Executive Search & Leadership Intelligence

The question is not how far they’ve gone elsewhere. It’s how far they could take you here.

For leaders making the appointments that will define what comes next.

The stake

One hire can define the year.

The right senior appointment can change the trajectory of a business. The wrong one can cost you a year.

15×salaryThe true cost of a failed executive hire

9%On-the-job success predicted by a conventional interview

6–12monthsBefore a new leader is genuinely productive without the right support

Your next twelve months

The problem

Why it goes wrong.

A conventional hiring process gives you a lot of information. Just not necessarily the information that matters most.

But none of these, alone, answers the question:

Will this person succeed here?

In this business.
With this leadership team and board.
Against this strategy.
In this context.

The method

We start with where the business is going.

Most searches start with a job description. We start with the ambition, then work backwards to the person who can deliver it. Tap each step.

The goal isn’t to find the strongest candidate. It’s to know what success requires here, and find the person most likely to deliver it.

What we do

Twenty years of judgment. One method.

Susan has spent twenty years learning what makes leaders succeed, across companies, countries, cultures and contexts.

That experience is now a system designed not only to make the right appointment, but to put what we learn to work afterwards.

The
method

From mandate to momentum.

We run it

Executive Search

The appointment, assessed against the organization it is joining.

For CEOs, C-suite and critical leadership roles where getting it wrong is costly.

Start with the business: its ambition, reality and what this leader needs to deliver
Define what success requires, then build the profile around it
Search globally, beyond the obvious candidates
Look beyond credentials to evidence of what they can actually deliver
Make the case clear: why this person, where the risks are, and what gives us conviction
Carry what we learn forward once the leader starts

Every search runs on SignalOne, so what we learn stays connected from context to candidate, decision and beyond.

Your team runs it

SignalOne

The same thinking. In the hands of your team.

SignalOne takes your recruiters beyond managing a hiring process, and gives them a structured way to think about the business, the appointment and the evidence behind the decision.

From recruitment process to business thinking

SignalOne connects the questions leaders care about with the work the hiring team needs to do.

Business ambition → Leadership mandate
Leadership mandate → Success profile
Success profile → Assessment
Assessment → Evidence
Evidence → Decision
Decision → Success Blueprint

Susan runs every one of her own searches on SignalOne. It is not a product built next to the practice. It is the practice.

Underneath all three

Ask Susan

Twenty years of judgment for the decisions that aren’t obvious.

SignalOne brings structure and evidence to the decision. But not every leadership decision has a clean answer.

Two exceptional finalists. Which one?
Proven experience or greater potential?
Is this gap material, or manageable?
Are we seeing real evidence, or being persuaded by the person?
How will this appointment change the team around them?

Ask SusanIllustrative exchange

Two finalists. One ran a 2,000-person org. The other took a team like ours from 40 to 300. Who do we pick?

Ask SusanStart with what the next 24 months demand, not with either CV. If the plan is to scale across three markets, the bigger résumé helps only if they can work at your pace. Test that directly: ask each how they ran their first 90 days somewhere smaller than their last role.

Turn that into a guide for my hiring managers.

Builder or scaler? Choosing between finalistsGuide · 4 pages · shared with your team

Sent to 4 hiring managers

After the appointment

Launch

Build the team around the leader.

The appointment is made. Now we increase what that leader can do.

Launch builds a bespoke team of AI experts around the executive, designed for their mandate, their business and the challenges ahead.

AI expert team · tap to build

Week one · New CEO workspace2 of 5

The point is not to turn executives into AI experts. It is to give them the benefit, without the learning curve.

The bigger idea

The appointment is only the beginning.

The right leader changes what becomes possible.

You choose them for what they can do for the business. We use everything learned along the way, and the power of AI, to help them start with more intelligence, more capability and more support around them.

01Ambition
02Appointment
03Advantage
04What becomes possible

We also doSuccession PlanningBoard & Chair Search

Who you are working with

Extraordinary businesses are built by extraordinary people.

Twenty years. 50+ markets. Some of the world’s most ambitious companies.

Companies Susan has worked with

“Susan sees what others don’t and makes the impossible happen.”
Yulia SolovievaFormer Country Manager, Google Russia

“She was the strategic force behind building leadership teams in 30+ emerging markets.”
Carlo d’Asaro BiondoFormer President, EMEA Partnerships & SEEMEA Operations, Google

“If you are looking for the exceptional one who isn’t on anyone’s list yet, I’d call Susan.”
Riki DroriVP / CMO, YouTube EMEA

“She gave us a system… she raised the bar across the board.”
Mathilde NeimanChief People Officer, Jellysmack

Next step

How far could you go?

It starts with who you choose to take you there.

Talk to Susan

susanpikepartners.com