One of the major players in automotive industry was investing in Eastern & Central Europe. Accord Group assisted this company in its recruitment of top managers in other countries and was trying to extend this co-operation to Poland. One of the divisions needed to move its production facility from one location to another and was looking for a project manager able to perform this task so that the production wouldn't stop.
Accord Group had received a very interesting speculative application from a candidate who had experience in moving production within another international industrial company. At the same time the divisional manager was leaving Poland. Therefore, the management in the headquarters not only wanted to find a suitable candidate for the move of production project, but also to find a person who would be able to take over the responsibilities from the departing local divisional manager. Accord Group took on this challenge which consisted of, on one hand, convincing the candidate that the position could be interesting for him, and on the other hand, convincing the client that the candidate would be capable of doing the assigned task as well as growing into a more challenging position.
Knowing about the client's needs and having met with this interesting candidate, Accord Group consultants were sure that both sides met each other's expectations. However, neither the client, nor the candidate was fully convinced about it. As for the candidate, he was interested in the job and he knew he was up to do it, but he wasn't certain whether that particular company would be an interesting future employer. The client's opinion about the candidate, however, was that he didn't meet all the necessary requirements. This was more related to his capabilities in taking over the position from the leaving divisional manager than to the production move project.
Our approach to the client was very straightforward and honest presenting all negative and positive aspects of the candidate. We knew what qualifications he was lacking, but we saw his potential in developing the required skills. This is what we also presented to the client. When talking to the candidate we enhanced the development opportunities arising in the company and we highlighted some strengths of our client which our candidate was not aware of. Finally our client realised that he didn't have a better candidate for the position and decided to give our candidate a trial. The candidate also came to the conclusion that this was a challenging opportunity and decided to take up the job.
The candidate found a suitable location for the new production plant and successfully moved the production. He was promoted to divisional manager after reaching excellent results and after several years became responsible for all the company divisions in Poland.