Selecting a country manager, general manager, head of people and culture, or national sales director is one of the most consequential decisions an MD or CEO will make. It shapes culture, signals direction, and the cost reaches far beyond the obvious.
According to Harvard Business School, 40% of all executives who change jobs or get promoted fail in the first 18 months. In most cases, failure is not about competence. It is about cultural fit and the organisation’s readiness to set them up for success.
At Fisher People in Culture, we have spent years working at the intersection of recruitment and culture. We do not just fill a role. We find the person who will work within your world and we stay involved to make sure they do.
Who is this for?
Perhaps you have tried to hire this role before, and it did not work out. Or you are a growing business that has outgrown the leadership it started with. Perhaps you have a capable HR team, but this hire is too important and complex to run without expert support.
This is the work we do best.
You need a senior hire, an MD, GM, Head of People and Culture, National Sales Director, and you need someone who understands your business and your culture, not just the role spec.
You may be a German subsidiary in Australia and need someone who can bridge both worlds. Someone who can execute for local conditions while earning the confidence of a European head office.
The cost of the wrong hire
A poor senior hire is expensive in ways most organisations do not fully account for until it is too late.
The direct costs are visible: severance, agency fees, time to rehire. But the indirect costs run deeper and longer.
Team disruption and culture damage
A leadership mis-hire unsettles teams, erodes trust, and creates cultural drag that outlasts the person’s tenure. The people around them absorb the uncertainty, the communication breakdown, the wrong direction.
Lost momentum
Twelve to eighteen months of organisational time can be consumed by a hiring mistake. For a growth-stage business, that is not recoverable time.
The ripple effect on customers and stakeholders
Senior leadership instability is noticed externally. Customers, suppliers, and strategic partners read the signals even when nothing is officially announced.
Two ways we work
Not every senior search is the same. We offer two distinct approaches based on your situation.
Advertised Recruitment
When the market can find you.
Advertised recruitment is the right approach when the talent pool is accessible, the role can be positioned compellingly in the market, and you want to generate a field of candidates to assess and compare.
We do far more than post a job ad. We design the candidate experience from first contact through to offer. We write position content that attracts the right people and pre-empts the wrong ones. We manage the process so you only spend time with the candidates who genuinely belong in the conversation.
Our structured assessment methodology backs every advertised assignment. So the shortlist you receive is calibrated against your business needs and your culture, not just your criteria.
Research-Based Search
When the best candidates aren’t looking.
Research-based search, sometimes called executive search or headhunting, is the right approach when the ideal candidate is unlikely to be actively looking. They are already employed, performing, and unlikely to respond to an advertised position.
We use targeted research, deep market knowledge, and trusted professional relationships to identify and approach the right people. This is the approach we use for the most senior and most sensitive assignments.
It is also the approach we recommend for organisations operating in niche markets, or in intercultural contexts where a standard advertised search would miss the mark.
What we do
Every assignment follows the same rigorous methodology. With a process that does not end at placement.
- Situation Analysis
- Advertising & Attraction
- Interviews & Presentation
- Selection & Offer
- Candidate & Brand Management
Situation Analysis
Before we brief the market, we brief ourselves.
We invest time at the start of every assignment to understand your business, your culture, your team dynamics, and the full context of the role. We will ask questions you might not expect, because the factors that determine success in your environment are rarely captured in a position description.
This is also where we are most likely to push back. If we think the brief needs to be reframed, or the criteria recalibrated, we will say so. Because getting it right starts here.
Advertising & Attraction
Going to market actively and deliberately.
For advertised searches, we develop position content and candidate communications that are accurate, compelling, and protective of your brand. We manage all candidate enquiries, screen applications, and give every person a professional experience.
For search-based assignments, we identify and approach target candidates through our research process. Confidentially, professionally, and with a clear and credible proposition.
Interviews & Presentation
A shortlist calibrated against your culture, not just your criteria.
We assess all candidates against a structured framework that draws on validated aptitude and behavioural profiling tools developed with neuroscience at their core.
The shortlist we present to you will be small and considered. We do not believe in overwhelming you with options. Every candidate has been assessed, interviewed, and evaluated against your brief and your culture, and we will brief you clearly on our observations before you meet them.
Selection & Offer
Guiding you through to a confident decision.
We guide you through the final selection stage, including reference verification, offer negotiation, and communication to unsuccessful candidates.
Candidate management at this stage matters more than most organisations realise. The way an offer is made and the way a “no” is delivered reflects on your brand. We manage this with care.
Candidate & Brand Management
Building the capabilities your people need to perform across your organisation.
Throughout the assignment, we have learned a great deal about your new leader, their motivations, concerns and style. We use that insight to support you in designing a plan for their first ninety days: how to integrate them, set them up for success, and maximise the return on your investment.
This is often the most overlooked part of the recruitment process. We see it as one of the most important.
We offer a suite of onboarding and coaching services to support new leaders beyond their first day. Getting the hire right is the first step. Setting them up for success is the second.
What this looks like in practice
Stabila: Working as an extension of your team on the ground locally
When Stabila engaged Fisher People in Culture, they did not just need a recruitment partner. They needed someone who could represent them in the Australian market, understand the expectations and nuances of the parent company, and attract a strong candidate who would be able to realise growth in a very competitive market.
We engaged with key stakeholders in the German business, researched this niche market and identified the core differentiators that would attract the right fit of candidate to this business. We brought recruitment methodology, behavioural assessment expertise, and cultural insight that their executive team could draw on without the overhead of a large agency or the distance of a purely transactional arrangement.
The outcome was not just a successful hire. It was a fresh outlook, strengthened capability, and a trust that the business was in good hands in Australia.
This is the kind of partnership we build. A collaboration.
From our clients
Frequently asked questions about executive recruitment
Do you recruit for German companies in Australia?
Yes, this is one of our areas of deepest expertise. Joanne Fisher has a German-Australian professional background and has spent her career at the intersection of both business cultures. We understand what a German head office expects, what the Australian market requires, and how to find the person who can operate effectively in both contexts. We have placed senior leaders for German subsidiaries and have worked with companies referred through the German-Australian Chamber of Commerce.
What is the difference between advertised recruitment and executive search?
Advertised recruitment involves going to the active candidate market, people who are looking, or open to being found. We design and run a structured process that attracts, screens, and presents the right candidates from that pool.
Research-based search is used when the ideal candidate is unlikely to be looking. We identify and proactively approach specific individuals through our own research, networks, and professional relationships.
In some cases, we use both approaches on the same assignment depending on where the best candidates are most likely to be.
What roles do you typically fill?
We specialise in senior and business-critical appointments. These typically include:
- Managing Director and General Manager
- Head of People and Culture, HR Director, P&C leadership
- National Sales Director and commercial leadership
- Country Manager roles for international subsidiaries
- C-suite leadership across engineering, technology, manufacturing, and professional services
We work best with SMEs (up to $100M revenue, up to 250 employees) and European-owned subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand.
What happens after placement?
Placement is the beginning, not the end. Once your new leader is appointed, we draw on everything we have learned about them throughout the process to support you in designing their first ninety days.
We also offer executive coaching, team integration support, and intercultural onboarding for leaders coming from overseas. Getting the hire right is the first step. Setting them up for success is the second.
How long does a senior executive search take?
Most assignments take between eight and fourteen weeks from brief to accepted offer, depending on the complexity of the role, the availability of candidates, and the speed of decision-making on your side.
We will give you a realistic timeline at the start of the assignment and keep you fully informed at every stage so there are no surprises.
Talk to us about your next senior hire
Culture issues and hiring challenges rarely announce themselves cleanly. They accumulate in the pace of execution, in the energy of the room, in the gap between where the business is and where it needs to be.
If you are considering a senior hire, we would welcome the conversation.
