I speak to at least three executives every day, and most of them believe their application begins when they contact a search consultant or get a first interview. By then it is usually already the second half.
Various studies estimate that a large share of the really interesting leadership roles are never advertised. From more than twenty years of my own experience, I can confirm this: the most exciting assignments grow out of a business problem, not a finished role description. At the start there is often no position at all, only a question that an investor or a board has to solve.
What very few people know: long before anyone is officially in the running, reputable consultants gather information informally. Not from the three references the candidate names. But from former colleagues, from people in the second row, from companions nobody has prepared. These conversations often decide more than the conversation with us. It is not about whether someone was likeable. It is about how someone led under pressure, how they treated their own team, and whether the success story in the CV holds up when you ask people who actually lived through it.
This means your real application does not only start when you are actively looking. It runs all the time, through what former colleagues say when you are not in the room.
The second point I often miss: most people get in touch when they need something. The ones I still remember years later are the ones who got in touch beforehand, not to ask whether there was a role, but to share an honest view from their market. That turns the relationship around.
Both take time that you cannot only start investing once you need it.
Why do even the best turnaround CEOs so often struggle with how the market sees them?
It is rarely about their numbers. Anyone who has run a P&L of €500m+, delivered 5 to 10 % in
October 13, 2026
