A successful placement is the goal, but our search process is all about creating value at every step of the process and making it as seamless as possible for you. To do so, we stick to our core values: quality, integrity, flexibility, accountability, and authenticity, and to our rigorous methodology.

Kick-off & strategy development

We invest substantial time upfront to understand your objectives, corporate culture, and the essence of the role you’re looking to fill. From there, we develop a compelling description of the role and your organisation, a candidate profile, and a tailored research strategy, which includes target companies and an implementation method so you know exactly what to expect.

Candidate search & selection

With a strategy properly in place, we research target companies and access our network for referrals and connectors. Once we have a long list of candidates, we conduct virtual and face-to-face conversations and go through our rigorous process of candidate appraisal – where hard facts about their skills and experience are weighed next to soft factors that we read between the lines with our trained eye. At the same time, we are sharing your compelling value proposition with candidates to spark their interest. Every two weeks, we share updates and market findings through calls and detailed reports.

Candidate presentation

After submitting an insightful short list of best suited candidates, we proceed to arrange client interviews with viable candidates, while advising you every step of the way. After our structured bi-weekly reports, the shortlisted candidates won’t come as a surprise to you. The average delivery time between kick-off and candidate presentation is 6 weeks.

Post-selection support

Throughout the negotiation, on-boarding and even post-placement stages, we’re right there next to you providing advice and hands-on support on remuneration packages, incentive schemes and prerequisites, offer letters and legal employment contracts, and more. During the probation period, we offer additional executive coaching to our candidates to help set them up for success in their new role. We’re confident in our search process and qualification steps and provide a 6-month guarantee period.

As a retained executive search firm, we specialise in targeted searches for positions that are too senior or specialised (or where confidentiality is too important) to engage a recruitment agency.

Leadership positions
– Top level leadership
– CEO
– Country Manager
– Business Unit Head

Functional expertise
– Sales, Business Development and Marketing leadership
– Finance, Accounting and Controlling leadership
– Production and Operations Managers
– Engineering and R&D
– Quality Control and Assurance

FES Partners specialises in executive search for midsized companies looking for top-tier service with a bespoke, boutique approach. Because of our niche expertise in certain industries [link to industries section] and leadership profiles, larger companies also engage us for critical hires.

Our client base includes companies from Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia operating in Asia. Increasingly, we’re also supporting Asian businesses looking to expand abroad.

We work with the following ownership structures:

Family-owned companies: Owner-led companies with a rich legacy or solid market position have been our core focus from the start. We have refined our methodology to assess talent suitability specifically for medium-sized family businesses. Increasingly, this category includes clients needing succession planning support when leadership can no longer be transferred within the family.

VCs and private equity investors: We frequently recruit for VC or PE-backed portfolio companies aiming to enter and expand into the Greater China or Southeast Asia markets. The China and Asia growth story is crucial for their value development and planned exit strategies.

Sino-foreign joint ventures: Recruiting in this category is particularly challenging due to the diverse stakeholders involved and their expectations. We are proud to have served as a key account for a NZ-Sino Joint Venture with over US$1bn in revenue for more than three years, consistently meeting their critical demands for leadership talent.

Publicly listed companies: Successful leaders at listed companies often require a unique managerial skill set and relevant experience in terms of corporate culture, code of conduct and corporate governance. Because of our unique talent network in Asia, and respected eye for candidates’ cultural fit, publicly listed companies turn to us for specific executive hires.

The ideal candidate will depend entirely on your needs, business context, and underlying strategy behind a specific search. That said, our executive search experience has given us a trained eye for certain qualities that are shared by most leaders who achieve great things at mid-market companies in Asia.
Aside from the technical requirements, managerial experience, and industry expertise required for a specific position, these are traits we look for in our typical candidate:

– Mid-market minded: To settle in and succeed in a “Mittelstand” company, previous experience in mid-market companies, or a proven awareness of what working in a mid-sized company entails, is decisive.
– Hands-on and flexible: Grit, resilience, and a can-do attitude are promising attributes for any leader, but even more so for the people driving your business in the complex and ever-changing Asian region.
– Combination of disciplines: Our clients are often technology leaders and pride themselves to sell via quality and not via price. Our candidates often have engineering degress from reputable universities in e.g. Germany and a demonstrated commercial and sales experience which enables them to deliver on our clients go to market strategy.
– Cultural fit: A top-notch talent can disappoint as a leader if their values and culture are not in line with the way business is done in your organisation. The last thing you want is to have a leader who never “clicks” with clients, business partners, colleagues, or board members, and our seasoned skills allow us to gauge cultural fit with surprising accuracy.