Executive search is headhunting run as a research-driven process for securing senior leaders: discreet approach to people who are not looking, structured assessment of leadership and fit, advice on role definition and package, and management from brief through to onboarding. We run these searches for functional and subsidiary leadership in mid-sized and large Benelux organisations.
The ceiling on an ordinary Belgian non-compete. It does not bite when the employer dismissed them. It bites when they resign to join you.
What enforcing that clause costs their current employer, which is why many end up waived.
To waive it after the contract ends. Miss the window and the indemnity is owed anyway.
Role definition and calibration
Agreed before anyone is approached.
Exhaustive market mapping
Who exists at that level, and where.
Discreet outreach
Targeted engagement with top-tier executives.
Leadership assessment
In-depth evaluation of strategic skills.
Restrictions checked early
Non-compete and notice, before the offer.
Package and structure advice
On the terms this level actually moves for.
End-to-end management
Ongoing support from briefing to onboarding.
A real market map
Not a list of people who might move, but the whole population holding that role in the region, with who sits where and how long they have been there. The map is the deliverable even before anyone is approached, and it often changes the brief.
Approaches that convert
At this level almost nobody is looking, so the first conversation decides everything. It works when the person calling can discuss the role, the reporting line and the package credibly, and it fails when they are reading from a brief.
No surprises at offer stage
Notice, non-compete and any restriction on approaching former colleagues checked in the first conversations rather than after the offer. Searches at this level are lost late far more often than they are lost early.
Real discretion
Many of these searches replace someone who does not know yet. That shapes everything: who is told, what the market is told, where interviews happen, and how a shortlist is documented internally.
With us | Global firm | Contingency | Your network | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee model | Retained, in stages | Retained, higher fee | On placement only | Nothing, apparently |
| Reach and mapping | Benelux, mapped exhaustively | Worldwide, board level | Whoever is already known | People you already know |
| Who they cannot call | A short off-limits list | A long one, they serve everyone | Rarely declared | Nobody, and that is the risk |
| Assessment | Structured, against the calibration | Structured, often outsourced | Interviews, not assessment | Judgement, undocumented |
| Fits when | Functional or subsidiary leadership | Listed group CEO or a board seat | The market is deep and active | You genuinely know the market |
If the person you want is not looking, contingency will not reach them. That is the test.
Mandate calibration
The mandate, the reporting line, the first eighteen months, and what would make this hire a failure.
Mapping and approach
The population holding that role in the region, then discreet contact with the part of it that fits.
Assessment and shortlist
Structured evaluation against the calibration, references taken, and three to four people presented together.
Offer and onboarding
Package structured on what moves this level, restrictions and notice already settled, and support through the counter-offer that almost always comes. Then contact through the first year, because this is judged at month twelve.
The ceiling on an ordinary Belgian non-compete. It does not bite when the employer dismissed them. It bites when they resign to join you.
What enforcing that clause costs their current employer, which is why many end up waived.
To waive it after the contract ends. Miss the window and the indemnity is owed anyway.
Technology leadership
CIO, CTO and IT directors, where the brief usually mixes transformation with running the estate.
Security leadership
CISO roles, increasingly recruited with a written accountability mandate attached.
Operations and manufacturing
Plant and site directors, where the market is small enough that everyone knows everyone.
Finance leadership
CFO and finance directors in subsidiaries, reporting into a group elsewhere.
Engineering leadership
Technical and R&D direction, where the derogatory non-compete is most often in play.
HR and transformation
HR directors hired to change something specific rather than to run the function as it is.
Financial services
Where fit and proper assessment sits between the offer and the start date.
Automotive and manufacturing
Small leadership populations, so an approach becomes known quickly if it is handled badly.
Technology and innovation
Where equity and long-term incentives make the package comparison genuinely difficult.
Tell us the mandate, the reporting line and what the first eighteen months have to produce. You get a view of who exists at that level in the region and what it will take to move them.
Driving business success with expert solutions.
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