Managing Director - FMCG Company

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Managing Director for Poland

Client/industry

The client company is in the deep frozen fruit-vegetables and concentrates industry. The core competency of the group is worldwide import and export trading. In addition to the main office in Germany, the group has its own commercial and production facilities in Poland, Hungary and Serbia.

Situation

The project consisted of the replacement of the former Managing Director.
The primary reasons for the required change were poor communication, lack of managerial development and quality procedures were not being respected, resulting in price decreases and lost business for the company on an international level. There was sensitivity surrounding the search as the incumbent had been working with the group for 4 years and was well known in the market. He was one of the people who established price conditions of raw materials in the central part of the Polish market. At the same time he conducted his own business activity.

In addition, the market conditions were such that the production of fruit and vegetables in Poland was in its infancy The commerce was still not well organized. The most popular way to sell fresh fruits and vegetables was carried out by the individual producers directly to the customers and often by cash, excluding the intermediary of agents. The remaining sales were completed with the intermediary of wholesalers. This group consisted of small family businesses. Sometimes the role of the agent was played by the big producers or gardening collectivities which were buying fruit and vegetables from small producers.

Challenge

The new Managing Director would be responsible for sourcing, sales, administration and quality controls. The ideal candidate profile was one coming from the food industry, having familiarity with deep frozen fruits and vegetables and concentrates and having strong experience in the food trading and/or food processing industry. In addition, the ideal candidate should be strong enough to replace the charismatic style of his predecessor while being honest, reliable and ready to reorganise the company and restore company’s credibility on the market, which was lost during the last period.

Methodology/Solution

We defined a target list with more than 100 companies from all Poland. The main focus was put on companies from the sector, but during our selection process we gradually discovered how difficult the project was and that we couldn’t concentrate exclusively on that. Finally we successfully selected five candidates which were presented to the client. Two of them were taken into consideration for next stage. One was considered as a main candidate for the MD position, the second for a Plant Manager. Unfortunately one of the most famous candidates selected also by us died during the search and all representatives of the business met during the funeral celebration. It influenced the final decision of both candidates. At the same time the former MD was stopped on the Warsaw airport with a gun in his baggage. The information appeared officially in the newspapers and TV. As a result, both candidates refused to sign their intent letters. We restarted our search and finally found one candidate ready for a tough challenge despite the many doubts about the company situation and its reputation in Poland.

Candidate

The candidate had appropriate experience with 10 years in production of frozen fruit and ingredients for the milk industry and a few years experience in the frozen vegetables industry. He had more than 15 years experience in managerial positions and a good educational background with MBA. His fluency in English and communicative abilities in Hungarian were additional assets. Due to his qualifications and profile, we obtained congratulations from people involved in the sector when the information about his nomination was officially announced. It was a real compliment for our tough but successful work.

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