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Egon Zehnder International in the News

Finding the right fit
Tagesanzeiger

Every CEO is an individual who brings unique experience and competences to a company, stresses Philippe Hertig, head of Egon Zehnder International Switzerland, in an interview with the Tagesanzeiger. But the biggest scandal in today’s corporate world is the number of poor appointments at CEO level, not excessive compensation, warns Hertig. Poor people decisions can destroy value and threaten the very existence of a company, he adds. There are 3 main reasons for such decisions: a failure to harmonise top recruitment decisions with corporate strategy, insufficient recruitment expertise on the part of decision-makers and psychological factors. In Hertig’s experience, companies often opt for familiar profiles rather than candidates with the best combination of complementary competences. Finding the right long-term leader for any company is a highly structured, professional process that should start with a rigorous analysis of corporate strategy now changing faster than ever before, he notes. Finding the best candidate means finding a leader who will take the company forward from its current position, Hertig concludes.
Full story. “No one leader fits all companies” in a special supplement on leadership in the Swiss Tagesanzeiger (27 August 2008). Article originally published in German under the title “Nicht jeder Leader passt in jede Unternehmenssituation.”