Insight
Oberhardt: Founders must own executive hiring decisions, not rely on consensus
“Towards the end too, is the founder has to own the decision. You know, you can't have a situation where, you know, you're trying to make a decision based on consensus.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Oberhardt: Proprietary candidate databases held by executive search firms are now irrelevant
“Access is ubiquitous now, so that's not the game anymore. You used to hire a search firm back in the day because they had a database. Yeah, the database, that's now irrelevant.”
Insight
Matt Oberhardt: LinkedIn cannot fix a flawed internal hiring process
“LinkedIn is still no substitute for having a really strong internal process to manage candidates and really create a great employer brand out in the marketplace. You know, if you've sourced, let's say, 15 or 20 candidates for a position on your own, and you've…”
Insight
Oberhardt: Founders must be the first point of contact in executive hiring
“For an executive search, CEO of founder being really the first point of contact with the company. So that the executive has an opportunity to start developing that personal rapport and relationship with the CEO right out of the gate. And if you're able to star…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Oberhardt: Candidates performing well in interviews often fail game-planning sessions
“We've had a number of situations where candidates who've performed very well during the interview process have then gone into that game planning discussion and just fallen flat.”
Insight
Oberhardt: Startups should source network and search firms in parallel
“I think what happens sometimes is that you fall into a trap, you know, where you think you have to do things in a serial way rather than in parallel. And, you know, if you do things serial, it's like, Hey, I'll go through my network. And then if that doesn't w…”
Insight
Oberhardt: Test if big-company executives will do tasks from ten years ago
“We often ask the question, you know, when there's an executive who's making that type of transition or wants to make that transition, it's like, okay, think back to what you were doing seven or 10 years ago. Are you comfortable doing that on a day-to-day basis…”
Insight
Oberhardt: Executive failures stem from unclear expectations rather than lack of effort
“A lot of cases where we see, you know, failure happen is because an individual is coming in and they think they're doing the right thing, but The expectations haven't been set clearly on what the entrepreneur, the CEO thinks are the right things.”
Insight
Oberhardt: Early executive missteps can permanently destroy founder trust
“A lot of times what happens is someone, you know, makes, if they have a misstep early on, you know, that those first couple months are so critical to establishing that trust and credibility in the relationship between the entrepreneur and the new hire at the e…”
Insight
Oberhardt: Unfocused interview teams and broken feedback loops ruin hiring
“So I'd say like the two biggest areas of weakness that we often see in the process is, you know, first off the, there's an interview team that doesn't necessarily really know what they're interviewing for. And like the best entrepreneurs out there sit down wit…”
Insight
Oberhardt: Consult external domain experts before starting an executive search
“Bringing in individuals from the outside and Before the search even starts, not as candidates, but as individuals to help you learn further about how to interview and evaluate CFO candidates. So there's all that pre-work that helps honestly set the stage for a…”
