Digital Future's Case Study Series: 2. CEO for Private Equity Owned Buy and Build E-Commerce Group.

In the fast-paced world of digital marketing and mobile advertising, finding the right leadership can be as transformative as the technology itself. Digital Future recently spearheaded a challenging search for a new Managing Director for an innovative tech company focused on app-based advertising solutions.

This case study delves into the strategic and meticulous approach employed by Digital Future to navigate this high-stakes recruitment, culminating in a successful placement that promises to steer the company into its ambitious future.

The Company

The Company is an PE-Backed Buy and Build case, with the aim to become the leading platform in the e-commerce environment to support online retailers in every market phase. For this purpose, synergies of the individual portfolio companies are leveraged and strengthened through know-how and investment. 

The Mission

With the merger of the individual portfolio companies under one Company in 2021, the PE Fund has given the go-ahead for an ambitious buy&build project. Initially, the group was led by a co-leadership, which was to be supplemented by an extended C-Suite as the group grew both organically and inorganically. This required managers with the appropriate experience and knowledge. The PE Fund was looking for top managers for the company, who would open up the next major growth phase. Specifically, a strong Group CEO. Given the highly competitive market situation in the e-commerce sector, the war of talents and the need to fill a crucial role as efficiently and as quickly as possible, the PE Fund faced a big challenge: How to effectively set up a Powerhouse C-Level to navigate the company through its upcoming growth phase?

The Role

The Role of the Group CEO encompassed the overall responsibility for the group and therefore required a person with significant leadership experience. Additionally, the profile needed to be familiar with setting up and pursuing the group's strategy, namely the development of a leading platform for online retailers in the e-commerce sector through pushing synergies of the individual portfolio companies. Due to the integration of different teams of the portfolio companies grouping under one Brand, a personality with high motivation and proactive leadership was sought. It was therefore not only about management skills, but rather finding a "hands-on" character who already had experience in a fast-growing environment and was not hesitant to actively shape the operational business on a daily basis. In addition, we were looking for a person for the role of Group CEO who was familiar with extensive stakeholder management, especially in the M&A sector, and who was also capable of presenting this success story externally.

Process and Outcome

Based on existing contacts and recommendations in the fast-moving e-commerce environment, Digital Future was able to carry out a detailed market analysis. Using a list of target companies, we identified and approached both existing and new direct competitors. In addition, we conducted intensive research on portals, at events and in scientific articles, in order to identify suitable profiles outside the usual acquisition methodologies.

In our research phase, we made sure to start with a broader and cross-industry range of talent, which we then narrowed down. This required the constant review and expansion of our search parameters. In particular, we focused on strong ecommerce companies, buy&build companies and M&A projects. In addition, we took the perspective of potential customers and looked for comparable providers. Based on this strategy, we were able to identify a group of approximately 32 potential talents with whom we started initial conversations. After two further qualification steps, in which we carried out further selection based on parameters such as leadership experience, hands-on mentality, personality fit, but also hard criteria such as location and salary range, we ended up with a group of 9 fully qualified potential talents for the role. Later in the process we were able to qualify 4 further exceptional profiles for the Group CEO role.

Successful Placement

The culmination of this three-month-long search was the appointment of the Group CEO, who not only shared the visionary goals of the company but also brought a robust portfolio of experience and achievements in M&A activities, a hand's on leadership style and a track record of successfully scaling companies in the past. This placement not only met the immediate leadership needs of the company but also aligned with the long-term strategic goals of expanding their business.

Due to the successful collaboration on the Group CEO Role and the need to establish a successful C-level team, Digital Future has been assigned to fill two additional positions: namely, the CMO and CTO roles. These two positions have a significant impact on the organization's development and, together with the initial Group CEO, they should form a strong lineup for the future.

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