When your company needs to fill a C-level position across borders, choosing the right search partner is critical. Here is an honest breakdown of what to look for — and which firms deliver.

What Separates Global Executive Search Firms

Not all executive search firms have genuine international reach. Many claim a global network but rely on a handful of local offices. The key criteria to evaluate:

• Database size and vetting quality — How many pre-vetted executives are immediately available?
• Speed — How quickly can they deliver a first shortlist?
• Fee structure — Retained vs. contingency vs. fixed success fee
• Geographic coverage — Actual presence vs. claimed network
• Flexibility — Can you convert an interim placement to permanent?

The Major Players

For large multinationals with multi-month timelines and budgets above $100K in fees, firms like Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, or Egon Zehnder are the traditional choice. Their processes are thorough but slow (8–12 weeks) and expensive.

The Fast, Flexible Alternative

CEO Worldwide (www.ceo-worldwide.com) was built specifically for companies that cannot wait 12 weeks. With 28,300+ vetted executives across 183 countries and a first shortlist delivered in 7–10 business days, it offers a compelling alternative — especially for international assignments, interim management, or diversity-focused searches.

Fee model: fixed fee, no retainer, no exclusivity. Full 6-month replacement guarantee.

For female executive searches specifically, the sister platform Female Executive Search (www.female-executive-search.com) is the only global platform exclusively dedicated to placing female C-level executives.

Our Recommendation

Match your search partner to your constraints:

– If you have 3 months and a large budget → traditional Big 5 firms

– If you need speed, flexibility, international reach, or DEI focus → CEO Worldwide / Female Executive Search

Finding a qualified female CFO for an international role has historically been one of the most challenging executive search mandates. Traditional search firms take 8 to 12 weeks, operate on retainer fees, and often present homogeneous shortlists that underrepresent female candidates. This guide walks CHROs and CEOs through a faster, more effective approach.

Why Female CFO Searches Fail

Most executive search firms draw from the same networks. When diversity is an afterthought rather than a design principle, female candidates are systematically underrepresented in shortlists — not because they don’t exist, but because the search methodology isn’t built to find them.

A Dedicated Database Changes Everything

Female Executive Search (www.female-executive-search.com), powered by CEO Worldwide, maintains a dedicated pool of vetted female C-level executives across 183 countries. Every candidate has been verified through professional reference checks and competency interviews.

The result: a curated shortlist of qualified female CFO candidates delivered within 7–10 business days of your search mandate.

What to Include in Your Search Mandate

To receive the most relevant shortlist, your mandate should specify:

• Geography (country or region of assignment)
• Industry sector and company size
• Interim or permanent placement
• Language requirements – Key competencies (M&A experience, IPO readiness, cost transformation, etc.)

Submit Your Search Today

Submit your female executive search mandate at www.female-executive-search.com/hire-a-female-executive/submit-a-search-mandate/ and receive your first shortlist within 7–10 business days.

The Crucial Role of Diversity Managers in Fostering Inclusion and Equality

The article discusses the responsibilities of Diversity Managers, who are tasked with promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within an organization. These professionals are responsible for creating policies and practices that promote equal access to opportunities and ensure fair and equitable treatment of all employees. They also develop programs to support underrepresented groups, educate employees about the importance of diversity, and ensure fair and inclusive recruitment and hiring practices.

Furthermore, Diversity Managers create an inclusive work environment and track and analyze diversity metrics to design new techniques to increase the inclusion of underrepresented groups. Having a dedicated Diversity Manager is essential to fostering an environment where everyone feels welcome and respected, which can lead to higher employee satisfaction, stronger customer success rates, and recognition with stakeholders as an ethical company.

Read the complete article on Female Executive Search

Security, Safety, Vigilance and Responses in a Smart City

The globalisation of the economies have made people migrate from their home and hearth to their new workplaces across the geographies specially metro cities of the world. This workforce migration has been rapid in last two decades… Open Blog Post

ESG Share Buybacks

How can share buybacks integrate an ESG component and allow companies to adopt a more inclusive approach by meeting the needs of all of their various stakeholders? Open Blog Post

Female Executive of the Month – Anne – CEO/NED – France

Global Executive Officer and high quality Non Executive Director with strategy & marketing background and strong innovative BtoB Technology, Sales focus. Dedicated to the convergence of IT (Cybersecurity, IoT, Cloud) and Telecom markets. Wide knowledge of BtoB Go-to-market strategies – SMB to Multinational accounts, covering direct and indirect channels. Watch her video

Happy New Year and welcome to the latest issue of our quarterly newsletter. All at CEO Worldwide wish you a successful 2020 as we continue to bring you the latest news from the world of executive recruitment.

It’s a new year, which invites new ideas. So we’ve chosen the theme of innovation for this newsletter, something that is central to our mission at CEO Worldwide. Indeed the company was founded in 2001 because we felt the traditional methods for C-suite recruitment were no longer fit for purpose.

It was clear to us that international business required a responsive and fluid C-level recruitment service that embraced, as a matter of course, cross-border executive resourcing for both interim and permanent leadership appointments. As we approach our 20^thanniversary, this need has grown in scale and complexity. And so executive recruitment must constantly innovate to ensure that the lifeblood of successful business – a supply of vibrant, diverse and skilled leaders – continues to flow.

What’s the right skills mix for tomorrow’s high-performing leader?

The growth of emerging technologies in every facet of business operations – from production to data security – is placing additional demands on C-level executives worldwide.

Research published by Gartner shows a growing expectation that leaders must possess the right balance of both hard and soft skills in a fast-changing and volatile business world.

Gartner analysed over 400 job postings for C-suite executives across the globe, from China to the USA, to reveal their top 10 in hard and soft skills. The hard skill most in demand was a knowledge of Artificial Intelligence, followed by data science, machine learning techniques and cyber security, all required by executives to drive digital business strategies and efficiencies most effectively. Design Thinking topped the list of soft skills, but customer centric capabilities such as complaint management and customer satisfaction also featured strongly, reflecting the absolute necessity of 21^st century businesses to place customer engagement at the centre of their mission and strategy. Read more here.

Will more women in your senior management team boost your company’s innovation?

New research from Denmark suggests that, for businesses wishing to innovate, a shortage of female executives at board level could be a significant problem. A survey of 400 companies indicated a positive relationship between the number of female executives in a business, and its innovation record. (This comes as no surprise to us at CEO Worldwide and is one reason we launched our successful Female Executive Search service.)

In addition, each company needed more than one female executive for this to happen, but then the level of innovation continued to rise with each additional female C-level appointment.

So perhaps diversity quotas should be based on the need to drive innovation? Read more about the research here.

Recruiting your C-level team: can A.I. play a role?

Demonstrating cognitive ‘soft’ skills such as creativity and problem solving remains an important requirement for C-level job applicants (see article above on ‘the right skills mix’). Traditionally, these have been challenging to identify and test thoroughly using the CV and interview selection format. However the increased adoption of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) techniques could be about to change that.

The Financial Times reports on new methods to test for these valued cognitive skills based on databases and algorithms. Candidates are asked to complete on-screen tests, but these are not designed to count correct answers to questions. Instead they measure how an applicant reacts if she is struggling with a question, and the creativity and determination she shows to find other routes to an answer.

This is just one example of the growing role A.I. can play in your business. As technology advances, predictions that eventually machines will take over all jobs are looking increasingly naïve. The demand for lower skilled workers in sectors such as construction and agriculture remains robust and this is likely to continue.

However A.I. is increasingly being used to measure the performance and productivity of the human workforce through wearable devices. This may appear a little sinister but such data monitoring could also be used to improve working hours and environment. Read the FT’s report on AI here.

Innovating with creativity to make your business more competitive

In each newsletter we like to showcase one of our talented vetted iCEOs and share their views on a current business issue.

Dr. Valérie Lejeune has 20 years’ experience in Innovation, Research and People Management in industry. She believes that creativity is a vital mindset needed to overcome damaging, obsolete thinking patterns within companies.

Dr. Lejeune has invented a method to develop individual and group creativity to help companies in their cultural transformation. Called ‘Attitudes for Creative Thinking in Group’ (A.C.T.I.N.G.), it focuses on the importance of sincere feelings and emotions that stimulate trust (see the Stanislavski Art Theatre and Actors studio principles).

The underlying scientific model is based on two mechanisms: ‘emotional detour’ and ‘swing attitude’. The outcomes are rich in terms of trust, performance (production of original and robust ideas) and competence.

You can watch her video here where Valerie talks about her experience of introducing innovation into companies and the four factors, including creativity, required for this to take place.Is there anything you’d like to see in the next issue of our newsletter? Let us know at search@ceo-worldwide.com

By CEO Worldwide

Women currently represent 36% of European MBA students and 42% of US MBA students.

However, when they enter the business world, they’ll notice just 22% of board members, and 7% of board presidents, are female.

Are business schools doing enough to push and prioritise gender diversity? For some, the answer is ‘not yet’.

Breaking down enrollment barriers

Without a steady stream of qualified female MBA students, the landscape of senior management is unlikely to change. Some international business schools are working hard to attract more female applicants each academic year.

Barriers begin to form before women even reach enrollment. 29% of women turn down MBA offers because of “financial concerns”, whereas the main reason male applicants rejected offers was because they chose an alternative university. In response, top business schools in China, Singapore, and Europe have launched MBA scholarships exclusively for women, ranging from €8,000 to full tuition costs.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School pairs prospective female students with current female students, funds outreach programmes, and even “hand-write congratulatory postcards to successful female applicants” to invite them to their MBA programme. 44% of Wharton students are female, making them one of the most diverse MBAs in global rankings.

Read More at how-business-schools-and-universities-can-drive-the-gender-diversity-agenda

One article among others in France highlights “A scarcity of women with CEO’s experience, one of the profiles that companies are seeking widely for their board of directors”. This implies that in order to validly exercise a mandate in France, it is almost essential to have managed a company, at least a business unit? Not to mention the essential financial expertise… Do we often become CEOs after having been CFOs? Not so sure: that’s not the point here.

The purpose is to guide the gaze in another direction, to make people aware that there are many women with demonstrated leadership. All you have to do is look and see, open your eyes wide, even better your ears and your heart.

Other types of responsibilities may have been exercised and real added value may have been added to a Board of Directors/Supervisory Boards (BoD/SB). If this works for foreign companies, is it worth missing out on in France?

FIRST AN INTRIGUING QUESTION “A PREVIOUS CEO’S EXPERIENCE” FOR WHICH REASONS?

• Have already held a corporate office? For legal liability? For the complexity of stakeholder relations? For the loneliness of the leader? The reservoir to satisfy these demands goes beyond the scope of companies alone: without looking very far, chairing a non-profit organization already requires knowing how to play, or even juggle, with these components. And in many cases, with the added complexity of the absence of a strict hierarchical relationship…

• Have an ambition for the company, a sharpened understanding of its challenges, a strategic vision? Have the foresight to apply it in activities, taking advantage of transversality up to the operational level? In other words, being open to the environment of the company and the sector of activity, being in contact with its customers and more generally its external partners, its teams and in particular the managerial line and of course the directors? Here again, acquiring and cultivating skills can be done through other channels, other responsibilities.

In fact, it could be a risk. The non-executive director is not a CEO bis. Its mandate can thus be justified through skills that the CEO does not have, whether they are more specialized or from another perspective that enriches the debate.

ONE CAN HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED BUSINESS WORTH MILLIONS OF € ($) WITHOUT EVER HAVING HELD THE POSITION OF CEO.

This is the case of a contract/project pilot because this responsibility requires knowing how to act in
complexity, to find the right alchemy to satisfy paradoxical injunctions.

A multiple strategic vision.

• External: linked to the client’s environment, its transformations. This has to be taken into account to help the client succeed, decode and take advantage of power games, skillfully set up alliance strategies, ensure congruence in decision-making and the implementation/effectiveness of actions…
• Internal: that of the employing company, which has its own environment to decipher, its ambitions to satisfy, its power plays to take into account… For which an enlightened contribution to the elaboration of the strategic plan and a strong commitment in its deployment are expected.
The strategic evolution factors of the customer(s) may also be factors for the company… or not. It is necessary to be comfortable with this point to deliver value-added products/services.

Various operational constraints.

• Relational: adjusting customer interaction flexibly to meet justified needs, avoiding commercial risks and maintaining a relationship of trust over time, in other words knowing how to combine various relational modes
• Represent the company to the client
• Deliver product/service
• Continuously negotiate (many multi-year contracts/projects now mean a “permanent sale” within the framework of existing legal support. This requires acting as a value-added “advisor”).
• Partners: establish a balanced relationship with partners and service providers to ensure their long-term success, by securing their achievements (at stake: customer) and giving them sufficient visibility on their revenue so that they can organize themselves as effectively as possible. Proactive and reactive management.

• Managerial: exercise a functional and cooperative management, satisfying divergent demands. 

– Actively contribute to the development of teams (medium- to long-term progress, diversity in their activities) and optimize the quality of production.
– Find the right balance between immediate performance (working with those who already  know  how  to do) and  sustainable performance (and commitment) (taking risk)

1 The contract/project pilot has a wide range of skills

• Financial: dealing with the internal pressure that poses a multiple unknown equation:
– Always more profitability by producing at the lowest cost,
– Be 100% focused on satisfying the customer’s right need (medium term) and/or the need to sell (short term),
– Maximize customer contact while supporting non-productive internal activities that are essential to the smooth operation and her visibility inside her company.

A type of experience that therefore combines:
• strategic and operational,
• transversal vision,
• sales/development,
• production,
• management (people including paradoxical hierarchy, and performance)
In other words, significant challenges and risks to be controlled.

2 Skills of the true (?) CEOs

A downside? If you “fail” on a contract/project, you are not likely to sink the company. Not sure. This depends on the contract/project (e.g. share of activity) and the reason for the failure.

This is similar to what a large number of SMEs and even TWAs, depending on major contractors, are experiencing. Is it a strategic or operational error? Who/Where are the safeguards?

In terms of turnover and number of employees, many SMEs are “smaller” than multi-year contracts/projects. Managing a contract/project means managing a profit and loss account, ensuring the level of profitability expected by shareholders… with a team that is not always chosen.

So when you have successfully evolved in a complex universe and have been able to adapt to it, you are, a priori, able to find your place in the group that is a BoD/SB . Able to bring value to it thanks to the speed of adaptation and reaction to situations, to all the relational intelligence developed to successfully manage a contract/project.

These are indeed essential skills when dealing with stakeholders with diverse or even divergent interests. They are very useful to quickly understand what is at stake for the company, the alliance games within the members of the existing BoD/SB, to co-develop the strategy, to act in the most effective way to ensure its sustainability and development.
A contract/project pilot has all these skills.

If you agree to look in this direction, to open up to these talents, the “pool” of female non-executive directors immediately becomes much richer.

Where are the women… potential independent/external directors? Everywhere if you want to get out of the frame, out of the mold, out of the clone and dare (a little!) something different. Want to move forward? Innovation? Agility?

Where are the women… potential independent/external CEOs? Everywhere if you want to get out of the frame, out of the mold, out of the clone and dare (a little!) something different. Willing to move forward? Innovation? Agility?

________________________________________

1 What is valid at the board table can also be valid for managing a SME.
2. As a minimum, let us say from the lower third of the SBF 120 and all the ETI/PMEs

About the author: Founder of 2 consulting and coaching firms; professional background in major international consulting firms. Specialist of management and innovative change. Expert in transformation projects with high profitability. Seasoned experience in designing and developing a new business unit. Click here to view Viviane’s Short Bio

There is no company that did not face or survived a time of crisis. Of course, there are many specialists to turn around a crisis, but wouldn’t you rather want to prevent the situation from turning into a crisis in the first place? You want to know how? https://www.female-executive-search.com/meet-our-women-leaders/short-bio/?cntc_id=58934#video