Sit Down With Chris Hornby

Well, I guess it started with my degree, I studied Psychology with Neuropsychology and was always interested in people and people behaviour. But I think after spending evenings doing hours of research on SPSS, I quickly realised I wanted to be in front of people more than a computer. So, I kind of glued two things together that I felt most passionate about, that being people and technology. As we often say in our Industry, I kind of fell into it. Like many, I had never heard of executive search before but nearly a decade and a half later I’m super happy I kept at it and have made a successful career with lots of great friends along the way.

You and I have partnered together with some pretty impressive scale-ups, but how did you become to specialize within the growth market and develop the niche in AI?

Yeah, I first joined a large global Search and Select business and spent the first part of my career servicing the Enterprise market. After a while I was kind of getting more excited talking to CIOs and CTOs about potential acquisitions and some of the emerging technologies. This was maybe 7 or 8 years ago when there was some background noise about more complex AI technologies surfacing the market, like Machine Learning. To be honest, they were excited by some of the emerging tech but as an Enterprise they weren’t really playing around with it just yet, it was more research for future commercial gain or operating efficiency. At the same time, I felt I wanted to partner with some of the smaller founder-led businesses where I might have a greater impact. Some of these agile fast growth companies are going to market for the very first time, using a search firm for the first time or making a hire which can make or break their business or entry into a new territory. So, I felt like it was the right moment to pivot and use my knowledge and experience for a slightly different market where I could add more meaningful value… also I stopped wearing ties which was probably a big plus in the summer months!

You’ve had the luxury of meeting and advising some of the world’s best executive leaders. What do you think makes some of these people successful within growth businesses?

Wow there is a lot I can go into here but let’s try and focus on a few. I think that one of the first things I look for is a kind of entrepreneurial spirit. You know, I look for people who can wear a number of hats and roll their sleeves up at times, even at the VP / C-suite level. I think this is especially important in some of the earlier-stage VC portfolio companies where there isn’t a mature structure in place or clear processes you can work through. When I assess I’m looking for these examples as opposed to someone who wants to orchestrate from the top

I also look for team players, people who are fantastic at what they do, but humble and open to sharing their experiences and passing their knowledge to others. Teams in the growth space are smaller and move quickly compared to Enterprise, so you have to be the person who will get involved and help those on the journey for the first time. You can’t really hide away and that goes for your personality style as well, so this is a big part of my discussions with the existing team before we go to market…that is, beyond the hard skills, what type of person will fit into our culture, into our home!

Ok so how specifically do you evaluate these people?

Yeah, good question – I mean, the first thing my team and I do before we ever start evaluating external suitors is look inside the business and specifically the current leadership of the business. One of the biggest mistakes founders make related to executive hiring is they don’t evaluate what’s around them first. They think they know, or they take a guess, and they say, “oh I’ve worked with the team for a while, and I know how they collaborate and where the gaps are”. But actually, have you evaluated this externally – where is the objective lens? Have you made use of some of the software tools that are available now? Here you can perform a Team Assessment to objectively compare and contrast the members. It doesn’t have to be a long winded five-page qualitative assessment with a Business Psychologist coming in at the end. It could be something quite simple. I Lean on some of these technologies to make sure I’ve got a rounded perspective of what personality traits exist, where the team is strong, and then of course where we can develop.

Once we’ve collated this data properly, we have better clarity on what we need to look for and hence evaluate. Using these metrics I utilize a pretty rigorous assessment, a bit like a scorecard, that I’ll agree with the client before we go to market, so we’re all aligned. We do scores for each of the metrics, and I advocate limiting the sharing of notes and scores where possible, so we eliminate any priming effects or bias.

Again, I use a software tool with later stage candidates that allows me to assess how they measure up against the existing team. It just gives me some objective data points and is helpful in establishing whether we’ve got someone different in terms of their personality style coming on board. We want to have a diverse range of personalities to tackle the breadth of problems and open up more creative thinking. I’m also using the tool to see if they align on values, and I think this is super super important. We talk about whether they are a good culture fit? Will they work well with the team members?.. then we kind of leave it to an hour or two conversation or a lunch where both parties are probably trying to say the right thing or at least stay relatively neutral – I used to call it the corporate veneer! Objectively assessing what is important to them in work and what they value is critical as those who are aligned will ride through those tougher times together. In short, I’m looking for similar core values in a team and across an organization but diversity of thought and personality.

And just dipping into the AI space specifically, what trends do you see in the ones that have successfully scaled?

Obviously, talent of course and getting the leadership team right – cash flow and poor hiring are two of the main reasons we see the businesses fail to scale and they are often intertwined. I think one of the things I’ve noticed particularly having worked with say earlier stage technical teams is they tend to position it as a platform play, or as a product company. And when they do that, you kind of feel like the product is always replaceable. I’m fortunate to work with some great leaders who have successfully scaled AI companies and they’ve done that by first shifting the company to a more service-based mentality. So, they come in and they talk about the company being an integral part of an Enterprise’s business process. That cultural mindset changes it helps them structure longer term deals and ultimately supports better value creation.

Interesting and insightful thank you! So, it’s clearly a great space to be in – What advice would you give to people coming into the sector or thinking of starting a career in Executive Search?

The best advice I can give is to be supportive as you begin your journey, help people with connections and advice on market conditions and equally, act like a sponge and take in all the great conversations you get to be a party of. You know, it’s difficult as you need to be patient, and it can take years to foster and build great relationships with senior business leaders. There are many in my network I’ve known for four, five years or even more before I’ve even started doing projects with them. Particularly in the growth space, you might work with one client who has one or two projects a year, so you’ve really got to be a little bit patient, be the person who is there for someone to offer career advice and be available even when you’re busy or the market conditions are poor. I’ll add this as well, I still like phoning people! Careers are very important to us; we spend a lot of our time working and even longer reflecting on our jobs or future planning. I try my best to get in front of people and enjoy a phone call to offer guidance where I can. Most people in my experience welcome a friendly and open conversation about their career and are keen to stay informed about market updates and opportunities. Helping those around you will ultimately lead you to have a stronger network and of course then you will have a better chance of success.