Sep 16, 2026 · 37 min · 8 segments
A bad executive hire costs far more than a salary; it can erode culture, stall momentum, disrupt strategy, and create a ripple effect throughout an organization. In this episode, Dr. Drew Brannon sits…
Brandon BaileyGuest
Drew BrannonHost
Matthew BarnesGuest
And I think it's important before we can have an effective conversation about really the importance and the intricacies of executive search.
First and foremost, and maybe this is the most obvious part, is that it is a recruiting process designed to attract and ultimately lead to hiring senior and executive level talent for an organization.
I think what is unique and I think where the value lies in running an executive search process through a firm like ours, Is that that process tends to be very structured, research driven.
And designed beyond just capturing talent, right? It's specifically targeting talent that is best suited, kind of best fit profile beyond just technical skills for an organization.
It's, you know, does this person bring the strengths that will position an organization on the path of where they're headed, right? And so all of that's taken into account as opposed to, you know, pattern matching for requirements.
And then I think it's also important to kind of unpack the fact that, you know, you guys specialize in focusing on roles that are highly impactful throughout the organization, right? So, Matt, you know, as we think about the way we define this kind of, as you guys have said, C-suite and C minus one, like can you talk a little bit about why those roles are so vital to the organization and then even maybe as well touch on like what do we know about the the challenges and the cost associated with when you lose someone in a role like that and and sometimes you make the organization makes that decision sometimes we're exiting an individual but talk a little bit about just the critical importance of those roles and then the expense of needing to find a new person
Yeah, Brandon and I often talk about this just on the side as we're talking shop, but at least in the context of private equity, when we talk about that, it's like how much money is invested in a platform, whether it's an early stage or later on.
The due diligence that firms will do prior to purchasing a business is exponential.
Once that transition happens and they purchase the company, a lot of times the search, depending on a firm, can be very just transactional, to Brandon's earlier point, and the amount of research that should go into a candidate, you know, the technical skills, rightfully so, are screened, right? We need to know that the individual has that, and the strategy can be there from the sponsor, but the things that come after the fact, in terms of the person's capability to lead others, more of the EQ side of things, We always want to screen on top of the technical acumen to look at what experience do they have building a team? What experience do they have? What kind of references do they have from people that have reported to them to get a really comprehensive view on an executive's background outside of number of acquisitions and number of companies potentially sold? To your point about what happens when somebody doesn't work out in a role, know especially in the example of private equity and it can be in any role in any company but an investment thesis has a finite timeline on it especially in the private equity world where they want to transact on a business in three to five six years you make the wrong hire persons there six months to a year you're resetting the clock on that sometimes with damage that could have been done in that time of a year's time frame where you're really pushing out a horizon from getting a return to your shareholders and LPs, and that can be catastrophic in some areas.
I think there's data that says that a mishire can cost 200% of an executive salary, right? But I think that's only capturing tangible costs.
I mean, there's so many other additional hidden costs in terms of eroding culture, momentum, executing against the strategy and building belief.
And there's so many different things that start to erode when leaders leave or when you make the wrong hire.
If you're thinking about a high performer that's reporting into an executive, if you miss there, you're potentially, it's a double whammy, right? You just layered a leader on top of a high performer that's now probably thinking like, what are they thinking, right? Now they're potentially looking as well.
And so it's just, it becomes a snowball kind of cascading effect of negative impact that's hard to predict.
And I think it's important before we can have an effective conversation about really the importance and the intricacies of executive search.
First and foremost, and maybe this is the most obvious part, is that it is a recruiting process designed to attract and ultimately lead to hiring senior and executive level talent for an organization.
I think what is unique and I think where the value lies in running an executive search process through a firm like ours, Is that that process tends to be very structured, research driven.
And designed beyond just capturing talent, right? It's specifically targeting talent that is best suited, kind of best fit profile beyond just technical skills for an organization.
It's, you know, does this person bring the strengths that will position an organization on the path of where they're headed, right? And so all of that's taken into account as opposed to, you know, pattern matching for requirements.
And then I think it's also important to kind of unpack the fact that, you know, you guys specialize in focusing on roles that are highly impactful throughout the organization, right? So, Matt, you know, as we think about the way we define this kind of, as you guys have said, C-suite and C minus one, like can you talk a little bit about why those roles are so vital to the organization and then even maybe as well touch on like what do we know about the the challenges and the cost associated with when you lose someone in a role like that and and sometimes you make the organization makes that decision sometimes we're exiting an individual but talk a little bit about just the critical importance of those roles and then the expense of needing to find a new person
Yeah, Brandon and I often talk about this just on the side as we're talking shop, but at least in the context of private equity, when we talk about that, it's like how much money is invested in a platform, whether it's an early stage or later on.
The due diligence that firms will do prior to purchasing a business is exponential.
Once that transition happens and they purchase the company, a lot of times the search, depending on a firm, can be very just transactional, to Brandon's earlier point, and the amount of research that should go into a candidate, you know, the technical skills, rightfully so, are screened, right? We need to know that the individual has that, and the strategy can be there from the sponsor, but the things that come after the fact, in terms of the person's capability to lead others, more of the EQ side of things, We always want to screen on top of the technical acumen to look at what experience do they have building a team? What experience do they have? What kind of references do they have from people that have reported to them to get a really comprehensive view on an executive's background outside of number of acquisitions and number of companies potentially sold? To your point about what happens when somebody doesn't work out in a role, know especially in the example of private equity and it can be in any role in any company but an investment thesis has a finite timeline on it especially in the private equity world where they want to transact on a business in three to five six years you make the wrong hire persons there six months to a year you're resetting the clock on that sometimes with damage that could have been done in that time of a year's time frame where you're really pushing out a horizon from getting a return to your shareholders and LPs, and that can be catastrophic in some areas.
I think there's data that says that a mishire can cost 200% of an executive salary, right? But I think that's only capturing tangible costs.
I mean, there's so many other additional hidden costs in terms of eroding culture, momentum, executing against the strategy and building belief.
And there's so many different things that start to erode when leaders leave or when you make the wrong hire.
If you're thinking about a high performer that's reporting into an executive, if you miss there, you're potentially, it's a double whammy, right? You just layered a leader on top of a high performer that's now probably thinking like, what are they thinking, right? Now they're potentially looking as well.
And so it's just, it becomes a snowball kind of cascading effect of negative impact that's hard to predict.
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