Executive Case Studies 1, 2

Position: US Division General Manager
Company: GUTOR

Client Search Challenge
GUTOR Corporation is the world wide leading supplier of high end custom UPS systems. Their primary market is the Power Generation industry including Oil and Gas, petrochemical, and nuclear plants. They had a well established customer base around the globe but only limited presence in the North American market. They needed someone with GM experience plus Sales/Marketing experience with in the target market. Ideally the candidate should also have UPS experience. In addition the candidate needed to have worked with European companies and speak German. Sources were extremely limited as the industry is very small and the main competitor was off limits. Finally, timing was critical as the company was already behind schedule.

Thompson Associates Solution
A carefully selected team of search and research consultants focused their time and efforts to create a detailed list of possible candidates. This list was presented to GUTOR management before any calls were made. Discretion was also a critical factor in the search. Management wanted to identify and talk to the final candidates as quickly as possible before the search was common knowledge. Once the top candidates were identified the Thompson Associate team worked non stop to qualify them quickly and sell them on the benefits of the opportunity.

Search Results
The client hiring authority (Mr. Bjarne Solberg) was based in Switzerland and traveling often. We were able to speak live with him for the first time only 10 days before he was due in the US. Ideally we would find, qualify, sell and schedule 3-5 good candidates for him to meet with while he was here. Although this would normally be nearly impossible, because of the excellent up front research, the availability of the GUTOR US client team and the willingness of Mr. Solberg to speak with us and with candidates at all hours and on weekends, we did arrange 3 in person interviews and several more by phone. One of the 3 was chosen as the ideal candidate and an offer was made and accepted within 35 days of our first live conversation with Mr. Solberg. He met all of the original criteria including speaking German!

	"I am very satisfied with the results delivered by Thompson Associates. They did a brilliant job in finding people relative to our business in a short time frame. I found that I had to spend more time on the phone with them than I would have liked to, but the end result was worth it. I will definitely use them again as we continue to expand our US and International operations."
	Bjarne Solberg, Worldwide GM Operations, Gutor