a retained, methodical capacity. Depth and breadth of understanding and research are central to the work.
For leadership and management team hires, you want to be optimised for quality, so retained recruitment is the correct approach.
Retained Vs Contingent Recruitment Comparison
| Retained | Contingent |
|---|---|
| Experienced business and search consultants who understand the mechanics of your business and business strategy | x |
| Detailed business and candidate market mapping | x |
| A dedicated global research team finding the best pool of talent | x |
| Challenges you on your hiring strategy in line with your business vision and aims | x |
| Detailed help crafting the appropriate job descriptions | x |
| Meeting candidates a number of times to get a comprehensive understanding of their skills, experiences and competencies | x |
| Optional behavioural and cognitive assessments | x |
| Detailed, objective candidate reports which give a true and fair assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the shortlisted candidates | x |
| A succinct shortlist of candidates, all of whom can fulfil the role effectively | CV Search and sending over a number of candidates |
| Interview facilitation and support (we can attend with you) | x |
| Candidate offer and negotiation management | x |
| Candidate package consulting (salary, bonuses, LTIPs, Options etc) | x |
| Comprehensive candidate referencing | Limited or no candidate referencing |
| Monthly candidate follow ups for the first 6 months of employment | x |
| 120 retained refund guarantee | x |
| Fee: 25% - paid in 3 instalments | Fee: 25% - 35% paid on candidate acceptance |