International Case Study of SMW: CEO of Italian operation

The client, an international company involved in the manufacture of equipment used in the production and treatment of gas. They had recently purchased a company
in Italy and were bringing them into their corporate structure. The client’s Corporate Headquarters, located in France, wanted to install a new CEO. The
three potential internal candidates, who were current directors claiming the CEO post for themselves, were deemed not up to the task.

Chief Executive Officer of Italian operation

A case study

Situation
The client, an international company involved in the manufacture of equipment used in the production and treatment of gas. They had recently purchased a company in Italy and were bringing them into their corporate structure. The client’s Corporate Headquarters, located in France, wanted to install a new CEO. The three potential internal candidates, who were current directors claiming the CEO post for themselves, were deemed not up to the task.

1. A former shareholder of the acquired company who was having difficulty integrating in an international group.
2. The current CTO: strong expert in the business and with has excellent technical knowledge, but not able to manage a business
3. The current Operations Manager, who had the same issues as the CTO; good technical skills but not a CEO candidate.

The competition among the three directors generated significant hostility and added to a poor work environment, with each of them explicitly not accepting the other two as future boss and CEO. The incoming interim CEO would face some major challenges:

• The need to be recognized as the Italian CEO, fully representing the HQ, by the three curr
  directors with the risk to lose them
• Maintain the same level of activity and key people retained
• After the acquisition, the Italian unit lost market share: need to gaining it back
• Re-orient and guide the development process

The Interim Solution

The solution to these issues moved quickly. Four excellent candidates have been submitted to client in just four days. After a series of interviews with the Corporate team, one of the candidates was selected and started within one week’s time. The candidate was not interested in staying as a permanent hire.