Insights — Executive Recruitment — 4 min read
How Do You Recruit a CEO for a Growing Business?
Recruiting a CEO starts with a clear board-level answer to what the business needs the role to change, not with a job advert.
In short
Recruiting a CEO for a growing business starts with the board agreeing what has to change in the business, not with a job description. From there: define the mandate and what authority the role carries over strategy, people and capital; decide whether a permanent appointment or an interim bridge fits the timeline; assess candidates against evidence of leading through a comparable stage of growth, not seniority alone; and involve the board or investors in final-stage assessment, since they are the role's ongoing counterparty.
Growing businesses often reach for a CEO recruitment process because the founder or existing leader is stretched, not because the board has agreed exactly what the role needs to be accountable for. That gap is the most common reason a CEO appointment underperforms in its first year — the process moved faster than the thinking behind it.
Recruiting a CEO for a growing business is a different exercise from recruiting one for a mature, stable organisation. Growth changes what the role needs to own week to week, and it changes the kind of experience that makes a candidate genuinely credible for the brief.
What should come before the job specification?
Before anything is written or advertised, the board should be able to state plainly what the business needs a CEO to change within the first eighteen months — for example, building a senior team the founder currently substitutes for, preparing the business for external investment, or taking the organisation through a second stage of growth the existing structure cannot support. A CEO recruited against a vague sense of 'more senior leadership' is far harder to assess and far easier to appoint wrongly.
- What decision, currently made by the founder or board, should the CEO own instead?
- What has the business tried to fix already, and why has that not worked?
- What must genuinely be different in the organisation twelve to eighteen months after the appointment?
- What authority will the role actually carry over hiring, spend and strategy, and what stays with the board?
What does a growing business need differently from a mature one?
A CEO joining a growing business is usually building capability that does not fully exist yet — a senior team, reporting discipline, an operating rhythm — rather than optimising a structure that is already in place. That changes what to look for: evidence that a candidate has built rather than only run, and evidence they can operate with less certainty and fewer established systems than a larger organisation would offer.
| Business stage | Weight more heavily |
|---|---|
| Early growth, founder-led | Evidence of building teams and structure from a low base; comfort with ambiguity |
| Scaling with external investment | Experience of institutional board and investor reporting; capital discipline |
| Preparing for a second stage of growth | A track record of professionalising an organisation without stalling momentum |
Permanent or interim: which fits a growing business?
Most CEO appointments in a growing business are made on a permanent basis, given the depth of ownership and the length of the change usually required. An interim CEO can be the right answer for a genuinely time-limited situation — bridging a sudden departure, steering a defined transition such as a funding round or restructuring, or providing experienced cover while a permanent search is run properly rather than rushed. Interim appointments should not be used as a way of avoiding the harder work of defining the permanent mandate; in our view that decision is usually better made explicitly than by default.
How should the board assess candidates?
- 01Test for evidence of the specific change the role must deliver, not general seniority or brand-name employers
- 02Ask candidates to describe how they built or changed an organisation of a comparable size and stage, and what they would have done differently
- 03Assess how a candidate works with a board — the CEO's principal ongoing relationship — not only how they lead internally
- 04Involve the chair, non-executives or lead investor directly in final-stage assessment; a CEO hired by the founder alone often struggles to build board confidence later
- 05Check references against the specific mandate, not a general character reference
What role should confidentiality play in the process?
CEO searches in growing businesses are frequently confidential, particularly where an existing leader is stepping back, a funding process is underway, or the business does not want competitors or staff to read premature signals into the search. A structured, discreet process — direct approaches rather than open advertising, controlled information release, and a small, defined interview group — is usually more appropriate than a public campaign at this level.
What should the offer and onboarding period cover?
Beyond remuneration, the offer stage should confirm the board's expectations for the first ninety days, reporting lines, and how success will genuinely be measured — ideally the same measures used to define the mandate at the outset. A short, structured onboarding period that introduces the new CEO to the board, senior team and key relationships deliberately, rather than leaving this to happen informally, materially reduces the risk of an early mismatch surfacing late.
Considering an executive appointment?
Evans Sales Consultancy recruits eleven executive roles across permanent, interim and fractional engagement models — starting with what the appointment has to deliver.
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